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Identity Theft

Identity Theft - it's a serious crime, and how it can affect you

by Wayne Wargo (PenWay.org)

You might lose out on job opportunities, future credit, denied loans for education, housing and cars and the like due to identity theft!

It is well known that consumers that are victimized by identity theft may have negative information on their credit reports. While some victims of identity theft are able resolve their problems quickly, others may have to spend hundreds of dollars over a long period of time trying to repair damage to their good name and credit record.

Identity thieves will steal your money from your accounts and savings, run up enormous credit card bills, obtain passports and other official documents, empty bank accounts - even using their ill-gotten gains to fund other crimes, such as drug running and terrorism.

Your personal data, especially your social security number, your bank account or credit card number, your telephone calling card number, and other valuable identifying data can be used, if they fall into the wrong hands, to personally profit at your expense.

The 35-44 demographic age group has the highest average fraud amount, estimated at close to $10,000. The 65+ demographic age group has the smallest rate of identity fraud victims. However, elderly Americans are highly vulnerable to other types of identity theft schemes, particularly the various telephone scams used by perpetrators to acquire personal information. It's always a good idea to mention this fact to your parents or grandparents and other loved ones.

Child identity theft is also one of the fastest-growing form of identity theft. As parents, make sure that you have secure safeguards in place to prevent your children against identity theft. All an identity thief needs to ruin a bright financial future for children is their name and social security number, and these pieces of personal information are exposed in a variety of ways: when registering for daycare, schools, recreational sports, medical, dental, and hospital records. Even more troubling, the identity theft resource center discovered that in over half (54 percent) of the cases, the child was under the age of six.

Please remember that anyone can be a victim of identity theft. Safeguards should be put in place and you must always be vigilant in keeping your confidential information out of reach of those who don't need to know. The Internet mirrors real life in more ways than one, particularly in relation to crime.

Make certain that you don't give out personal information via the Internet unless you know who are actually dealing with. We're living in the information age and your information is out there just waiting to be stolen by someone.

You can help in preventing identity theft by utilizing security fraud alerts that are placed on your credit reports, which will restrict access to new credit. With an identity theft alert, you are contacted before any new credit transaction is approved under your name and social security number.

There are three major credit reporting companies. They are Equifax, Experian and Trans Union. Normally, these companies do not share information with each other and have their own ways to calculate their credit score. So, in effect, you will have three credit card companies that keep track of your activity. You should be able to request a free annual credit report from each company.

Credit Reporting Company Information

Equifax P.O. Box 740241 Atlanta, GA 30374 1-800-685-1111 ---- Experian P.O. Box 2002 Allen, TX 75013 1 888 397 3742 ----- TransUnion P.O. Box 1000 Chester, PA 19022 1-800-888-4213

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Identity Theft - it's a serious crime, and how it can affect you