Some Tips For Preventing Identity Theft

These days it is becoming increasingly common to see people suffering from identity theft. It has become a huge business for thieves and con artists all over the world.

If it has never happened to you, trust me you don't want it to. These people who specialize in stealing identities can run up charges on your credit cards, empty your bank accounts, sell off investment portfolios and have the funds transferred to offshore accounts, and ruin your credit almost overnight.

So, how do you protect yourself from this new crime threat? I have gathered a few tips for you that will give you a good start to guarding against identity theft.

One of the easiest things that one can do to help prevent identity theft from people going through your garbage is to buy a cross-cut type shredder. Shred all your important papers and especially pre-approved credit applications received in your name and other financial information that provides access to your private information. Don't forget to shred your credit card receipts as well. These shredders can be bought now for under $50.

Be careful at ATM's and using Phone Cards. "Shoulder Surfers" can get your "Pin Number" and get access to your accounts. Another thing is to be careful when pulling up to an ATM and watch out for people in the area. I also suggest not going to ATM's late at night and especially if they are in remote areas just from a safety standpoint.

Get all of your checks delivered to your bank - not to your home address.

Do not put checks to pay bills in the mail from your home mailbox. Drop them off at a U.S. Mailbox or the U.S. Post Office. Mail theft is common. It's easy to change the name of the recipient on the check with an acid wash. Another thing you can do to guard against this type of theft is buy a better mailbox. There are many mailboxes now that only allow the postman to drop mail in the box and only the owner can access it. These extras steps require some time and effort on your part but they are well worth it.

When you order new credit cards in the mail, or your previous ones have expired, watch the calendar to make sure that you get the card within the appropriate time. If it is not received by a certain date, call the credit card grantor immediately and find out if the card was sent. Find out if a change of address was filed if you don't receive the card or a billing statement. Cancel all credit cards that you do not use or have not used in 6 months. Thieves use these very easily - open credit is a prime target.

By following these tips and avoiding sending personal information and checks from your home mailbox you can go a long way in preventing identity theft.

Gregg Hall is a business consultant and author for many online and offline businesses and lives in Navarre Florida with his 16 year old son. Get a secure mailbox from http://www.mailboxsuperstoreonline.com

Identity Theft - Resources for Victims

Identity theft could happen to anyone. These are resources that will help you once you have become the victim of identity theft.

Identity theft could happen to anyone. Someone gets hold of important information, such as your name, credit card information and social security number and uses this to make online purchases or apply for additional credit cards. The source of the information could be a "phishing" e-mail you replied to, stolen mail or one of many other ways.

At first you are probably going to be stunned when you receive that call from a credit rating company or collection agency, but you have to get over your shock and act quickly.

Step number one should be to contact your local police department and report the identity theft. At this point you should ask whether the police department has an information package or website with information on how to deal with identity theft.

If that is not the case, you can use some of the following resources to help you in the arduous process of clearing your good name and credit:

http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/

This FTP website offers substantial resources, including a downloadable booklet in PDF format.

http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fraud/idtheft.html

Resources by the Department of Justice

http://www.idtheftcenter.org/index.shtml

Identity Theft Resource Center (includes P?ginas en Espa?ol)

http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/idtheft.htm

Social Security Administration website that allows you to report misues of your social security number

http://www.privacyrights.org/identity.htm

Privacy Right Clearinghouse website with numerous links to other resources.

None of this will make the process easier or less painful, but at least now you have some tools to work with.

Pamela Bruce lives in Austin, TX. She is the owner of Love Beads Unlimited and sells the sterling silver and Swarovski crystal bead jewelry she designs and creates both in her eBay store (http://stores.ebay.com/LOVE-BEADS-UNLIMITED) and on her website at http://www.lovebeadsunlimited.com, where you can also download the free e-book "A Consumer's Guide to Buying Bead Jewelry Online".

Criminal Identity Theft - Don't Let Your Good Name End up in a Criminal Database!

Criminal Identity Theft - don't think it can't happen to you! Stolen identities have ended up in criminal databases. Learn how to protect yourself, and not become a victim.

You're driving on road one night, then you notice there's a police cruiser following close behind you. You figure the cop just wants to pass you, so you move over one lane, except he moves over too and stays on your tail, then you see the flashing red & blue lights then "Woooop!!! wooooop!!!" You must be wondering why you were pulled over. You weren't speeding nor breaking any traffic laws and your tag is not expired. Maybe it's just a burned out taillight. "Sir may I see your driver's license and registration please." Then comes the shocker! "SIR... step out of the vehicle." You get patted down for weapons, drugs, etc.. "You're under arrest for outstanding warrants." On go the handcuffs "Zzzzkkkkkk! Zzzzkkkkkk!" "You have the right to remain silent..." By now, you must be thinking "OH S---!!!". "I've never been arrested in my life!" After you've been booked at the county jail, strip searched, fingerprinted, and maybe spent the weekend in the slammer, you go before the judge only to find out you're free to go, all charges dropped because it turns out you're not the person they were looking for.

Is this a case of mistaken identity, or more likely, a case of STOLEN IDENTITY, or criminal identity fraud. The most common scenario is during a traffic citation or misdemeanor arrest, the imposter fraudulently provides to an officer-of-the-law somebody else's identification, usually always that of a friend or relative, then skip town and simply not pay the fine or fail to make the required court appearance. Unlike financial identity theft, the victim is usually always known to the imposter. The judge will then issue a warrant for his arrest. In many cases, the imposter either stole or fraudulently acquired a phony driver's license or other ID, or simply "borrowed" the victim's name as an alias. The impostor is most often wanted on outstanding warrants for failure to appear. The victim is usually arrested during a routine traffic stop. This type of identity theft commonly occurs where the age and physical appearance of the two are similar. Police are tending to be much more cautious today in order to avoid false arrest lawsuits, but the system has a long way to go. Fortunately, unlike financial, criminal identity fraud is relatively rare.

In a few cases serious offenses such as DUI and felonies were committed in the victim's name and the person's name ends up in the criminal database system. The victim might in for a real shock when he is told he cannot buy a gun because he failed the instant background check, or is one day called into his boss's office, to be informed he is being fired because a criminal record showed up in a routine employee background check. In the end you probably wished this imposter were caught in Saudi Arabia where he would be sentenced to 100 lashes in the public square.

Unfortunately, the criminal justice system does not yet have a decent contingency plan in place to clear an innocent person's name. The burdon of clearing one's name lies mostly with the accused, sometimes with steep attorney's fees.

Procedures to clear your name from criminal databases varies according to state, or even individual counties. Some states already have special procedures in place for victims of criminal identity theft. Ask your state Attorney General's office.

If wrongful criminal offenses are linked to your name, first contact the original arresting police/sheriff's department who originally arrested the impostor, or else the court who issued the arrest warrant and file an impersonation report with them, and confirm your identity. Ask the police department to take your fingerprints, photograph you, and make official copies of your photo IDs, I.e.: driver's license, passport, etc.. To claim your innocence, ask the police to compare your fingerprints and photos with the imposter's.

Maintain a detailed log of all your phone conversions, paperwork, email messages, contacts, etc.. Keep a detailed record of all your expenses incurred. When writing the authorities you should always use certified mail with return receipt. Email is generally not considered secure for sending confidential private information, so it's not recommended if you can avoid it. The rule is never send out something via email that would not want to share with the public. Changing your social security number is rarely recommended as that usually causes more problems than it solves.

If the arrest warrant is from another state or county, ask your local police dept. to forward your impersonation report to the agency of the jurisdiction where the arrest warrant, traffic citation, or criminal conviction originated.

The police/sheriff's dept should recall any arrest warrants and issue you a clearance letter or certificate of release in the event you were arrested and booked. It's essential to keep this document with you at all times in case you might be falsely arrested again. Have official copies made at the courthouse, in case it gets lost. Ask the agency to file the record of the follow-up investigation establishing your innocence at the D.A's office and/or the court in the jurisdiction where the crime occurred. This will result in an amended complaint. Unfortunately once your name ends up in a criminal database, it's difficult to get it completely removed. Ask that the key name or primary name be changed from yours to the imposter's name, or else to "John Doe" if the imposter's true identity is unknown, with your name noted as an alias.

You will also want to clear your name within the court records. Determine which state law(s) will help you with this and how. If your state has no formal procedure for clearing your record, contact the D.A.'s office in the county where the case was originally prosecuted. Ask the D.A.'s office for the appropriate court records needed to clear your name. Unfortunately in some situations, you may have no choice but to hire an attorney to help you clear your good name. You may want to ask your state DMV if your driver's license was used by the imposter. Ask them to flag your files for possible fraud.

Overall, your best defense is prevention. Pick your friends carefully, and safeguard your drivers license, passports or other forms of ID.

Fred Appleyard Jr. - Visit http://www.beyourowndetective.com to learn more about identity fraud and private investigation. Get the latest tools to help you conduct your investigations.

Identity Theft - Is The Internet A Major Factor?

 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 500ach year and, according to Which Magazine, 25f 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 $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
* 12.9ue to transactions 10.4ffline transactions, 2.5nline transactions.

In total, when the instances where information was accessed during transactions are subdivided into online and offline transactions, only 11.6f 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 ID theft. Get the facts. http://www.id-theft-info.com