Fighting Back Against Identity Theft

 

“Try not to become a man of success, but rather to become a man of value .” Albert Einstein

A Serious Crime

Identity theft is a serious crime. People whose identities have been stolen can spend months or years - and thousands of dollars – cleaning up the mess thieves have made of a good name and credit record. In the meantime, victims of identity theft may lose job opportunities, be refused loans for education, housing, or cars, and even get arrested for crimes they didn’t commit. All told, as many as 88 million Americans – more than one in four – had digital data exposed in the past 18 months, and federal estimates put the estimated financial losses due to identity theft at $48 billion per year.

How Identity Thieves Get Your Personal Information

Identity thieves use a variety of methods to gain access to your data. They get information hacking into records or conning information out of employees. They may steal your mail, including bank and credit card statements, credit card offers, new checks, and tax information. They rummage through your trash, the trash of businesses, or public trash dumps in a practice known as “dumpster diving.”

Identity thieves may get your credit reports by posing as someone else who may have a legal right to access your report. They may steal your credit card numbers by capturing the information in a data storage device in a practice known as “skimming.”

They may steal personal information they find in your home. In fact, the number one item stolen by persons attending an open house of someone selling their home is that person’s identity.

Additionally, they may steal your identity through email or phone by posing as legitimate companies and claiming that you have a problem with your account. This practice is known as “phishing” online, or “pretexting” by phone.

Steps You Should Take

First, place passwords on your credit card, bank, and phone accounts. Avoid using easily available information like your mother’s maiden name, your birth date, the last four digits of your SSN or your phone number. A good tip for creating a strong password, is to think of a memorable phrase and use the first letter of each word as your password, converting some letters into numbers that resemble letters. For example, “I love Felix; he’s a good cat,” would become 1LFHA6c. A combinations of upper case, lower case and numbers is best.

Secure personal information in your home, especially if you have roommates, employ outside help, or are having work done in your home. Also ask about information security procedures in your workplace or at businesses, doctor’s offices, or other institutions that collect your personally identifying information. Also, don’t give out personal information on the phone, through the mail, or on the Internet unless you’ve initiated the contact.

Perhaps the most important thing you can do is to treat your mail and trash carefully. Deposit your outgoing mail in post office collection boxes or at your local post office, rather than in an unsecured mailbox. Promptly remove mail from your mailbox. And, if you’re planning to be away from home and can’t pick up your mail, call the U.S. Postal Service at 1-800-275-8777 to request a vacation hold.

To thwart an identity thief who may pick through your trash to capture your personal information, shred (with a crosscut shredder) your charge receipts, copies of credit card applications, insurance forms, physician statements, checks and bank statements, expired charge cards that you’re discarding, and credit offers you get in the mail. To opt out of receiving offers of credit in the mail, call: 1-888-5-OPTOUT (1-888-567-8688).

Immediate Steps To Take

If you become a victim of identity theft, you should take the following four steps as soon as possible:

(1) Place a fraud alert on your credit reports, and review your credit reports. Fraud alerts can help prevent an identity thief from opening any more accounts in your name.

Contact the toll-free fraud number of any of the three consumer reporting companies below to place a fraud alert on your credit report. You only need to contact one of the three companies to place an alert. The company you call is required to contact the other two, which will place an alert on their versions of your report as well.

Equifax: 1-800-525-6285
Experian: 1-888-397-3742
TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289

(2) Close the accounts that you know, or believe, have been tampered with or opened fraudulently. It is important to notify credit card companies and banks in writing. Send your letters by certified mail, return receipt, so you can document what the company received and when. Write to the company at the address given for “billing inquiries” not the address for sending your payments. Finally, once you have resolved your identity theft dispute with the company, ask for a letter stating that the company has closed the disputed accounts and has discharged the fraudulent debt.

(3) File a report with your local police or the police in the community where the identity theft took place. Then, get a copy of the police report or at the very least, the number of the report. It can help you deal with creditors who need proof of the crime.

(4) File a complaint with the federal trade commission. The FTC can refer victims’ complaints to other government agencies and companies for further action, as well as investigate companies for violations of laws the agency enforces. You can file a complaint online at www.consumer.gov/idtheft. If you don’t have Internet access, call the FTC’s Identity Theft Hotline, toll-free at 1-877-438-4338.

Special Credit Card Rules

The law limits your liability for unauthorized credit card charges to $50 per card. But, to take advantage of the law’s consumer protections, you must:

(1) Write to the creditor at the address given for “billing inquiries,” not the address for sending your payments.

(2) Send your letter so that it reaches the creditor within 60 days after the first bill containing the error was mailed to you.

(3) You should send your letter by certified mail, and request a return receipt.

(4) The creditor must acknowledge your complaint in writing within 30 days after receiving it, unless the problem has been resolved. The creditor must resolve the dispute within two billing cycles (but not more than 90 days) after receiving your letter.

Marshall Sitarik – CFP
Certified Investment Management
407-999-3800