Protecting and Fighting against Identity Theft

The biggest and fastest growing crime today is the crime of Identity theft. It happens when someone steals your personal information and then commits fraud assuming your identity without you being aware of it.

One person every four seconds is being ripped off somewhere in the world. These Id thieves can take away your information with the blink of an eye and then destroy your credit history in a snap that you perhaps have toiled for years in the past to build upon. It is bit of an unnerving thought that someone is pretending to be you and doing things in your name that may eventually cost you money and your good name. Last year identity theft victims spent over $5billion to rectify the harm caused by stolen identity. It affected more than 10 million individuals globally with about $50 billion in losses to businesses worldwide. On an average a victim of identity theft could end up sending up to $1,200 in repairing the damage and that does not include the countless hours that get spent in un doing the harm.

Most of the stolen information gets traded on online chat rooms where the profile of these thieves is male 18-25 years old. The information is traded like a commodity and there is so much of information available that a full profile of an individual can be bought for as little as $20. This profile includes information like name, address, phone, credit card number, PIN, mother's maiden name, date of birth, social security/insurance number etc..
Just by getting your credit card information most of these crooks can drill down to obtaining your entire profile.

FBI agents, crime prevention cops and others that monitor these chat rooms find it virtually impossible to nab these crooks a) as there is no point-of-origin for these chat facilities and b) the chats rooms surfs over thousands of servers globally. Knocking down one server does nothing as the threads get picked up on thousands of other servers. The problem is global and what compounds the problem is there is no global jurisdiction to curb the crime. Then there are countries (like Iran) that will not cooperate with any US crime prevention authorities. This gives the crooks save heaven to operate from.

There are several ways that your personal information could get into the hands of these rogues:

• They send tricky emails that get you to believe that it is from your financial institution and there is a problem with your account and that you need to click on a link to rectify your personal information or resubmit it. This type of impersonation of your financial institution is called Phishing.
• Telemarketers who call and do the same as above
• Stealing mail from your mailbox or picking financial and personal information from your discarded garbage
• Employees may copy or sell your personal information at work or a hotel you stayed at; a hospital you were admitted; or a restaurant you ate at; a store you bought at; a gas station you filled gas at etc…
• Online shopping on non-secure or dubious sites
• Eavesdropping on ATM, debit card and other public transactions
• Unattended briefcases, purses, wallets
• Today thieves that break into homes are also seeking personal information to rob.
• Stolen wallets, purses, PDA (Palm, Treo, Blackberry etc.), computers/laptops
• Viruses that can record your keystrokes while making online transactions like banking or purchases
• Surfing social networking sites (e.g. FaceBook, MySpace) and Googling
• Hackers. A couple of years ago hackers hacked into T.J. Maxx/Winners store online and stole millions of credit card numbers and personal information of shoppers.
  
  From the above it is evident that no one is immune to identity theft. It is a matter of someone in the chain where your personal information resides compromising the information. The idea here is not be scared of identity theft but be aware that it can happen to anyone and that everyone can do something to safeguard themselves against this rampant crime.

Prevention is better than cure:

• Some of the very basic question that you need to ask yourself is:
  Do you know what information you carry on you personally?
  What is in your wallet/purse?
  Do you have a log of your credit/debit cards and a telephone number of the provider lest you lose them?
  If you do then why do you carry your Social security or Social Insurance card on you?
• Getting hold of a social security or social insurance number is a gold mine for an Id bandit. Even with a mismatched name and date of birth a social security number a crook can establish credit. This number should be either in your head or with your valuable and not where it can be easily misplaced, stolen or lost. When applying for a product or service if someone asks for this number, ask them why they need it and if it is mandatory. If it is mandatory then you have the right to know as to how they would be safeguarding it.
• Do not give out any personal credit or financial information on the phone, online or even in person to anyone that you don’t know or suspect.
• Make sure that you clear your mail regularly from your mail box. There are thieves that scour though apartment buildings to collect any un forwarded mail of residents that have left or are on vacation.
• Shred any documents that contain vital personal or financial information before discarding it onto your garbage.
• Limit the use of your debit card. (Canadians are known to use their debit cards liberally.) Keep in mind that a debit card gives direct access to your financial institution/bank account.
• Change your passwords often. Do not use simple or easy to guess passwords especially of loved ones with the family! Choose password that have a combination of numbers, alphabets and upper/lowercase.
• Ask your credit card company to change your credit card number often
• Use a specially designated credit card for online shopping with a very low limit to reduce your exposure in case of fraud.
• Monitor your credit card and financial statements for any unusual charges
• Re-Pin your credit card, bank card and debit card at least once every year. Although, it is recommended that you re-pin it more often.
• Some places now you can ask your financial institution to prompt the retailer to check your ID instead of just your signature when paying by credit card.
• On your computer keep all the patches offered by the operating system current. Use three levels of internet protection by having i) Antivirus, ii) Anti Spy ware and iii) Firewall ‘on’ when surfing the net.
• Check your credit report at least once every six months to detect any unusual activity on your credit file. It is important to do so because if a thief uses your social security/social insurance number to apply for new credit you will have no way of knowing it unless you monitor your credit report regularly. According to Federal laws you have the right to a free credit report from each of the three major consumer reporting agencies (also called credit bureaus) namely, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. [US Tel Nos: Equifax (1-800-685-1111), Trans Union (1-800-916-8800) and Experian (1-888-397-3742) Canada Tel Nos: Equifax (1-800-465-7166), Transunion (1-800-663-9980)] In the US visit http://www.annualcreditreport.com/

What to do if you become a victim:

• If you lose a credit card apart from just calling the credit card company and canceling that card and requesting a new one you must also call the credit bureaus ( listed above) and ask them to put a ‘Fraud Alert’ on your credit report immediately. If you don’t do this it is quite easy for the crook to reopen the card and order new ones! Time is critical and this must be done immediately.
• Contact all your creditors, in writing, explaining what happened where you find that the information has been misused and get an acknowledgement of these disputed and fraudulent transactions. Have them resolved.
• Contact your local police and report the fraud. This establishes that a crime occurred and is a serious and punishable office.
• Call and immediately close any accounts that were opened fraudulently or you feel have been compromised due to the identity theft.
• If a collector is attempting to collect on such a fraudulent transaction you may want to submit your explanation on an affidavit along with the police report.
• Also report the fraud so that it can be investigated by authorities and prevent others from becoming victims of the same crime:
  In the US: Contact the Federal Trade Commission www.ftc.gov/idtheft (Toll free 877-ID-THEFT and report it. This information helps the federal enforcement officials to fight Id theft in the States.
  In Canada: Report the crime to RCOL (the RCMP-led Reporting Economic Crime Online) and PNCC (PhoneBusters National Call Centre)
  RECOL: (http://www.recol.ca/) is a web-based initiative that involves an integrated partnership between international, federal and provincial law enforcement agencies, as well as regulators and private commercial organizations that have a legitimate investigative interest in receiving a copy of complaints of economic crime, including identity theft.
  PNCC: (http://www.phonebusters.com/) is the Canadian anti-fraud call centre, jointly operated by the Ontario Provincial Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that collects information on telemarketing fraud, advanced fee fraud letters and identity theft complaints.

Your identity is part of your net worth do not compromise it. Be proactive and help fight this rapidly growing crime.