Identity Thieves are Everywhere

It is a crime with a significant impact on you and up to 15 million others. You are victims of identity theft here in America, and the facts can be startling; you and those like you usually know or are even friends with the identity thieves. Our neighbors, family members and co-workers are likely to be the perpetrators, even stealing the identities of their own younger children.

The first thing most thieves do, once they have your financial and personal information, is to open up a new credit card in your name. This is a very frightening potential for financial ruin that has been staked against your name. Even worse, the thieves can take over accounts in your name and take real money out of your accounts. This is compounded by the countless thousands of man-hours and additional money that it would take to repair the damage.

Why would a friend, colleague or loved one do this?

The typical reasons are vengeance and greed. Your thief may be an ex-lover or ex-spouse who want to cause terror and financial pain. In many other cases, the thief is one who makes use of a family member’s good credit in order to get a loan or contract. Children are especially susceptible to these reasons, as they do not have any credit which could be considered bad, or worse, bad decisions can apply to the children without touching their parent’s credit rating.

Our co-workers also have available to them the opportunity and means to commit such a crime. Their motives are typically the same. It is important to keep your personal information safe and not in a place where someone can take a peek. One of the biggest ways co-workers gain control of the information is through eavesdropping while you give you information over the phone. The other big way is a workstation that is not password protected and if you fail to lock it whenever you leave your desk.

Trying to cope when someone steals your identity is a trying experience, even without knowing that the thief is a loved one or some one close to us in some capacity. There are things that you can do to ensure that your identity remains safe. Do not carry your social security card with you every where you go, and do not have you number printed on your license, checks or anywhere else where it will be seen. If you need to vocalize your social security number, make sure there are no listeners. Never lend use of a credit card or debit card, and keep your passwords and PINs safe and guarded.

Everyone likes to help out loved ones, especially family, but one has to ensure that you are not giving away your identity. At least once a year, get your federally provided free credit report and dispute anything that should not be there. The moment you see new accounts and cards under your name that you do not know about, call the creditors and credit bureaus immediately. We must protect who we are at all times.

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