Identity Theft: Even Your Child Is Not Safe Any More
Posted by admin on Feb 9, 2009
Surprisingly, identity theft has begun to take a whole new turn with identity thieves not even sparing children. The new method being employed by identity thieves is to impersonate a child in order to gain financial rewards. Often, the perpetrator is a member of the family; or, it could be a complete stranger, egged on no doubt by the fact that it will take considerable time before such form of identity theft will be discovered. In fact, according to the Federal Trade Commission the cases of identity theft have tripled in the previous three years – jumping from eight thousand five hundred in 2003 to twenty-six thousand in the year 2006.
Easy Pickings
The fact of the matter is that child identity theft is easy pickings for identity thieves because children will not easily find out that their identities have been stolen and often only find out once they have applied for admission to a college, asked for credit or sought employment. Furthermore, child identity theft often also occurs when a family splits up (such as through divorce) when one parent may stoop as low as to steal the identity of his or her child.
Child identity theft is also often discovered when the parent is opening a savings account in the name of their child; or when many pre-approved credit offers begin to come pouring in through the mail with the child’s name on them; or, it could even be discovered when checks, credit cards, bank statements or invoices come to your home with your child’s name on them.
It is also possible to discover identity theft when the child gets their application for a driving license turned down because of the fact that somebody else already has a driving license bearing the social security number of the child.
However, certain instances may look like they are child identity theft cases; but, are not. Sometimes, companies might innocently send out pre-approved credit card offers and these are not to be mistaken for child identity theft. You can check with major credit bureaus such as Equifax, Trans Union or Experian; in case they advise that no credit report exists in your child’s name; it would then mean that your child’s identity has not been compromised.
It also pays to learn more about identity theft protection – especially, because each year as many as ten million Americans have reported having had their identity stolen from them. In case you are sure that your child has become a victim of identity theft it is best if you immediately make contact with the police and get the law enforcements started on the heels of the perpetrators. A police complaint is the necessary first step leading to investigation and correction of all manner of identity theft – including that of your child.
Identity Theft Protection is a Must to Protect Your Good Name
Posted by admin on Jan 9, 2009
Identity theft is one the the most rapidly growing criminal activity in The United States, with over 79 million identities stolen in the last 12 months. It is a extremely serious misdeed that can have debilitating ramifications for those that fall victim to it. Therefore, it is a excellent idea to use some sort of identity theft protection, which will help you to protect your identity.
Generally, this crime happens by a thief exploits another person’s personal data to perpetrate some sort of criminal act involving money. This crime is so widespread today, nobody is save from it and all of us should be aware of its potential dangers.
With the rise of the use of technology, ID theft is becoming more of an issue. This is because thieves are making use of the Internet and email to fool people into giving out personal data without them every knowing they are doing so. It is the up and coming crime of the information age, and it is not going anywhere.
Victims of this criminal act have complete chaos brought into their lives as they start to clean up the mayhem that their finances have become. There is a sad truth to ID theft, and that is it is often committed by a member of your family, so it is often you own blood that brings such pain into your lives.
Because information is so easily available because of the use of the Internet, it is easier than ever for criminals to have access to, and use personal and financial information that belongs to others. We often hear of well know, and large, companies loosing valuable personal data belonging to their customers.
You definitely don’t want to become a victim of ID theft. As an individual, there are some steps that you can take to ensure that you never become its victim. These include subscribing to an identity theft protection service, which helps to protect your credit history.
ID theft is a crime that is extensive and far-reaching, and can involve people in multiple countries. Often it is organized crime groups in foreign countries that are carrying out this crime, which makes it very hard to take legal against those that commit this crime.
The crime of identity theft is increasing which each passing day. Falling victim to it causes your credit history to be wrecked, makes you sort out debts that you didn’t open, and you will have never-ending steps to try and clear your name and prove who you really are. You are better off to not become a victim of identity theft in the first place, so take steps to protect against identity theft.
Lifelock Problems And Experians Unhappiness
Posted by admin on Nov 11, 2008
Last Summer we had several Lifelock problems make the news but the truth is Lifelock didn’t seem to be effected and continued to grow, now having over a million customers. Lifelock is still the the number 1 choice in identity theft prevention in spite of several new companies waiting in the shadows to step in should the Lifelock problems have proved to be lethal.
Back in May we had the story of one or two customers taking class action lawsuits against the company because they claimed their advertising campaign was misleading.
The claim was based on the fact that Todd Davis gives out his social security number in Life Lock advertisements to show how confident he is in the protection provided by Lifelock. It seems they felt, or at least their lawyer felt that this is misleading because actually some guy managed to take out a payday loan for $500 using the social security number of Todd Davis.
This made the news and why wouldn’t it, it’s a great story but then as it unravelled it came to light that actually Lifelock had worked for Davis. The thief who took out the fraudulant loan was caught and more just as importantly, his credit file remained unblemished.
We also discovered that none of the clients who were attempting the lawsuit had actually suffered a case of identity theft and hadn’t even cancelled their Lifelock membership. The story quickly got buried once it became clear the person behind it was a opportunist lawyer who’d found a new fat cow to chase.
The next Lifelock problems appeared to be a little more serious. Experian, one of the big 3 credit bureaus were claiming that the service provided by Lifelock could be done by a person without the need of a monthly charge.
Lifelock, acting on a acting for their customers, place a fraud alert on their credit file which means extra care should be taken when agreeing loans, credit agreements etc. Basically it means the person has concern their identity may have been compromised so please double check before opening offering credit. Incidentally, the person who took out the $500 payday loan in Davis name was able to because the loan company admitted to ignoring the fraud alert.
Experian claim you can place a fraud alert yourself so Lifelock are taking monthly subscriptions under false pretences. At first glance this looked like serious Lifelock problems and once more the press jumped in to what seemed a good story.
A little bit of digging by a few journalists who prefer to report news rather than simply a good story again showed that what appeared to be Lifelock problems, actually had ulterior motives.
It seems Experian do not like fraud alerts on credit files. It slows down the loan business and causes extra work for them. It’s for this reason that a fraud alert only lasts for a period of 3 months. You then have to go through the whole process of applying for the fraud alert again.
Lifelock manage this for their clients automatically and should they forget and an identity gets misused, they have a guarantee that kicks in to the tune of a nice $1 million and it’s this their clients are happy to pay the small monthly fee for.
Another reason Experian have been trying to cause Lifelock problems is because Lifelock remove their customers names from all the mailing lists. The Lifelock logic is that if you aren’t receiving credit card offers through the mail, they can’t be stolen and accepted in your name.
It sounds a good idea right? Well guess who sells the credit card companies the names of affluent middle class Americans who the credit card companies want to target? This is a huge business for the Experian and the other 2 credit bureaus as these lists are extremely targeted and therefore extremely valuable. Imagine sending out your credit card or loan offer to homes you already know have several cards and an income of $60K a year instead of just posting to the masses and then having to go through all the applications to sieve out the good from the bad?
As with many new highly successful companies, deeper motives can usually be found when stories start appearing in the papers and the Lifelock problems are no different.
If you were considering joining Lifelock, make your decision based purely on the service offered, not on the Lifelock problems that you may have read about back in the Summer.
It’s worth remembering that yes you can do what Lifelock does for you yourself. You may also be capable of servicing your car yourself if you wanted to and some folk do. Others though prefer the peace of mind that comes with knowing a professional has done it for them and should they mess up, there is a full guarantee on offer as a back up.
