As everyone knows unless you have been asleep like Rip Van Winkle identity theft has become the #1 crime wave in the U.S.A. according to the FBI and the US Postal Service. That is what Michael Bloomberg the New York City Mayor thought too, until he became a victim.

Now a new fear has raised its head because of the recent federal and the state laws that go into effect on January 1, 2008. For years anyone in the country illegally could (and still can) purchase any type of document on the street from some vendor. These fake documents can range from a Social Security card, drivers license, green card or practically anything else people are willing to pay for.

Recently the Arizona Republic ran a three-page article (August 19, 2007) on how easy these documents were to obtain. Arizona and Phoenix are both rated #1 in identity theft. Arizona police have seized 2,134 fraudulent documents in the last two years. And note, that’s just what they found, not what’s out there. Further the Arizona Republic says police have received 3,400 identity-theft complaints from January 1, 2006 through June 30, 2007. Is Arizona unique? Hardly, your city is the same.

According to the Arizona Republic the authorities fear the fake identity industry will grow as migrants look for ways to circumvent the state’s new employer-sanctions law and a new Bush administration crackdown on illegal workers.

With the job markets for illegal immigrants closing the police statewide are looking for more identity thefts in order for illegal immigrants to obtain authentic numbers. “It’s growing and it’s pervasive,” says Lt. Giles Tipsword of the Phoenix Police Department’s property crimes bureau. “This is a multimillion-dollar industry”.

To give some idea of the size of this industry look at these figures:

· $1.5 million dollars in cash seized from fraudulent-document makers operating in Arizona in the last 2 years

· 491 fake green cards

· 487 Social Security cards bought by undercover officers

· 172 drivers licenses bought by undercover officers

· 147 computers seized

· 217 people arrested

· And you know they didn’t get them all, that goes without saying.

Arizona’s new employer-sanctions law requires companies to verify worker eligibility through a federal database. Lawmakers in other states are taking steps to make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to get fake documents. And under new rules by the Bush administration in August employers face prosecution if they don’t fire workers whose names and Social Security numbers don’t match.

Nobody expects the fake document industry to dry up and disappear. If anything, those in the know say they expect it to get bigger and more sophisticated as criminals who make fake documents adapt to meet the demand. The database can’t flag documents made with stolen identities, where the names and numbers match.

According to Leesa Berens Morrison, the director of the Arizona Department Homeland Security, “There is a good potential for an increase in identity theft and also an increase in the manufacture and sale of fraudulent documents.”

In July, Arizona Governor Napolitano signed a tough employer-sanctions law aimed at turning off the job magnet that draws so many illegal immigrants. That law which takes effect January 1, 2008 revokes the business license of employers who knowingly hire illegal workers a second time.

It also requires the more than 150,000 licensed Arizona employers to run Social Security and other data for new employees through the federal Basic Pilot Program, an electronic verification system. For the record Arizona businesses employ about 1.6 million workers.

The Basic Pilot Program is designed to determine whether an employee is authorized to work in the U.S. As a result, local, state and federal authorities anticipate a rise in identity theft.

They expect to see fake-document makers morphing into large-scale criminal enterprises producing high quality fraudulent documents made with real names and real Social Security numbers stolen from someone else. The trick here is not to let yourself be one of those!

Identity Theft Protection

Undocumented immigrants frequently use illegally obtained identification numbers to gain employment. Victims of this type of identity theft may not suffer financial harm initially because of its intended use. However, down the road that person may decide to see if they can get a credit card, or buy a house or car – do you see where this is going? They become you! Even if they don’t it will still take you many hours to unravel the web they will have woven.

Here is what you can do to protect yourself.

· The first thing you should do is subscribe to LifeLock. There is no finer protection available. And all for about $10 per month. The information is on our website http://www.1-800BadCredit.com

· Review all bank and credit card statements monthly.

· Notify banks or credit card companies immediately of any unauthorized activity.

· Write “Ask for photo ID” next to your signature on the back of your credit cards.

· Ask your credit card company to stop sending blank checks with statements.

· Carefully review your credit reports. When you subscribe to LifeLock they will order these for you.

· Keep documents with personal information, credit card account information and PIN numbers in a safe place.

· Use a credit card, not a debit card when ordering on-line or by phone. Credit cards offer greater protection to consumers.

· Guard your Social Security number. Never carry your Social Security card with you.

· Do not give out your Social Security number unless it is required for employment, bank account or other legitimate purpose.

· Do not put your Social Security number on your driver’s license.

By: Dewey Kearney

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As a member of the U.S. Military and away from your usual posting, you should consider placing an “Active Duty Alert” on your credit report.  This alert will help to minimize your risk of identity theft while your deployed.  A persons credit report contains the most vital personal information, including your home address, how you pay your bills, whether you have been sued, arrested or filed for bankruptcy.  It is routine for banks, insurers, employers, utility companies and businesses to use the information in your credit report to evaluate your application for a mortgage, credit card, car loan, cell phone and much more.  With you away, perhaps on the other side of the world, identity thieves have a perfect opportunity to use your personal information to open new accounts in your name.  The thieves will most probably not pay the bills and the delinquent accounts show up in your personal credit report. 

 

Fraudulent and inaccurate information may affect your ability to get a loan, rental housing, car insurance or credit card when you return to the U.S. or long after your return.  This is why we suggest you place an active duty alert because according to the Federal Trade Commission, the alert requires creditors and businesses to verify your identity before issuing credit or opening an account in your name.  The active duty alert makes it much more difficult for the identity thief to use your personal information in an illegal way.  The active duty alert will last for one year unless you ask to have it removed sooner.  If your deployment exceeds one year you may place another alert.

 

Amendments to the Fair Crediting Reporting Act allow you to place the active duty alert.  To place the alert or remove it, just call the toll free number of one of the nationwide consumer reporting companies, and they are Equifax, Experian, or Trans Union.  These reporting companies will ask for meaningful proof of identity and could include your Social Security number, your name, address and other identifying information.



Equifax: 1-800-525-6285; quifax dot com

Experian: 1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742); experian dot com

TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289; transunion dot com



 

 

You only need to contact one of the above companies to place your alert because the company you call is required to contact the other two.  The other two will now place their own alerts on their version of your credit report.  Contact information could change before your alert expires and then you would have to update it.  When the active duty alert is in place, your name gets removed from the nationwide consumer reporting companies’ marketing lists for pre-screened or preapproved offers of credit and insurance, for two years. 

You may ask to have your name placed on the lists, if you want, before deployment.  Please realize that your friends and family know for quite some time that your going to be deployed and one of them could, without knowing it, say something that gets back to an identity thief.  Imagine what the thief could do with your identity while you’re gone for an entire year.  Protect your identity, because identity theft is real and growing in America.

Do you want to learn about Identity Theft Prevention & Identity Theft Protection. Stop Identity Theft with LifeLock. LifeLock can guarantee identity theft never happens to you. To see how lifelock identity theft protection works

 



By: Randy Vezina

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Check out the news article: “New identity theft scam is targeting jurors” by Bob Audette of the Reformer news site. The paragraph that caught my eye is:

“Police said an individual called the man, saying the call was being made on behalf of Judge John P. Wesley in Brattleboro District Court. The individual stated that the man had recently missed his court-ordered jury duty, and therefore the court had issued a warrant for his arrest with fines attached. The caller asked the man to verify his address, telephone number and Social Security number. “

The article goes on to say that the gentleman was careful and not compromised, but how many were compromised? Who was calling these people requesting this information? The police have not caught this perpetrator and according to identity theft statistics they won’t catch them. So if the authorities can’t catch the criminals and the crime is growing by leap and bounds, what can you do?

There are infinite ways to have your identity stolen. It seems that everyday a business is hacked and thousand or millions of personal records are stolen. You could be fooled by a tricky e-mail or phone call. Someone could steal your mail. This happen to me years ago and my credit card was charged for a pre-paid phone card. I luckily caught the charge in time to have it removed from my account, but it was my wakeup call to protect my credit. Later I learned that my credit was just a small part of the identity theft problem. Credit card fraud is only 28% of the problem. bank fraud is 18%, phone and utility fraud is 19%, employment related fraud is 13%, Government documents & benefits fraud is 8% and medical fraud is growing.

How can someone else using your identity create a criminal record for you? Imagine a drug dealer gets your name, address and say your drivers license number. They have a fake ID made with their picture, but your information. They are caught for their crime, but it is your information that is put into the system. They don’t show for they’re court date and a warrant is issued for your arrest. Yes, you will be cleared eventually, but only after being cuffed and processed. Do you really want to deal with that? Wouldn’t it be much easier to get a notice that you showed up in a criminal database somewhere and could preemptively solve the problem? Would you know how to solve the problem? How much of your time and trouble would go into solving a false record against your identity? If it were possible to make a 10 minute phone call and fax some documents to an expert in this sort of thing and have them clear the problem up for you, would you be interested in that service? Would you be more interested if that service cost only pennies a day? If so, then please continue reading.

It is almost impossible to fully protect your identity. Most of the data you need to protect is not in your control. Did you hear the recent new story about the notebook computer stolen from an employee of Veteran Affairs? Millions of identities were compromised in an instant. If you were in that database what would you have done the minute you heard about the theft? I knew exactly what to do. I made one five minute phone call to Identity Theft Shield and then let them handle the rest.

There are multiple products on the market that protect your credit. There is identity theft insurance available too, but that only give you money and instructions to solve the problem yourself. Identity Theft Shield is a complete solution. This is not identity theft insurance where they provide you funds and instructions to fix the problem yourself. Identity Theft Shield actually does the work and fixes the problem for you!

Odds are you will be a victim of Identity Theft. It’s almost impossible to avoid being touched by it. I sleep better at night knowing I have protection. Wouldn’t you like too? Please do your research and look into every form of Identity Theft protection that is available. Ask the hard questions from the companies providing this service. Ask “if my identity is compromised, what exactly does your company do for me?” 99% of the businesses offering Identity Theft protection are only focused on your credit or are going to “guide you” through the process of fixing the problem and in most cases they don’t cost any less then Identity Theft Shield.



By: Frank Brammer

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Identity theft is quickly becoming a worldwide epidemic. The latest statistics reveal that the largest majority of victims are aware of the crime within 30 days; over 25% don’t discover it for six to twenty four months. It is up to all of us to become aware and use identity protection tips to prevent the spread of this crime.

Some of these tips seem to be common sense, and might be things that you are already doing. Others might be tips that you have heard already, and thought about following, but have not started yet. Today is a good day to start protecting yourself from identity theft. Here are seven identity theft protection tips to get you started.

1. Protect your social security number. Never give it out on the internet, and don’t have it printed on your checks. If your health care plan uses your social security number as your membership number, ask them to replace it with a different number.

2. Don’t fall for phishing emails. These emails appear to be from legitimate businesses, such as banks, credit card companies, or EBay. They ask you to reply with your credit card information, or your social security number to correct the information in your account. If you think it might be legitimate, telephone the institution, and verify it. Don’t reply to the email, or click any links in it.

3. Shred, or tear up any pre-authorized credit card offers that you receive in the mail, and don’t want to accept. Also, tear up or shred any papers with your personal information that you are going to throw out.

4. Protect your personal information on your home computer. Use passwords with at least eight characters, and a combination of letters, numbers and symbols. Make sure your firewall is enabled, and your virus and spy ware protection software is up to date.

5. When you are shopping online, take a minute to read the privacy policy on the web site before entering your credit card information. If there is no privacy policy posted, shop elsewhere. Only enter your payment information on secure sites that have a web address that begins with https, and has a padlock symbol in the bottom corner of the browser screen.

6. Check your bank statements and credit card bills as soon as they arrive. If you don’t receive your statements, contact the financial institution immediately. Identity thieves will change the address where the statement is delivered to avoid being caught.

7. Check your credit reports and monitor your credit history. You can get one free credit report each year from each of the three national credit bureaus. You can order a report from a different bureau every four months to monitor your credit.

Use these identity theft protection tips to prevent being the next victim of this crime. Share them with your family and friends to help them stay safe and avoid the turmoil of becoming the next victim of identity theft.



By: Gerri Stone

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Protecting Your Identity

Identity theft can be one of the most difficult situations to deal with. Often, the ill effects of becoming a victim can last for years. Some of the common problems victims face are:

• Money is fraudulently withdrawn from checking or saving accounts

• Mysterious charges appear on credit card bills

• Credit score is damaged

• Experience difficulty opening new banking or credit card accounts

• Calls from collection agencies

• Ending up with a criminal record in error

Identity theft has been called one of the fastest growing white-collar crimes in America. According to Javelin Strategy & Research, Inc., in 2005, over 9 million people were directly affected with total losses exceeding $56 billion. But it doesn’t stop there. It actually affects everyone due to rising costs from merchants and banks to offset their losses. With identity theft growing to an all time high, it is important to do everything you can to keep yourself from becoming a victim.

Ways To Prevent Identify Theft

While there is no way to 100 percent guarantee that you will not become a victim of identity theft, there are some steps you can take to decrease the likelihood that it will happen to you. Follow the steps below to reduce your chances of becoming a victim:

1. Protect your social security number. The number one way criminals are able to establish credit in your name is by having your social security number. Here are some suggestions to better protect your social security number:

• Do not give your full social security number over the phone (most reputable companies will request only the last 4 digits).

• Do not carry your social security card in your wallet.

• Secure or shred any documents that contain your social security number .

2. Protect your incoming and outgoing mail. Many criminals seek out credit card pre-approval offers by sniffing through their victims’ mailboxes. Here are some suggestions to better protect your mail:

• Put all outgoing mail in an actual post office mailbox instead of your home mailbox.

• If you do leave mail in your home mailbox, avoid putting the flag up.

• Shred any pre-approved credit offer letters.

• Keep trash cans in a location that is viewable by your neighbors.

3. Protect your computer. Do not allow hackers easy access to your personal data on your computer. Here are some suggestions to better protect your email:

• Make sure you have up-to-date anti-virus software loaded on your computer.

• Make sure you have up-to-date anti-spyware software loaded on your computer.

• Avoid clicking on links or opening emails from unknown senders.

• Never send sensitive information regarding your personal identity within an email.

Ways To Detect Identity Theft

The sooner you discover an incident of abuse, the better. By doing so, you reduce the amount of money that may be stolen and it becomes less difficult to repair the damage. Here are some simple steps to you can take to detect identity theft early:

• Subscribe to an online credit monitoring service. These services send you email alerts when changes occur within your credit file. The service can be very inexpensive, starting as low as $6.95 a month or lower. Most services include some form of 3-in-1 credit monitoring package.

• Read your bank and credit card statements every month to ensure they do not contain any unauthorized charges. If you do not recognize a charge, call your bank or credit card company immediately.

• View your full credit report 2 times a year minimally. Be sure to compare each one to the previous report.

Your Liability

Federal law limits your liability to $50 if someone steals and uses your credit card. (Many credit card companies have a benefit in place that actually waves the $50 fee in case you do become a victim.) However, with ATM cards, you could lose up to $500 or more if you do not report any unauthorized transaction to your bank within two business days. If you do report the unauthorized charges within 2 days, you could limit your liability to only $50.

What To Do if You Become A Victim

No matter how many preventative steps you take to avoid becoming a victim of identity theft, the unthinkable can still occur. In this situation, follow the list of steps below to quickly repair any credit damage. The faster you do this, the better.

1. Contact at least one of the three credit reporting agencies and request a fraud alert be placed on your credit report. Once the fraud alert is placed on your account, it will automatically be placed on the other two. This fraud alert is good for 90 days and can be extended up to 7 years if a report is filed with the police department. The fraud alert notifies credit granters to confirm requests for credit with you before granting them. At this time you will also be eligible for a free copy of your credit report from each credit bureau.

2. Report the identity theft to your police of sheriff’s department and obtain a copy of the police report. Creditors will require the police report when you request to remove negative information from your file.

3. Report the identify theft to the Federal Trade Commission. You will need to complete the Identity Theft Affidavit form. Many of the creditors affected by the theft will need this.

4. Close any account affected by the identity theft.

5. Notify all of your credit card companies and let them know you were a victim of identity theft.

6. Close any unfamiliar accounts.

7. Contact the Social Security Administration if you suspect your Social Security number was compromised or is being used by someone else.

8. Keep copies of all correspondence to credit bureaus, creditors, Federal Trade Commission, Social Security Administration, and others pertaining to the identify theft.

Fraud Contacts

If you are a victim of identity theft, the following list will get you started down the path of clearing your good name. They key is to act quickly.

Credit Bureaus

Equifax

Fraud Reporting Line: 1-800-525-6285

P.O. Box 740241

Atlanta, GA 30374-0241

www.equifax.com

Experian

Fraud Reporting Line: 1-800-EXPERIAN (397-3742)

P.O. Box 9532

Allen, Texas 75013

www.experian.com

TransUnion

Fraud Reporting Line: 1-800-680-7289

Fraud Victim Assistance Division

P.O. Box 6790

Fullerton, CA 92834-6790

www.transunion.com

Federal Trade Commission

1-877-IDTHEFT (438-4338)

Identity Theft Clearinghouse

Federal Trade Commission

600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20580

To file the FTC Report online, visit www.consumer.gov/idtheft.

Social Security Administration

To report a stolen or misused Social Security number, call

1-800-269-0271

Visit: www.ssa.gov.



By: Kenneth Kelly

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You need to make identity theft protection a top priority. The reality is that one of the most common types of crime today is identity theft. Therefore, it is very important that you really are proactive and effective when it comes to identity theft protection.

If you are like most people in the world today you spend a great deal of time online transacting business. You shop online, you obtain services online. In the end, the Internet and World Wide Web is a wonderful resource when it comes to shopping, engaging services and for many other activities. Identity thieves completely understand this reality – they understand that the Net is a prime hunting ground when it comes to obtaining financial and personal information from targeted victims.

Using the Internet to shop, indeed using the Internet at all, actually does open you up to rather significant exposure to identity theft. Therefore, you need to make certain that you utilize tools and resources that are designed to provide you with optimum identity theft protection.

Chief amongst the steps that you will want to take when it comes to identity theft protection online is to obtain reliable, reputable and effective anti-spyware software. The fact is that there likely are hundreds of thousands of people lurking on the Net trying to steal your identity and the identity of people just like you through the use of spyware.

Spyware is an aptly named application that allows a person the ability to actually “sneak” into your computer through the Net to collect information about you. A form of spyware is used by reputable online merchants to obtain some basic information about your Internet use and habits. However, those intent on identity theft use more insidious software that actually can effectively collect personal and financial information from you and your computer, including passwords to your accounts.

You need to understand that there are spyware applications that can go so far as to monitor and track your actual keystrokes – a means of collecting your password with relative ease. Spyware applications are very invasive and can be very effective tools when it comes to stealing your personal and financial information.

Understanding these key factors associated with spyware, you definitely want to make sure you have the best possible anti-spyware protection on your computer. Typically, an anti-virus program today will include anti-spyware protection as well. In the end, this type of protection is crucial as part of your overall identity theft protection efforts.



By: Bernard Pragides

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The term “bot” is for robot.  Not the kind of robot you have seen in movies and television shows (does anyone remember ‘Lost In Space’?) or the one at the car assembly plant.  Bots are now one of the most complex types of crimeware on the Internet and therefore a significant tool for identity theft.  Bots are a lot like worms and Trojans, except that they can perform a wide variety of automated tasks on behalf of their master who is usually located far, far away.

Bots can perform nasty tasks like sending spam that can blast a Web site right off the internet when the spam is part of a coordinated “denial of service” attack.  A bot infected computer does the work for its master and that machine is known as a “zombie”.  Bots can enter your computer in several ways.  They are able to search the internet for vulnerable and un-protected (Nawaz, please link to Symantec) computers and inject the infection.  After infecting the machine they immediately report back to their master.

The bots objective now is to stay hidden until their master awakens them and assigns a task.  Bots are so silent that the victim does not know of their existence until the Internet Service Provider notifies you that your computer has been spamming other Internet users.  There are times when the bot will actually clean up an infected computer so that it will not get bumped off the victims machine by another identity thieves bot.  Bots can also infect by being downloaded by a Trojan, installed by a malicious Web site or emailed directly to you from an existing infected computer.

Bots never work alone because they are part of a network of infected computers called a “botnet”.  Botnets are created by identity thieves/attackers who repeatedly infect victim’s computers using one or several of the techniques already mentioned.  Each zombie machine is controlled by a master computer called the command and control server.  The cybercriminals/identity thieves manage their botnets and instruct their army of zombie computers from their command and control centre.  Typically, a botnet is composed of a large number of victimized machines that stretch across the entire planet, from China to the U.S.  Some botnets have a few hundred or few thousand computers; others have tens and even hundreds of thousands of zombies at their command.

 

Do you want to learn about Identity Theft Prevention & Identity Theft Protection. Stop Identity Theft with LifeLock. LifeLock can guarantee identity theft never happens to you. To see how lifelock identity theft protection works



By: Randy Vezina

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Identity theft has become a multi-million dollar crime that affects many people throughout the world. While most people understand how serious this can be, many underestimate how common this problem is and dont realize that they could easily be one of the millions affected. As with all things in life, there is no guarantee that something bad cant happen to a good person but protecting yourself means that you must understand why you and your family need protection, how programs such as LifeLock work, and whether you really need to utilize a program like this at all. This article will explore the issue of identity theft and how the LifeLock program may help to protect you.

While identity theft continues to grow as a crime of choice for many criminals, the exact statistics are hard to pinpoint due to the differing methods that identity thiefs use. 2004 statistics stated that 9.3 million Americans suffered some sort of identity theft. Many identity theft criminals will abuse your personal information until your credit, good name, and social standings are completely destroyed. Even though federal law protects people from having to pay off bills due to fraud, the burden of proof it is up to the victim and clearing everything up after becoming a victim of identity theft can take, on average, 600 hours spread out over several years. To give you an idea of how this crime has escalated, this average of 600 hours is up from 170 hours from only a few years ago. If you become a victim of identity theft, your ability to purchase a home or car, get bank accounts and credit cards, and sometimes your ability to obtain gainful employment can be greatly hindered. While going through the process of restoring their life, an identity theft victim can also expect to spend around $1,500 in out of pocket expenses, not to mention the wage losses they may incur if they are required to take time off from work.

Anti-identity theft programs, such as LifeLock, specialize in preventing identity theft. LifeLock is said to stop junk mail, pre-approved credit card offers, and takes a proactive stance versus the normal reactive method that they claim most companies use. LifeLock states that its program will contact you before your credit is tarnished while most other programs only contact you after the fact. The LifeLock program takes steps so that your credit and personal identification is continuously monitored meaning that you are notified whenever there is any suspicious activity with your credit, social security number, and bank accounts. One problem with this method is that you, as well as thieves, may find it difficult to secure credit but LifeLock states that this is necessary to protect your credit and that they will be available to speak with any creditor you are having difficulties with.

With all these claims, you may be wondering how the LifeLock anti-identity theft program works. LifeLock states that it will contact the four major credit bureaus and submit a 90 day fraud alert in your name which means that nobody, including you, will be able to obtain credit without sending an alert. When someone sets up a fraud alert with a credit reporting agency, the alert will automatically expire in 90 days but LifeLock states that it will automatically renew the alert before it expires and you will be continuously protected. LifeLock also provides you a copy of your credit report four times a year and monitors for any new bank accounts set up in your name. If you fully understand the dangers of identity theft and realize that you could be a victim, you may well be wondering how to join such a program and if you really need to.

Joining LifeLock requires no contract so you may cancel at any time if you are not completely satisfied. This program appears to be relatively inexpensive at $10 a month or $100 per year for adults and $25 a year for your children. You may be wondering why you would want to register your children with LifeLock but the fact of the matter is that children under 18 are great targets for identity theft thieves because nearly any child living in the United States has a social security number that an identity theft thief can steal and any suspicious activity will normally not be caught until the child reaches the age of 18. You may be wondering if a program such as LifeLock is really necessary or if you can take steps on your own to protect yourself. The truth is that you can do all of the things that LifeLock does on your own for free but doing so will eat up your resources, time, and leave you wondering if the steps you took will be effective. LifeLock claims that it offers a service of convenience, eliminating the hassle of you dealing with the details, and eliminating the stress of not knowing if you are truly safe. LifeLock also offers the advantage of acting in your behalf or hiring someone to represent you if the program fails and you actually do become a victim of identity theft.

If the thought of having your identity stolen concerns you, as it should, then you should take steps to reduce the probability of it happening. Whether you decide to take care of this on your own or obtain the service of an anti-identity theft program is up to you but reviews indicate that the LifeLock program does work and has helped a lot of people. Whatever you decide, please take some type of action to protect yourself because identity theft continues to grow and is indeed a huge problem that may very well affect you sometime in the future.

By: Rick Churchill

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Identity theft starts with the misuse of your personally identifying information such as your name and Social Security number, credit card numbers, or other financial account information. For professional identity stealers, this information is as good as gold mine.

Professional and Skilled identity Stealers may use a variety of methods to get hold of your information, including:

 

1. Skimming: These professional steal credit/debit card numbers by using a special storage device when processing your card. Do you let the waiter/waitress walk away from your table with credit card in hand? How about the gas station attendant? These are just some of the ways identity thieves can skim your card(s)

2. Dumpster Driving: In this method the thieves search for various bills and pieces for paper on which one might have scribbled some personal information. This can happen at work from the little garbage can beside your desk. Do you put your garbage out at night or even in the morning? If so, identity thieves will steal the entire garbage bag and take it to a safe location where they can pick it apart.

3. Phishing/Malware: These ID stealers are hard at work thinking up creative ways to get malware software on your computer using appealing Web sites, desirable downloads, and compelling stories, these criminals try to lure consumers to links that will download malware, especially on computers that don’t use adequate security software. Then, they use the malware to steal personal information, send spam, and commit fraud. They also can pretend to be financial institutions or companies and send spam or pop-up messages to get you to reveal your personal information.

4. Changing Your Address: These criminals divert your billing statements to another location by completing a change of address form. Where they can collect your personal information form those bills.

5. Old-Fashioned Stealing: It is the most common forms of identity theft where in the these stealers steal billing related mails and credit card statements from their victims. They also resort to stealing their wallets and purses to get credit card details and other such information. They may also resort to bribing and getting such vital details from people who have access to it.

6. Pre-texting: They move step ahead in their job, by using false pretenses to obtain your personal information from financial institutions, telephone companies, and other sources. Pretexing is the practice of getting your personal information under false pretenses. Pretexers sell your information to people who may use it to get credit in your name, to steal your assets, or to investigate or sue you. Pretexing is against the law. Pretexers use a variety of tactics to steal your personal information and commit identity theft. For example, a pretexter may call, claim he’s from a research firm, and ask for your name, address, birth date, and social security number. When the pretexter has the information he wants, he uses it to call your financial institution. He pretends to be you or someone with authorized access to your account. He might claim he has forgotten his check book and needs information about his account. In this way, the pretexter may be able to obtain other personal information about you such as your bank and credit account numbers, information in your credit report, and the existence and size of your savings and investment portfolios. Keep in mind that some information about you may be a matter of public record, such as whether you own a home, pay your real estate taxes, or have ever filed for bankruptcy. It is not pretexing for an identity thief to collect this kind of information.

Do you want to learn about Identity Theft Prevention & Identity Theft Protection. Stop Identity Theft with LifeLock. LifeLock can guarantee identity theft never happens to you. To see how lifelock identity theft protection works



By: Randy Vezina

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