Saturday, April 12th, 2008
I read a news report recently which I found somewhat shocking, but not that much. It’s a report from knoxnews.com, a small local news site from Knoxville Tennessee. Where the wife of a high ranking deputy sheriff in Loudon county was found guilty of identity theft. The article says that despite a previous conviction, the woman escaped a prison sentence.
Her sentence basically came to three years of supervised probation, a $1,000 dollar fine and 40 hours of community service. Even though her husband was not involved and knew nothing about the activities of his wife as concluded by an investigation, he was demoted because of his wife’s case.
The thief and the victim were actually friends in this case. The thief used the victim’s bank account to pay bills and other personal expenses. Yet the victim pleaded with authorities to stop them from prosecuting her friend, but because identity theft is a felony, charges were made and court procedures started.
Perhaps it would surprise most everyone that a friend would do this to a friend, but there really is no boundary when it comes to identity theft, it can come at you from any angle. I’m a little more surprised at the demotion of the deputy who was not involved in these actions and I imagine that to be a decision of the local sheriff’s office rather than the court. The fact that the case involves the wife of a high ranking deputy sheriff makes it hard to believe that the deputy did not know about this until too late.
In the short time that I’ve been blogging about bankruptcy and related subjects such as credit, credit repair and identity theft, I’ve discovered a lot of different facts about all these subjects and while reading news and posts from other blogs and it never really ceases to amaze me how wide open our personal information is and how easily it can be taken even by people we know and trust. Read the original article here.
Of the many ways this can happen, in this case it was a bank account number that was taken. Often times it’s a social security number that can be used to apply for credit under your name, and of course there’s always the potential danger of providing information via the internet.
If this makes you think about the many opportunities you may have created for someone to obtain your information, you may want to read this post about how to prevent identity theft.
Posted in Identity theft, Related News | No Comments »
Monday, April 7th, 2008
Identity theft victimizes up to a million people every year
The rising epidemic of identity theft surprises up to a million people each year, destroying credit ratings and financial lives. Without the proper protection no one is ever safe, and many people still don’t recognize the danger and unknowingly continue to leave their sensitive data exposed. No one ever likes to think about the potential risks of becoming a victim of identity theft, but the truth is identity theft is very easy to do and this is encouraging for those who know how to acquire your information and what to do with it.
More and more of us are making the transition to the internet for information, news, fun, shopping, and keeping in touch. When we access these different online destinations, we sometimes provide personal data to different sources for registrations, to pay bills, or to buy things we need. The information we provide often includes our names, addresses, phone numbers and social security numbers, and this is where it can get dangerous.
Though you don’t always have to input your personal information in some website for you to be at risk. One of the easiest ways a hacker can gain access to your information is by getting into your computer while you’re online. This more often occurs when you have no virus protection, firewall or any type of network monitoring that can warn you of suspicious activity on your system. But even when you employ all these technologies it is not guaranteed that your information is 100% safe. These are simply precautions and there are very skilled individuals out there working hard to gain access through the security holes we can’t see.
How to prevent identity theft
Always keep your virus software updated, don’t open spam mail and don’t download or install pirated software. All those unsolicited mails often contain malware, the same goes for software that’s not distributed legally since this can compromise the security of your system.
You should also monitor your credit often. You can sign up for credit activity alerts through any of the credit bureaus, however this is NOT going to stop anyone from using your information if they already have it. It will only alert you when something has already happened so you can act immediately and stop it from continuing.
The best option in identity theft protection by far, is to protect yourself through a service called Life Lock, this is a program that not only guarantees your identity will be safe, but every policy is insured for up to $1,000,000 dollars.
One of the most insane things I have ever seen, was the CEO of this company offering his own “real” social security number to complete strangers and encouraging them to go and open credit accounts with it. What exactly was he trying to pull?
Well that’s the beauty of Life Lock, this program has complete control over your identity in terms of preventing identity theft.
If a credit card company receives an application with your social security number and other personal data, they will continue to process the application for approval once they have checked your credit. It really is that easy. Life Lock is that road block between the credit card company and the thief that’s waiting for that approved credit card with your name on it.
Life Lock offers:
- Free credit reports from all three bureaus
- It protects your identity by making it useless to someone in its possession
- Your policy is backed by a $1,000,000 dollar guarantee
- Removes your name from junk mail lists and stops credit card offers
- Provides the most sophisticated service in identity theft protection
You can try the program FREE for 30 days and start enjoying the most advanced identity theft protection there is today.
Star protecting yourself from identity theft today, even if you use a different program, you need to act now and start taking the necessary precautions to keep your information safe.
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Monday, March 10th, 2008
Credit bureaus are not infallible and neither are the creditors that report your credit history to the bureaus. Mistakes will happen, and often times the bureaus do not make it a priority to deal with these mistakes even when you bring them to their attention through their own dispute systems. That’s where credit repair agencies come in, but can credit repair really work for you?
If the information on your credit report is accurate, then there is not much that can be done to change it. However, as I mentioned above, mistakes will happen and it’s important that you keep up with your credit report and address the inaccuracies yourself first. The best time to use a credit repair agency is when there are items that prove difficult to dispute, especially if it involves life changing events, such a death in the family, a divorce, identity theft etc.
A lot can be recorded on your credit report during these events and it can get messy. These are the perfect situations for you to hire someone else to deal with this for you, and it is in situations like this that credit repair can be most successful if there are true inaccuracies on your credit report. You should hire a legitimate credit repair agency that can address these problems correctly and professionally. One thing to keep in mind is that entries that involve small debts will be easier to deal with, normally larger debts are much harder to dispute even for an experienced agency.
There are legitimate companies that can in fact help you repair inaccuracies on your credit report and they have been doing it for years, which is a factor you must consider when deciding which company to hire, how long have they been doing this? There are also a lot of companies that can not really help you do anything, but will be glad to take your money if you let them.
During the much needed research that you will do to find the right agency, you’ll more than likely come across a lot of different sources that advertise aggressively. Beware of the flashing signs and pop up ads that “guarantee” removing all negative entries from you credit report. This is just not possible if the information is true. You can’t hire an agency to repair your credit just because you don’t like what you see on your credit report. If you had late payments, defaulted loans, or filed bankruptcy, you should expect to see these entries on your report. Hiring someone to fix these entries will only prove to be a waste of money.
Back to finding a reliable company to hire for you credit needs. You need to scrutinize a lot during this process, and I’d like to give you the first source where you need to begin your research. The better business bureau (BBB) keeps record of companies who offer goods and services and makes it available to consumers so you can review their track record. Businesses register with the BBB because they want to show they’re committed to quality service. In a way you’re looking at a company’s resume or credit report if you will, when you research them via the BBB.
Enter the words credit repair in the search field at the above link and you may be a little surprised to find that there are only a handful of credit repair agencies that are registered with the BBB. The search results will also display credit repair companies that are not registered with the BBB. It’s possible that more of these companies that are not registered could also be reliable and provide good service, but I would start with those that are registered and have a track record you can study.
Inaccuracies or not, this may get a little expensive. But you stand to be more successful by hiring a legitimate company with a good track record that has a lot of experience doing this, so be ready and budget yourself carefully.
Posted in Credit, Help Resources | 1 Comment »
