Andy Mitchel asked:




Identity theft is a very common and serious criminal act. The rates of this crime are increasing all the time, and therefore it’s an important subject to discuss. A person’s financial situation can be ruined as a result of identity theft. Arguably the most devastating part is that often the victim had no idea that it was happening to them. Thieves can commit this crime in multiple ways. One such way is by digging through the trash in order to acquire personal information

The information criminals need to steal your identity includes your name, date of birth, and address. When they are able to get what they need, they can begin applying for credit cards and open accounts so they can accumulate debt under your name. Knowing that your identity is stolen is difficult to know right away, and most don’t know it’s happening until damage has already been done.

Is Punishment Harsh Enough?

In the past, criminals would essentially get a slap on the wrist and be free to commit the crime once again. The penalty has become more harsh, as now they can face 25 years in prison for such charges. Perhaps now some will think twice before stealing a person’s identity.

Prevention

However, a thief can’t be charged with committing a crime until they have been caught. People must be find an identity thief by knowing what to keep an eye out for. Signs that you are a victim of identity theft include transactions on your bank statement and credit account that are not supposed to be there. Always pay careful attention to what you are throwing away, as this is one of the most important tips to preventing theft.

Wayne

Spciurit asked:

Scott Polcyn and Daniel Garcia from University of Central Florida took 1st place in the 2 minute Educause Computer Security Awareness video contest. The video is about 2 minutes. It helps users become aware of identity theft.

Franklin

Gary Bunn asked:




Identity theft is still the number one consumer crime in the United States today, with the fastest growing form of this being unauthorized access to banking, credit and checking accounts. This has led to a huge rise in demand for Identity Theft Prevention services. Generally these types of services tend to be expensive, but it doesn’t have to be! Here’s our short ‘DIY’ Identity Theft Prevention Guide to help you avoid becoming a victim of identity theft.

Most people these days have access to the Internet, either from home or from a public point such as an Internet caf

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Michael Chin asked:




Do you know anyone who has experienced identify theft? If you answered “no”, eventually you will meet someone who knows someone who has. It’s a growing problem, and the trail of frustration it leaves in its wake is not a pleasurable one. If it ever happens to you or someone you love, and if you are not prepared for it. It is a living nightmare that will haunt you for many years to come. So how does one prepare for a life changing event like this?

First, you must understand what identify theft is and that it is a very lucrative business. Second, you must know how individuals acquire your information, and how they will use that information to ruin your life. Third, you must learn how to protect yourself and loved ones, and take action to help to prevent it from happening to you.

Identify theft occurs when some uses your own personal information to impersonate you. Many people do not realize that your information can be purchased off the Internet. Individuals use the Internet to conduct illegal businesses every day. It is very difficult to crack down on these people because the Internet is global. It would cost millions of dollars to investigate each and every company on the Internet to determine which businesses were not on the up and up. And for every site that is shut down, another site would spring up to take its place. Once your information has been obtained, it is sold and exchanged between criminals over the Internet, and there is no way of actually stopping it.

HOW IDENTITY THEFT OCCURS

Skilled identity thieves use various methods to gain access to your data. It does not matter how careful you are in protecting your information. It can be stolen! I know from firsthand experience, because it happened to me. For many years I shredded my documents and was careful when using the Internet. Eventually my information was stolen, not from my home, but from a bank where I acquired a loan.

Here is a list of how identity thieves acquire your information:

• From businesses or other institutions by: stealing records from their jobs, bribing employees to access your records, and hacking computer systems.

• Steal your mail looking for bank and credit card statements, credit card offers, and tax information.

• Rummage through your trash, businesses trash, and public trash dumps.

• They may steal your wallet or purse.

• They may complete a “change of address form” to divert your mail to another location.

• The list can go on because there are so many ways to obtain your information.

HOW YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION IS USED:

• They use your information to change your credit card billing address.

• Open new credit cards causing you to have delinquent account.

• Open bank accounts in your name and write bad checks.

• File for bankruptcy under your name.

• Obtain a driver licenses with your name and their picture

• They may give your name to the police during an arrest. If that person does not show up for his or her court date, a warrant for arrest is issued in your name.

• They are many ways for these thieve to ruin your good name.

HOW TO PROTECT YOUSELF

To protect yourself, you need to invest in an identity theft prevention and protection service. ID Guard is not an insurance plan, even though plans offer money to reimburse you against actual losses from identity theft. The purpose of the service is to protect you from becoming a victim in the first place. The benefits of an identity theft service could prevent you from experiencing what others have gone through with not being able to acquire credit, getting harassed by collection agencies, and spending thousands of dollars trying to repair their good name.

Here are some service you can expect from identity prevention and protection services:

Identity Monitoring How will you know if your identity is stolen? 71% of identity fraud occurs within 7 days of identity theft, yet over 50% of identity theft victims do not learn of the theft within 3 months of occurrence. Identity prevention services utilize state of the art technology and databases of billion of data elements in order to detect the fraud as early as possible for you.

Identity Insurance

The Federal Trade Commission indicated that approximately 10 million Americans were victims of identity theft last year. Identity theft insurance provides reimbursement to help restore a victim identity. You can receive up to $25,000 reimbursement for many of the expenses you may face while working to clear your name.

Computer Protection

With thousands of new viruses created every day, relying on traditional security updates is no longer acceptable. That’s why McAfee has added McAfee Active Protection technology to their Total Protection suite. Now you too can have this protection on your computer system.

Identity Restoration

Restoring your identity is estimated to take approximately 600 hours and cost thousands of dollars. You can have a trained expert to assist you with restoring your identity. Fraud alert notifications will be sent on your behalf and applicable follow up will be done with affected agencies. You are provided with a software system that will help you maintain control over the restoration processes should you become a victim of Identity Theft.

You Can Not Live Without The Service

If you have a car, you know the importance of insurance. If you have a social security number, and do not have identity theft protection, it is like driving around with no insurance. Try fixing your car with no insurance after an accident, it will be a head ache and very costly. Now multiple that pain by ten times, now you are beginning to understand what victims of identity theft go through each day of their life. It takes a couple of minutes to apply, and you will be amazed how inexpensive this investment is for your peace of mind and identity security.

Dustin

ScamExpert asked:

Explains what the Justice Dept. and the state and federal Attorney General are doing to prosecute identity theft criminals. ——————— crime library, crime mob, crime puzzle, true crime, crime statistics, crime news, crime rates, uniform crime reports, crime stories, crime scene

Nicholas

Tyler Previd asked:




Thousands upon thousands of people fall victim to identity theft criminals every day. These thieves have so many different ways of obtaining your personal information it’s scary! Whether they hijack your mail and fill out credit card offers, or purchase your personal information (name, social, credit card numbers, address, etc.) or just blatantly steal your identity, it can be very difficult and extremely stressful to recover from such a terrible situation.

Learning all this had me wondering real fast, “How can I purchase identity theft prevention?” Well, after doing a nice amount of research online I found the best company for the job. They taught me a LOT about the seriousness of this issue and how many people get their own identity stolen in America alone.

How would you like to have a company that works constantly on your behalf to make sure that no one steals your identity? They order credit reports once a year and send them to me. They also call me anytime somebody is trying to apply for a new credit card or a credit extension, etc.

Another great thing that they do — which to me this is ALONE worth the money for the whole service — is get my name removed from all the ‘pre-approved’ credit card offers and junk mail lists! By the way, that is one of the most common ways that criminals obtain your information, by hijacking your mail.

I decided that I wasn’t going to fall victim to something as bad as this so after I learned HOW I could purchase identity theft prevention…I DID! Right away, without hesitation. I think everybody should! I mean, for $10 measly bucks a month you can’t ask for a better service than that. Someone who constantly has your back (like a virtual bodyguard!) and protects you from having your identity stolen!

Marvin

Tyler Previd asked:




We all know that at any moment a criminal can steal our identities and pretty much put us through hell for the next year or more of our lives. That’s why I myself have been protected by an identity theft protection company. I have put together my top 2 identity theft prevention tips in this article so that you can take a few steps to being closer to safety.

My first tip for you is to make sure that you either check your mail everyday and tear up any offers for ‘pre-approved’ credit cards because that is one of the top ways that thieves steal your identity, by hijacking your mail. It would be even better if you could remove yourself from all the mailing lists of these companies altogether. (The company that I use does it for me!)

My second identity prevention tip is to order yourself a copy of your credit report at least once a year. You can see if there are any accounts that were opened in your name that you might not be aware of and you can spot other suspicious activity as well. Also, it’s good to check your credit often ANYWAY because sometimes companies make mistakes and it’s good to spot these thing early.

There are so many ways nowadays for criminals to steal your personal information whether it be by purchasing or trading it online, buying it from the black market or “phishing” the information for themselves by using hacking techniques. Whichever method they use, you do not want to fall victim to this horrible crime. It can be devastating and severely damage you financially as well as get you in trouble with the law for something YOU didn’t do!

Trust me, it’s not pretty. I hope these 2 identity prevention tips were helpful to you and I wish you all the luck in keeping your good name!

Juanita

William Harty asked:




If you’re paranoid by thought of your identity being stolen then you have very good reason to. It is more needed then ever these days to know how to prevent identity theft from the millions of lurking criminals who steal identities every single day. Did you know that 1 in 25 people just in America will have their identity stolen each and every year? If that hasn’t happened to you yet, you better consider yourself very lucky.

Here are 3 helpful tips to use that will prevent identity theft from happening to you.

1 – Never give your private information to people over the phone, especially if you do not currently have identity protection. It is extremely easy for anyone to tap into your phones these days and there countless individuals and businesses that make a living as pretending to be your local bank or energy company.

2 – Always use bank owned ATM machines. Did you know of how many erroneous ATM machines are out there? Their sole purpose is to get your credit card numbers and store them. Be extra cautious of this if you live in the big city especially.

3 – Shred all of your documents, especially the important legal ones. There are numerous cases of criminals easily stealing identities simply because its available in recycling bins. You do not want to toss your private information when anyone can easily pick it up.

I hope this has helped you understand how to prevent identity theft more so you can avoid being the next statistic. If you really want to feel secure it is best to have identity protection as well.

Laurie

Dr. Mark Clayson asked:




How can you protect yourself against identity theft? It may seem a tough job but in reality some of the best steps you can take are cheap and easy. And you should consider doing them right now and not wait until you have been a victim.

Watch bank and credit card accounts – look at statements, login to you accounts regularly, check transactions for any suspicious and unusual activity.

Get rid of paper where possible – clear mailboxes, shred sensitive documents, remove anything that has your data on it if you possibly can – how about getting things delivered electronically?

Take care of your wallet and only carry information that you will really need. Most trips require simple, straightforward and essential things. A full wallet contains valuable information for criminals.

Online accounts should be protected with hard to decipher passwords. Change them on a regular basis and choose ones that cannot easily be guessed.

There is a move to be being provided with free credit reports. These are useful and can show you if someone else has been applying for credit in your name. You can get one per year from each of the three credit monitoring companies.

Apply to a credit monitoring service to watch over activity in your accounts. They will alert you to all transactions and requests on your credit status which you can then check yourself for accuracy. As mentioned, companies also provide free annual credit reports if you ask them – you can stagger your requests so that you get one from each company every 4 months.

Scott

J.J. Yong asked:




When we discuss about identity theft prevention, most people normally think about some irresponsible criminals who steal other people’s identity when non-internet savvy users are being careless and not aware of internet phishing and scams. You might be thinking that they are not familiar with online frauds and they are purely unaware of the risk of privacy invasion.

These particular white collar crimes are meant for extreme cautious people. In fact, professionals like doctors, lawyers, accountants can be easily lured to internet scams that enable highly intellectual criminals to obtain their personal information within less than a day.

But the main question is how thieves able to steal other people’s identities?

Wallets and handbags that contain credit cards are the most common factor of causing identity thefts. These items can easily be a target for such crimes. On the other hand, your mail is another factor that can be targeted by criminals to obtain your bank statements, tax information and approved credit card offers. In addition, they can also use checks to trace your bank account information – this explains why your account balance is decreasing over period of time.

If they steal your important personal information from your mail, then they will most likely change the address so that the mail can reach to the other location. Your unsettled rubbishes can also provide much personal information to the criminals like social numbers, credit card numbers and bank account details.

Certainly, internet is a perfect place to accumulate your private data so you must always be aware of anyone requesting your personal information for any services and offers from web sites or business emails.

Margaret