Has My Information Been Compromised?

When your personally identifiable information, or PII for short, is compromised, that means that it has been disclosed accidentally or on purpose without your consent. Often this happens because you responded to a phishing email, were the victim of a data breach, had something containing your information stolen, or a company you do business with leaked it.

Note that this is not the same as having identity theft committed against you. At this point, you can still take steps to prevent someone from actually using your information – even if this person has access to it. In fact, you may even be able to stop a criminal from selling it if you hire a company like LifeLock or Trusted ID.

Criminals, PII are you sure? Yes, according to Wikipedia “PII can be exploited by criminals to stalk or steal the identity of a person, or to plan a person’s murder or robbery, among other crimes.” Of course, the most common reason is identity theft, so if your information was compromised in such a way that you legitimately believe that you may become a victim of identity theft then the FACT Act gives you the right to place fraud alerts on your account thru the 3 major credit bureaus… Experian, Equifax and Trans Union.

So What Else Should You Do?

The first step is to close the financial accounts that you know have been compromised. If you’re not sure if they have been compromised or not, change the account passwords and monitor them closely by checking your statements and credit report. Any doubt? Get rid of them. Your bank should understand you need a new account number.

If your problem is with a government ID, like a driver’s license or a passport, contact the issuing agency in regards to having the documentation canceled and replaced. Since you are not proven to be a victim of identity theft, note that there may be charges for some of these services.

Order and begin a vigilant review of your credit reports.

One of the great things about holding an identity theft protection plan is that oftentimes you don’t have to worry about going through all these steps yourself. Nor do you have to worry so much about monitoring the use of your credit for fraud. A good plan will do that for you. A good plan will also help protect you from identity theft in many other ways. The more worried you are about your information getting into the wrong hands the more seriously you should consider purchasing one of these.

Start this year off smart with a new financial plan, and see just how good of a fit an identity protection service can be for your budget. It could end up saving you thousands of dollars. Not to mention a whole ton of agony and your valuable time.

Identity theft happens a lot – and I mean a lot … we’re talking about nine million American victims every year. But have you ever thought about why it is so common? What do these crooks do with all that personal information anyway? Lots of different things, here are a few:

**They commit credit card fraud.
With a credit card in hand, with your name and address attached to it, they can charge as much as they want and never pay it off. When they default on their bills, it is your credit rating that takes a hit, and it’s you who has to hear from the collection agencies over and over.

If they don’t want to go through the trouble of creating a new account, they may just charge up your existing account – after changing the billing address on it, so you won’t know unless you regularly check your statements online or read your credit report. Or, if you have an identity theft protection plan.

**They get free utilities.
Opening an account in your name is a great way to save on telephone, Internet, electric, gas and cable service – especially if the plan is to relocate every couple of months. However, such theft has been known to go on for years, simply because the victim wasn’t paying attention, and the utility provider was not swift with recovering lost income.

**They get discounted banking service.
Using your information, they get loans that they never have to pay back, checking accounts using counterfeit checks, cash advances on credit cards tied to you – and more. Again, your credit takes the hit, and you could find yourself thousands of dollars in the hole while the thief enjoys his new yacht.

**They make “you” commit federal crimes.
Making fake IDs to cross the border, filing for government benefits you qualify for and even taking your tax refunds, and sometimes claiming fake dependents to get more money – all in a day’s work for the right identity thief. They can even use your Social Security number to gain employment or medical car. And if they commit a major crime, they can have it pinned to you, by confessing your name and then not appearing for trial.

**They buy things with your credit or funds.
Yes, material things are a huge desire of many identity thieves whether its a car, big screen TV, or an Apple Iphone and if they can’t use your funds they will certainly use your credit. But don’t expect them to make those monthly payments or improve your credit score.

An identity thief can make a pretty good life out of pretending to be you – and likely many others simultaneously. Sadly, the results are exactly opposite for you. And though the outlook isn’t quite so rosy for the thief when he faces jail time, fines and other punishment it is unfortunately far to rare that they are caught and convicted. An identity theft protection policy can help protect you from becoming a victim of such crimes – and if such a crime does occur it can assist in the process of restoring your identity and occasionally in justice being served.

Having your Social Security number used by someone else doesn’t seem too likely does it? It may seem to you that this crime is pretty uncommon. It’s not.

ID Analytics, a credit fraud information service, puts that number at one in seven Americans. This includes people whose SSNs were used by strangers and those whose SSNs were appropriated by people they knew, the most common being family members. More specifically, their study found that out of 290 million Social Security numbers, 40 million are assigned to more than on individual. It also asserts that up to two million older adults unwittingly “share” their SSNs with their children.

How terrible is that that many cannot trust their own family members not to use their personal information. Sometimes it is due to a breach in the family unit, such as a divorce, but other times it is simply due to the child feeling entitled to use the parents’ information. Of course, it is sometimes the other way around, usually with a parent using an underage child’s information since the child will have a perfect credit record and the parent can begin with a clean slate.

It’s disheartening to think that you can’t share your SSN with family members, but you really shouldn’t share it with anyone unless he or she has a compelling reason to require it. For example, employers are bound by law to ask for it when they hire you for a new job. The Naples Daily News, a Florida based publication, suggests a “golden rule” for identity protection: “Think, Slow Down, and Verify.”

In addition to finding out why a person or organization is requesting the information, you should also determine where it will be stored and how it will be disposed of when it is no longer needed. Make sure you have satisfactory answers to all of these questions before you disclose the information – if you ultimately decide to do so.

Like your name, your Social Security number accompanies you for life. It has the added factor of being unique to you and used for most financial transactions. You can’t just cancel it and get a new one like you can with a credit card – so use as much caution as you possibly can.

Consider purchasing identity theft protection as an added level of security as many of them help monitor your Social Security number on legal and illegal databases and can inform you of how and when it is being used so you can verify it is you using the number or report unauthorized uses to authorities and take precautions to protect your identity.

A Social Security number is seen by identity thieves as the key to the castle so make sure you are doing all you can to protect it, especially if your one of the 40 million.

While doing some research on the Internet, I came across a somewhat obvious fact that had not seemed obvious to me until that moment. According to bankinfosecurity.com, when an individual experiences identity theft, he or she usually does not continue to do business with a financial institution if the financial institution is at fault. Makes sense; doesn’t it? But I never really thought about that.

According to Joanna Crane, an identity theft expert, “Victims now have an expectation of assistance [when theft occurs].” When a consumers private information is compromised they often blame their financial institution especially when fraudulent transactions occur and even if its not the banks fault in any way. “Oftentimes they will switch banks,” Crane says in an interview with BankInfoSecurity.com’s Tracy Kitten. “Thirty percent will switch credit card companies after an account takeover,” she adds.

By not meeting these goals, banks lose customers, which should be an incentive for them to step up their game so to speak. However, many consumers feel they still aren’t doing enough, especially as the number of victims per year remains at between 8 and 10 million.

Crane reports that identity theft incidence continue to increase because medical fraud is on the rise. She also speculates that the companies which use healthcare information need to be more proactive than banks were in preventing identity theft and resolving it quickly. “The industry wants to address it before it grows to the level that financial information identity theft has,” she said.

Of course, companies becoming more proactive is a great thing, but consumers need to become more proactive as well. Many don’t realize that they have been a victim of identity theft until several weeks after the crime occurred. Sometimes it takes a year or longer. This has got to change, consumer complacency around identity theft needs to end.

What needs to be done is people need to check their credit reports at least three times per year (free from annualcreditreport.com) and actually review in detail the report. They need to have a proactive stance towards the protection of their personally identifiable information, from protecting their social security number, passwords and account numbers to shredding documents, being aware of ones surroundings and securing their computers and phones.

Consumers should also strongly consider purchasing identity theft protection. The advanced data monitoring of many of these services simply provides a level of protection that we could not do on our own and being informed promptly of any identity theft attack can make a night and day difference when it comes to dealing with the situation.

In short, identity protection services help to keep your information safe and provide assistance, guarantees and/or insurance should you or any other protected family member become a victim of the crime whether it is due to negligence on the part of your financial institution or some other other company, or some other situation that is beyond your control.

Think identity theft is a problem that is slowly fading away? Think again. Unfortunately, according to many recent studies, it continues to be on the rise. According to one of these studies, conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics this past year, identity theft underwent a 33 percent increase between 2005 and 2010. Not only that, but, according to the study, American households collectively suffered over $13 billion in expenses related to this crime in 2010.

You wonder how much of that money could have been saved if the victims had an identity theft protection plan in place before the crimes happened to them. Not only can the plans help prevent identity theft from happening in a lot of cases, but they can oftentimes provide insurance coverage to mitigate some of the expenses if it does happen to a covered individual. While it is not likely to escalate if you are a plan holder, it’s good to know that you won’t have to risk being thousands of dollars in debt.

Santa Barbara District Attorney Jerry Lulejian offered an important tip on protecting yourself from becoming a victim of financial loss over the holiday season. “Don’t use your debit card to make purchases over the Internet,” he said. This is important to remember because unlike credit cards a lot of debit cards do not have policies where you are reimbursed for funds lost if someone uses your card pretending to be you. In theory, if someone gets your card and your PIN, or even sometimes just your card, she can use all of the money in the attached bank account and you may never see a dime of it again.

An identity protection plan, especially one that includes regular checks of your credit report, can be your best friend during prime gift giving time. You may make a lot of online purchases or simply be stressed which can make you careless about security. You could even ask for a plan as part of your holiday wish list. It could be only a few dollars per month and it’s certainly more useful than yet another fruitcake.

Have a Merry Christmas!

Tax time has long been a popular time for identity theft, with forms filled with personal information flying through the U.S. postal system. Some of them come from legitimate taxpayers and some of them come from individuals pretending to be legitimate taxpayers and looking to cash in on ill-begotten refunds. To help individuals who have been victims of this type of identity theft, and to help prevent future crimes, the IRS has instated some new rules for tax year 2011.

*Tax returns from past identity theft victims will be red flagged, and extra checks will be put in place automatically to insure that the return is legitimate before it is filed.

*Most tax returns will have to be filed electronically so that the computer system can pass them through electronic filters for manual review if anything appears to be suspicious. Some returns that are flagged will still be processed, but it will take longer for them to clear the system.|

*Some taxpayers at high risk for identity theft will receive a six digit personal identification number from the IRS. These individuals must include this PIN with their tax returns. If they do so, their returns can bypass the filters for extra review so that they can get their refunds in a timely manner. If they fail to do so, the return will be rejected and the person will have to refile by mail. This will continue every year until the IRS no longer flags the account as high risk.

People will be notified if they will receive PINs via a letter in the mail. It is important not to lose this letter if you receive it, and to supply it to your tax preparer if you decide to use one. The number will change every year, so you don’t need to hang onto it for the next tax season, but it’s a good idea to keep it with your records in a secure place.

While these new rules may seem inconvenient, they are a positive step. It is good to see that the IRS is acknowledging the prevalence of identity theft during tax time and trying to do something about it. In previous years, it was tough to prevent if the thief filed a return before the legitimate taxpayer filed. The duplicate return would not be acknowledged until the taxpayer filed, and he or she would be left with the burden of proof.

Take the time to learn how you can protect your identity with our identity theft tips.

While adults are very vulnerable to identity theft in the United States, children are vulnerable too. And even more vulnerable is a certain group of minors: foster children. According to Robert Fellmeth, who teaches law at the University of San Diego, up to 30 percent of these children become victims of identity theft before they reach age 18 – which is usually when they find out about it.

This problem is so widespread that on September 30 a federal law was enacted requiring states to perform credit check on older foster children and to assist them if their identities are stolen so they can start their adult lives without the burden of bad credit. Sometimes these kids are victimized by members of the families they are taken away from, but sometimes the culprit is a foster parent or even an employee of the state-run organization that is assigned to help them.

According to Jim Langevin, a representative from Rhode Island who co-sponsored the law, ”We need to look after these young people in our care and make sure their credit is not abused. It’s our responsibility.” He said this after hearing multiple horror stories, including one in which a foster child was burdened with a $217,000 mortgage loan.

Foster kids may carry a bigger identity theft burden because there are fewer adults working to protect them or because their personal information is more available. Even kids that are not in foster care still have a more than 10 percent chance of being victimized, according to a study by Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

It’s fortunate that many identity theft protection services include provisions to protect children. This can normally be piggybacked onto an adult’s plan for a very small sum of money. A child who has never applied for credit should not have a credit report on file, and these plans can help insure that it stays that way. What a terrible experience to have to clear your name – which could take months – before you can get that first car, apartment, or even job. Don’t let this happen to your kids or teens.

Identity Theft Tips for In-Store Holiday Shopping
Black Friday, November 25th 2011

Three days from now, when doing your holiday shopping in the store this Black Friday, it’s very important to remember toprotect yourself from identity theft.

Follow these tips to help do so:

*Be wary of crowds. When you’re in a packed house, say Sears for example, pickpockets tend to lurk nearby. They are harder to spot and have an easier means of escape when they can slip into a crowd undetected. Don’t get so laden down with shopping bags that your handbag is easy to grab, and keep your wallet in front of you, in a pocket, clutch or fanny pack.

*Keep an eye on your credit card if you have to hand it over at the cash register. Many identity thieves get jobs at restaurants or stores to make the task easier – or they become thieves while employed in those positions. Better yet, patronize places where you can swipe your card yourself. They are becoming more and more prevalent.

*Wear large shoulder pads – or find another way to keep thieves from peeking at your PIN. Alternately, run your debit card through as “credit.” That way you don’t have to enter your PIN at all, so no risk of someone seeing it who shouldn’t.

*Clean out your wallet before you go. Don’t bring identification, receipts, and credit cards you won’t be using on your shopping trip. That way thieves will get as little as possible if they are able to take it away from you. Never shop with a passport or Social Security card on hand.

*Take your credit card receipts and place them on your person. Don’t let the clerk put them in your shopping bag. It’s easy to forget your bags if you stop for a bite to eat – and all of us have left them sitting on top of the car at one time or another. Oftentimes, your credit card company will reimburse you for lost merchandise, but you don’t want a thief getting ahold of your signature. That just makes it easier for her to pretend to be you.

Holiday safety really just comes about when you start to become aware the problem and risk of identity theft and practice awareness of your surroundings daily. When your aware of where and how the thieves lurk you can ensure they don’t take advantage of you and make your holiday shopping, well just normally stressful or perhaps even enjoyable.

Stay Safe and Happy Holidays!

Before identity theft happens to you – well, in case identity theft happens to you – you should have a game plan in place on what to do about it. It does affect close to 10 million Americans each year so this really is something you should think about. To be more specific, you should take some steps so that you can easily thwart someone from using your information even if they have access to it.

There are several things you can have on hand to make the process easier. First of all, make sure you have copies of all of your credit cards and forms of identification – front and back. This will ensure that you have the information you need to report them stolen and/or cancel them as soon as possible. You don’t want to waste valuable time searching for card numbers and phone numbers while the identity thief is at work.

It’s also a good idea to have the contact information for the Federal Trade Commission and the local police department on hand, as well as your primary financial institution’s details. Of course, Google and a reliable internet connection provides quick access to these nowadays.

Another good thing to have is a recent copy of your credit report. Once you report an incidence of identity theft, you should order an additional copy. Having a recent one to cross reference with can help you easily determine if any fraud has taken place on your accounts without having to scan through months of statements or bills.

Perhaps the most important thing to have in place in case you are victimized is an identity theft protection policy. With such a policy, you don’t have to take care of all the nitty gritty details yourself and you have a trained professional who can help you cut through the red tape. Also, you could be entitled to reimbursements for lost wages, legal fees and even your time, depending on the terms of your plan. It’s worth looking into before this crime happens to you – and oftentimes it can help prevent it from happening to you in the first place.

Learn more about your identity theft protection options.

Sadly, and disturbingly, a lot of identity thieves don’t learn their lesson the first time, even after they have served jail time for their crimes. For example, Robert Delgado of California was already on parole for identity theft when police found personal information for over 300,000 individuals on his computer. He came up with quite a scam, on which he was recently convicted and sentenced. He forged credit cards and government identification – so he could ‘prove’ that the cards were his of course – and used the cards to purchase expensive items, which he would later resell.

Even with all this planning, this hero to identity thieves had a fatal flaw: he listed his real cell phone number on his Facebook page. With this information, and one of his victims as an informant, authorities were able to track his location using the GPS on his phone. That is what led them to his computer. They also had video surveillance footage from a Lowe’s store that helped prove Delgado had committed his crimes.

Two lessons of note from this story. The first is that identity thieves don’t always give up, even if they have served jail time previously. Delgado got sentenced to eight years for this stint, but that doesn’t mean he won’t try again when he gets out. And, actually, sometimes identity thieves are aided and abetted by people currently in prison.

The second lesson is kind of a funny one, since it ultimately aided in this thief’s downfall, but still it is a lesson nonetheless: don’t list your phone number on your Facebook page or any other social networking site. While it helped in this case, it also highlighted how easily someone can locate you if you do so, even if said person is not your Facebook ‘friend.’

Do you remember how many victims Delgado potentially had? It was in the hundreds of thousands, and that is with a pretty simple scheme. Can you see how easily there are 10 million victims of identity theft in this country every year? Can you tell why it’s so important to look into an identity theft protection plan? While big stories like this always make the news, there are a lot of thieves out there that never get caught. Be proactive and stay safe!