UK Identity Theft

The UK like the United States of America is facing ongoing problems regarding identity theft. New technology enhancement has issued developments, such as PINS and Codes to use credit cards, however, studies are showing that the as technology advances so does criminals. Few credit cards now have chips integrated into the cards to prevent identity theft, however, thieves have developed new strategies that match the developments and it is making it easier for the thieves to steal identities.

In the UK identity theft is an immigration crime-related action verses the purposes that thieves will steal identities in America. The thieves often steal identities because they are illegal residents in the UK and in order to remain in the country a new identity is required. After interviewing a gentleman in England, he claimed that postmasters stole identities sometimes, since the postmaster could make profit by selling the cards to immigrants. With this information in hand, you can see identity theft has many reasons and purposes, thus making it difficult for authorities to understand the crimes.

In the year of 2004, over eleven million victims lost their identities to theft, thus this figure does not include the number of victims in the UK and other countries. In comparison to the early 90's the number of identity theft has increased enormously, and the reason that the numbers escalate is that policyholders are unwilling to make the necessary changes to protect identity as reason of money and credit. Thus, the policyholders are not the only sources responsible for the ongoing crime of identity theft. While policyholders are more concern about making profit, they do consider risks to a large degree since victims of identity theft reach the policyholders and extend throughout the world.

Unfortunately, a victim of any crime often is treated far worse than criminals are treated, thus criminals often have more rights than the victims. The problem is due to the Criminal Justice System who is in constant study of resolving problems, and under the control of various sources, thus restricting their ability to change laws at a giving time.

In order for the crimes to fall in place, as they should, rather in order for the law to work harder than they do, citizens of the world must make a stand and fight by protesting the laws. Each person that makes a stand adds to the changes in our system. While studying the Criminal Justice System I found that these sources are one of the most flawed areas of help in our system. If we want to stop identity theft, thus we as the people need to rise and protest to State Representatives, Congress, Governors, and other leaders in the world. Once you start the protesting you should never cease, since the only way we can have better laws is if we all work together to make the laws work.

The truth is the government allows particular developments and dismisses to the public developments that will protect them from identity theft. When a person becomes a victim of identity theft, it is a long-lasting victimization, since the law rarely cares about the individual that lost his/her identity, rather they are more concerned about the large companies losing money because of the crime. The law claims to be working hard to resolve the problems, but if you ever have been a victim of identity theft you know this is an outright lie.

In the UK, it is said that the people do not have a right to obtain copies of their credit reports and in the US; people are allowed one free copy per year of their reports unless they apply for credit and are denied. Thus, this means that anyone offering financial agreements or extending credit have the right to our reports more so than we do. Is this fair? No. simply put the laws are backwards and will continue to be backwards until stands are made that forces them to act according to their pay. We as the taxpayers are victims of policyholders, law, government and so forth. Thus, identity thefts are a minor problem compared to the bigger problems we have in the world.

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

Understanding and Avoiding Identity Theft

Identity theft - the assumption of our identity - is one of the least understood and most frightening problems. It is a complicated issue and let me tell you how it works: A scamster manages to get my name, address, social security number and credit card or other information. Assuming my identity, the person runs up huge bills and skips without paying, leaving me with a ruined credit and creditors baying for my blood.

Our wallet contains so much information about ourselves, which we normally do not realize. A thief can make use of the information and pretend to be us.

Reducing Exposure to Identity Theft

* We cannot prevent identity theft with a 100% certainty, but we can certainly try to reduce our exposure to it.

* We must carry only the information we need to carry out our daily dealings. We should not carry all our credit cards in our wallet. We must avoid putting our Social Security number on our checks.

* Stolen mail is one of the easiest ways to get personal statistics. Do not leave your mailbox full. If out of town, arrange to have your mail picked up by friends or family members, or arrange to leave it at the post office.

* Do we get alert if our credit card bill is late? I always call up my credit card issuer to ask why. Identity thieves can arrange to change my billing address and run up huge bills before I can realize.

* Employers, merchants, proprietors, etc may have legitimate reasons to ask for my personal information. I always find out why they want the information and provide only that which is required for that particular transaction.

* One of the oldest frauds is being asked to update out of date credit card information, over phone. I never give out any information to strangers. You too should not.

In the next article, let us learn how to avoid becoming a victim of identity theft.

Jon Sterling tries to help you overcome Personal Financial problems through informative articles to help you reach your personal financial goals.

Jon publishes articles and ebooks to help individuals with their personal finance needs and goals.

Identity Theft - Red Flags That May Indicate You're a Victim

You've heard the "buzz" about identity theft, but what exactly is identity theft? According to Wikipedia, identity theft (or identity fraud) is the deliberate assumption of another person's identity, usually to gain access to their finances or frame them for a crime.

"Dumpster diving" (someone going through your trash), "shoulder surfing" (someone watching from a nearby location as you punch in your credit card number or ATM PIN # or eavesdropping as you give your personal information over the phone) and "phishing" (someone sending an email that appears to be from a legitimate business) are only a few ways of obtaining your personal information.

Once they have obtained your personal information, identity thieves often change the address on your bills, keeping you unaware that your identity has been stolen unless you are aware of when your bills normally arrive in the mail, keep track of what you charge and check your credit reports annually.

Here are several red flags that indicate you may be a victim of identity theft:

1. You check your credit reports annually and find there are new charge cards showing with companies you don't know.

2. You receive a bill for a credit card account you didn't open.

3. You notice charges on your credit card statement you did not authorize.

4. You haven't received your bills or credit card statements when they normally arrive.

5. Your bank statements show unauthorized transfers or withdrawals.

6. You receive a call from a collection agency about an account you never opened.

7. You receive calls from businesses about merchandise you didn't buy.

8. You're denied credit because debts show up on your credit reports that don't belong to you.

If you notice any of these red flags, don't panic - there may be a logical explanation. But DO follow up on it right away. If it appears you may be a victim of identity theft, go to http://understandingidentitytheft.com/articles/article-67.html for a list of steps you should take immediately to rectify the situation.Debbie Pettitt is the webmaster of two web sites designed to provide you the latest news and information on identity theft and credit scores. For further information on identity theft, visit http://understandingidentitytheft.com. For information on how to check and/or correct your credit score, go to http://yourcreditscoreranking.com

All HYIPs Are Scams

High Yield Interest Programs, or HYIP for short, are all scams. It is easy to say that objectively but sometimes hard to believe when faced with something that sounds very good. Especially in this day when people are having a harder time making ends meet, something that is listed as a guarantee return is very tempting. The old saying of if it sounds too good to be true than it probably is fits HYIPs very well.

Part of the problem is that HYIPs are not always called by this name. Others are used so even someone who knows to stay away from them might be lured in with a different name. The biggest give away that HYIPs are scams is that people are told there is no risk. This should send red flags off in anyone's head. When it comes to investing money there is always a risk, even if it's minute. As well as the fact that the higher the risk the more money that can be made. It's like when someone gambles, if the stakes are 2 to 1 you won't earn as much as if they are 50 to 1. Less people take the 50 to 1 odds and so less money has to be paid out to the winners. However those that do win win a lot and if they lose they lose a lot too. Being told that you will get all your money back plus a percentage guaranteed is not feasible. No matter what the investor says they know.

Of course it doesn't help that these scam artists have done this thousands of times before and know exactly what to say to the unsuspecting person. They will say that they have done it for so many years, or the company they work for has, or something along those lines. It may be true they have taken money from people for years, the actual payback they have not. One thing that should make a person suspicious is why would they be calling you, a stranger, to benefit from this "guaranteed" investment? They wouldn't. They would be doing it themselves over and over to become rich and maybe telling their families and close friends. No person who has found a way to make money easily, legally, quickly, is going to tell the secret to a complete stranger just to be able to use someone else's money for the return, even if they are taking a percentage of it. It comes down to using common sense to realize it's a scam.

Raiel Schwartz has been in the HYIP Arena for several months and has been able to create a successful income online with HYIP Investing. He has recently wrote a report entitled Riding The Ponzi which outlines basic rules all HYIP Investors should know

Identity Theft - Don't blame The Internet

 Identity theft also known as ID theft, identity fraud and ID fraud describes a type of fraud where a criminal adopts someone elses identity in order to profit illegally. It is one of the fastest growing forms of fraud in many developed countries.

In the UK identity theft is increasing at the rate of 500% each year and, according to Which Magazine, 25% of the population have either suffered from identity theft or know someone who has.

In the USA, a report issued by the Better Business Bureau revealed that, in 2004, over 9 million Americans became victims of identity theft with the total sum defrauded being estimated at $52.6 billion.

With figures like this, its no surprise that there is a certain amount of concern regarding computer and internet security. After all, the internet is basically a mechanism for exchanging information and the possibility that some of the information exchanged may be more than intended is never far from many internet users minds.

Its easy to imagine criminal masterminds worldwide using the internet to hack into computers in order to gain access to information with which to advance their devilishly cunning schemes. However, as revealed in the report, the facts of the matter are a little more down to earth and the internet, far from making you more at risk to identity theft, can help to significantly cut your losses if you do fall victim this form of fraud.

According to the Better Business Bureaus research the main methods by which criminals gain access to information used for identity theft fraud are as below:

Lost or stolen wallet, chequebook or credit card. 28.8%

Accessed as part of a transaction. 12.9%*

Accessed by friend, acquaintance or relative. 11.4%

Don't know, refused, no answer. 11.1%

Information accessed by corrupt employee. 8.7%

Stolen paper mail or fraudulent change of address. 8.0%

Obtained some other way. 7.4%

Computer spyware. 5.2%

Information stolen from garbage. 2.6%

Computer viruses and/or hackers. 2.2%

Emails sent by criminals posing as legitimate business. 1.7%

* 12.9% due to transactions 10.4% offline transactions, 2.5% online transactions.

In total, when the instances where information was accessed during transactions are subdivided into online and offline transactions, only 11.6% of the information used to carry out identity theft fraud was obtained from computers.

Of this more than half was obtained by the use of spyware, viruses or hacking the risk of which can be greatly reduced by installing the appropriate protection software and ensuring that this is kept up to date.

Not only did the survey reveal that the internet was not a major source of illegally obtained personal information, but it was also found that those fraud victims who checked their financial records using the internet, ATM machines or other electronic methods suffered financial losses which were, on average, 8 times lower than those of victims who used traditional paper statements to monitor their accounts. This very significant reduction was attributed to the rapid discovery of the fraud due to real time monitoring.

Of course, thats not to say that you shouldnt exercise caution when using the internet or take care to protect the personal information which you may have stored on your PC. However, as long as you install suitable virus, firewall and spyware protection, and keep this continually updated the internet can should be more of a help than a hindrance when it comes to avoiding identity fraud.
Hamish Hayward
Don't become a victim of identity theft. Get the facts.
http://www.id-theft-info.com