Identity theft - one of the most overhyped fears of our time

A leading identity theft expert used the credit industry?s annual conference to show that the government has massively over-hyped public fear of the extent of identity fraud to sell its Identity Cards Bill.

He also urged the credit industry not to join the bandwagon by selling over-priced prevention products to over-anxious consumers, and to help combat the crime by supporting victims more readily.

Barry Stamp, Joint Managing Director of
checkmyfile.com, presented to leading credit industry figures at the Institute of Credit Management?s National Conference.

He showed how the government?s estimated figure of ?1.72bn worth of losses to the UK economy, caused by identity fraud, has been massively over-inflated. In particular, these include the costs of security checks for routine government functions and losses that reasonably cannot be included within the general understanding of identity fraud.

This has whipped up public fear and in doing so is likely to obtain wider public support for the introduction of identity cards.

?The largest single component of the government?s ?1.72bn estimate is ?504.8m worth of losses relating to plastic card fraud, taken from the figures reported in April 2005 by APACS. Closer examination of the APACS figures show that losses from identity fraud account for just over 7% of overall card fraud, so the true losses are only ?36.9m. This example is one of many that clearly illustrates how the government has used a creative approach to the definition of what is and is not included within identity theft losses,? said Stamp.

?Going on to include the ?62.8m cost of the measures to counter identity fraud when processing passport applications, and another ?34.8m for things like unpaid fines where the offender doesn?t turn up at court are further examples of how the definition has been stretched?.

?In reality, identity fraud is a fast growing crime, but losses in the UK are probably running closer to ?150m at the moment?.

Stamp warned: ?While the risk is real, and consumers need to increase their awareness, there really is no excuse for the government to strike fear of falling victim to identity theft into consumers for political advantage. If the credit industry exploits that fear to promote over-priced identity theft protection products to replace waning income streams from payment protection insurance, then that would be totally unacceptable.?

?If the problem is as large as it is claimed to be, then I would very much like to know why Police resources have not been strengthened to combat the crime. Of the many hundreds of cases of identity theft that checkmyfile.com has reported to the Police, not one has been pursued to court action.?

?Any consideration of the effectiveness of identity cards should also bear in mind the state of some of our existing national databases.? says Stamp. ?In the UK, our government just isn?t very good at collecting personal data or maintaining it, so what reasonable person might assume that the National Identity Register might be any different? In the UK we don?t even have a central point of reference to check whether cards or any other identification documents are lost or stolen, as exists in other countries, nor have I seen any plans to build one.?

Stamp, author of ?Identity Theft, Prevention and Victim Assistance?, and whose company checkmyfile.com provides consumers with access to a wide range of databases, and supplies identity restoration services to a leading insurance company, urged credit managers who attended the ICM National Conference to follow the lead of some lenders who offer free identity theft prevention advice and to work together to combat the crime.

Philip King, the newly appointed Director General of the ICM, fully supports such an industry initiative. He said: ?Credit managers working together have shown in the past that losses from criminal actions, such as mortgage fraud, can be prevented by sharing intelligence. Identity theft presents a very similar challenge to our industry and we now need to focus on addressing the issue professionally?.

Phishing, Identity Theft and Scams

The Internal Revenue Service has issued several consumer warnings on the fraudulent use of the IRS name or logo by scamsters trying to gain access to consumers' financial data in order to steal their assets. Fraudsters may use the IRS name because most consumers recognize it, have had prior communication with or from the IRS (such as receiving annual tax form and instruction packages) and have previously provided the IRS some financial data (such as that contained on tax returns).

As a general rule, the IRS does not send out unsolicited e-mails or ask for detailed personal information. Additionally, the IRS does not ask people for the PIN numbers, passwords or similar secret access information for their credit card, bank or other financial accounts.

Tricking consumers into disclosing their personal and financial data, such as secret access data or credit card or bank account numbers, is identity theft. Such schemes perpetrated through the Internet are called "phishing" for information.

The information fraudulently obtained is then used to steal the taxpayer's identity and financial assets. Typically, identity thieves use someone's personal data to steal his or her financial accounts, run up charges on the victim's existing credit cards, apply for new loans, credit cards, services or benefits in the victim's name and even file fraudulent tax returns.

Identity theft usually causes immediate financial losses for the victims, who may also encounter lingering credit and other problems as a result of the identity theft.

Identity theft schemes take numerous forms. Identity theft may be conducted by e-mail (phishing), standard mail, telephone or fax. Thieves may also go through trash looking for discarded tax returns, bank records, credit card receipts or other records that contain personal and financial information.

When the IRS learns about schemes involving use of the IRS name, it tries to alert consumers as well as authorities that can shut down the scheme, if possible.

The following are examples of recent schemes:

1. e-Mails claiming to come from tax-refunds@irs.gov, admin@irs.gov or other variations on the irs.gov theme told the recipients that they were eligible to receive a tax refund for a given amount. It directed recipients to claim the refund by using a link contained in the e-mail which sent the recipient to a Web site. The site, a clone of the IRS Web site, displayed an interactive page similar to a genuine IRS one; however, it had been modified to ask for personal and financial information that the genuine IRS interactive page does not require.

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) has reported that it found 12 separate Web sites in 11 different countries hosting variations on this scheme.

2. A bogus IRS letter and Form W-8BEN (Certificate of Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for United States Tax Withholding) asked non-residents to provide personal information such as account numbers, PINs, mother's maiden name and passport number. The legitimate IRS Form W-8BEN, which is used by financial institutions to establish appropriate tax withholding for foreign individuals, does not ask for any of this information.

To protect against potential identity thieves, take the following steps:

1. Be skeptical of communications you receive from sources you are not expecting. Verify the authenticity of phone calls, standard mail, faxes or e-mails of questionable origin before responding.

2. Do not reveal secret passwords, PINs or other security-based data to third parties; genuine organizations or institutions do not need your secret data for ordinary business transactions.

3. Do not click on links contained in possibly questionable e-mails; instead, go directly to the site already know to be genuine. For example, the only address for the IRS Web site is www.irs.gov -- any other variations on this will not lead to the legitimate IRS Web site.

4. Do not open attachments to e-mails of possibly questionable origin, since they may contain viruses that will infect your computer.

5. Shred paper documents containing private financial information before discarding.

To report the fraudulent misuse of the IRS name, logo, forms or other IRS property, you may contact the TIGTA toll-free hotline at 1-800-366-4484 or visit the TIGTA Web site.

Those who think their identity has been stolen should visit the Federal Trade Commission's Web site for information about how to handle the aftermath of identity theft.

Cal Golden is a volunteer tax preparer and webmaster of Tax Help Super Tips For up to the minute information on how to get the most from your federal and state tax returns, visit his site now.

When to Fight Identity Theft

The time to fight Identity theft is now. If you are not a victim of identity theft, do not take any chances, since it is next to impossible if not impossible to restore your life once someone takes hold of your identity.

Identity thieves will steal your identity nearly anywhere in the world, but many of the utilize the World Wide Web to take advantage of millions of people. Since, technology has developed it has open the doors to predators of all walks and these hungry souls are taking full advantage of the developments.

Thieves are tricky. In the world, we have all types of predators including serial killers, thieves, rapists, extortionists, and so forth. Serial killers are one of the hardest predators to catch, and what follows the steps of a skilled killer is an identity thief. Comparing the two, you would be luckier to have a serial killer on your trial verses having lost your identity. Serial killers will annihilate you instantaneously after interrupting your life quietly. Likewise, a thief will monitor the moves of random candidates ready for the taking and when they gain access to your identity, you will battle for the rest of your life to restore your life in general.

When you become a victim of identity theft you are a victim forever, however when you become a victim of other crimes and survive you are a survivor once you come over the trauma in the path. Thus, identity thieves once hold of your information can open accounts in your name, withdrawal money from your accounts, violate your credit reports, commit crimes and use your identity to evade the authorities, or else commit crimes and leave you holding the bag. Identity thieves that hold your information can contact the government and file for anything they like in your name and the government will have no clue, since they are assuming you are the one requesting the documents.

Thus, if you suspect your identity is stolen take the first step and contact the authorities. Next, you will need to contact the government, and social security administration as well as the license bureau. You will also need to contact your bank, credit card providers, debit card providers, utility providers, property owner, mortgage and anyone that is connected to you and your information. You will also need to get copies of your credit reports and dispute any activities immediately on the reports that are not belonging to you. Be sure to request that TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax put a FREEZE on your accounts. If the companies put up a Fraud Alert the alert will leave you open, thus a FREEZE will go further with creditors when you apply for credit in the future. I stress FREEZE, since this will halt anyone from adding any debts to your account. If a fraud alert is, pending then anyone can add debts to your account, which takes three to seven and even ten years to remove, even if you did not create the debts.

After you have took all the necessary steps you will need to continue monitor any new accounts and continue monitoring your credit reports randomly. Anytime new information becomes available that insinuates that someone has violated your identity make sure you provide the updates to the authorities.

So, do you still want to ask when to fight identity theft? If you are still asking this question then you obviously missed the point. In the year of 2002 alone, more than one-half million individuals lost their identity and the statistics are increasing each year.

Identity theft is a major crime where the criminal rarely meets the authorities. The World Wide Web opens the door for thieves to come and go as they please without little exposure. Thus, learning the steps to prevent identity theft is critical, especially if you are connected to the Internet, or frequent the World Wide Web often. For more information on identity theft, visit the online connections where you can find a swamp load of information that will help you to protect your identity. Otherwise, visit your local library to learn how you can prevent identity theft, even if you never use a computer.

Tony Robinson is an International Author, Webmaster and Security Guru. Check out his Identity Theft Protection Tips at http://www.officialidentitytheft.com/

WILL THE REAL YOU PLEASE STAND UP? How To Prevent Identity Theft

WILL THE REAL YOU PLEASE STAND UP?
How To Prevent Identity Theft

Every day, nearly 1,400 Americans are victims of identity theft. It can take anywhere from two to four years to straighten out the nightmare, and the average victim will invest approximately 175 hours and over $800 of their own money trying to get their situation resolved. Here are five steps you can take to protect yourself, safeguard your identity, and ensure that your credit remains sound.

1.Guard your Social Security number. If you have the number printed on your checks, cross it off manually and reorder new checks without it. If you have your SSN as your driver?s license number, request a new one with a different number.

2.Check your bank and credit card statements every month for unusual activity. You only have sixty days to report identity theft, or you become liable for the damages yourself.

3.Mail your bills from the Post Office or a public mailbox to deter thieves from stealing your outgoing checks and erasing the ink to use them later.

4.Shred any receipts and documents containing account numbers, policy numbers, or other personal information that could aid a thief in taking your identity. Trash diggers are known to target dumpsters for personal financial information.

5.Opt out of pre-approved credit card offers. You can opt out of receiving these annoying and potentially dangerous offers simply by calling toll-free at 1-888-5-OPT-OUT (1-888-567-8688). You will be mailed a form asking for your Social Security Number, however, in this case, it?s safe to give it to them so they can remove you from their database.

Don't let someone else live a life of leisure at your expense. Taking these simple steps to protect your identity will pay off for you long term by saving you countless hours of time and aggravation trying to restore your credit and your good name.

Monica Ricci has been an organizing specialist since 1999, and her motivational presentations teach effective organizing and simplifying techniques for home and work. She also offers free email tips and ideas on how to make life simpler and more organized. Her topics include clutter control, paper management, time management, organizing space and procrastination.Contact Monica at 770-569-2642 or Monica@CatalystOrganizing.com.