Identity Theft – AGAIN!

Identity Theft

It’s still an issue especially when people are hurting. There may be smaller crimes taking place through according to statistics crime really hasn’t risen that much. That is because the statistics have been skewed. IF10% of the population was a victim of theft a decade ago, but the population rose along with crime proportionally and 10 years later there is still a 10% rate in robbery or theft, the number are being used to show that there hasn’t been a dramatic rise in crime.

Let’s say you take precautions at home and shred bills, don’t give out your credit card number or any information over the phone for anything that is unsolicited and shop at secure sites. You still may be a victim of identity theft. When you are shopping, someone may be taking a picture of your credit card. The Department of Justice calls this “shoulder surfing.”

Many people do not realize how easily criminals can obtain our personal data without having to break into our homes. In public places, for example, criminals may engage in “shoulder surfing” – watching you from a nearby location as you punch in your telephone calling card number or credit card number – or listen in on your conversation if you give your credit-card number over the telephone to a hotel or rental car company.

Many times, I have overheard people giving their credit card number out in public on the phone. Granted, I don’t want to do anything with this information but a thief definitely would. A thief may also take a picture of your credit card as you hand it over to the cashier taking a picture of all the information they need to do some damage to your credit.

Let’s say you still receive paper statements from your bank or even from an investment account. If it doesn’t arrive on time, be concerned someone else may have intercepted it and can gain access to your accounts.

Scammers may even call your house or send you a realistic looking bill stating that you owe money. If you know that you have had no closed accounts or bills due, call your credit card company or check to see what this is about. When inquiring about fraudulent charge, do not give your social security number to anyone. Ask what the previous address is for the person and the person’s age. There are times when bill collectors are doing skip tracing to hunt down debtors that they find the wrong person.

One recommendation that the Federal Trade Commission makes is staggering the free credit reports that you can receive (one per year, per company) to see what the credit reports are showing.  You can request your free report online, by phone or by mail. AnnualCreditReport.com, call 1-877-322-8228, or fill out the Annual Credit Report Request form and mail it to Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. No matter how you request your report, you have the option to request all three reports at once or to order one report at a time. By requesting the reports separately, you can monitor your credit more frequently throughout the year.

Unfortunately, twice I have had free credit monitoring offered to me because of breeches in security. One was because of an employer and the other because an online company’s site was hacked. The services were nice, but I probably wouldn’t want to pay $20 or more each month to have credit monitoring. In both cases they were just offering the service so they wouldn’t be liable because of theft.