Identity Theft

A report by Javelin Research reveals that identity theft incidences are on the rise, even in recent months. Its latest data, released in February, stated that over 11.1 American adults were victimized in 2010 which is an increase of 12% from the total in 2009. This is not the first time victims have increased, but instead is somewhat representative of a trend. A trend that will hopefully start trending in the other direction sometime soon.

Unfortunately, the trend of convictions for these cases of identity theft is not so good, at least according to the U.S. Justice Department. An audit published by the Office of the Inspector General states that only 138 of 239 suspected identity thieves were convicted in 2009, a total of about 57% — not very impressive. The report on the audit also says that representatives of the Department often cite the fact that they don’t have sufficient guidance from DOJ leadership. This can no doubt hinder the prosecution and conviction process.

What this means is that you can’t rely on law enforcement alone to keep your personal information safe. While you should certainly report any instance of identity theft or fraud to the local authorities, you have to put some of the burden of safeguarding your information on yourself – or perhaps more helpfully, on the shoulders of an identity theft protection plan.

A protection plan is a good way to go for a lot of reasons. Three of the top ones are the following:
*It can help prevent you from becoming a victim by keeping a close watch on your credit.
*You may have more recourse, in the form of insurance, for time and money lost if you are victimized.
*You can have another organization in your corner, besides your creditor and law enforcement.

Using an identity theft protection service may even help law enforcement with their process of obtaining a conviction because of this extra assistance. Don’t take this as a guarantee that it will happen, but every little bit of extra information helps, and Debix for one has shown examples of how they have been successful in aiding law enforcement.

When purchasing a plan, don’t only think about protecting yourself from identity theft. Think of your family as well. A number as large as 11.1 victims means that if identity theft doesn’t happen to you it will likely happen to someone that you know and care about. Family plans are available, so you can easily safeguard the accounts of yourself, your spouse and your children all for one price. The peace of mind is worth every cent in our opinion.

If you’re new to this site and relatively new to learning about identity theft, it may help you to understand exactly what this crime is and how it happens. To paint identity theft with a broad brush, you can simply say that it is the act of stealing personal information from someone with the goal of pretending to be that person, usually for financial gain.

However, if you look at more specific cases, you’ll find a whole spectrum of crimes, from using someone else’s credit card information to buy a t-shirt to creating a multi-country multimillion dollar scam with several accomplices in order to rip off a large retail chain. Identity theft occurs, of course, within financial institutions. But it can also involve colleges and universities, medical establishments, restaurants, retailers, and of course, individual consumers. There are few main ways that it happens.

Scam Emails
Identity thieves love the online scam, since it is so easy to put into practice. They send emails to people from their “relatives” asking for account numbers or wire transfers. They send phishing emails, pretending to be from companies that the recipients have accounts with. They hack into legitimate email accounts and then target the people in the true owners’ address books with messages of trouble and hardship – and requests for account numbers or money.

Data Breaches
It’s sad to learn that a lot of identity thieves are people who have access to personal information because of their jobs. These people simply steal information from databases they legitimately have access to. Other times, thieves hack into networks or steal computers with account information on them. Sometimes this information makes its way to the Internet, especially black market sites.

Old Fashioned Theft
Thieves can also get information by stealing wallets or postal mail, or by simply copying down a person’s credit card number when said person is using it in public. And they love it when you accidentally leave your card at a merchant or drop your wallet on the street.

Family Theft
Perhaps the most hurtful form of identity theft occurs between family members. It can also happen between friends, coworkers or acquaintances. The person who steals the identity actually knows the person – and that is how he or she gets access to the personal information. This type of theft is especially common in families where one of the members is going through credit or legal trouble.

What can help protect you from the consequences of any of these types of theft? Identity theft protection companies, of course. Also, read through the additional content on this site to learn more tips on how to keep your information safe and how to prevent identity theft. You’ll certainly be glad you did.

When you hear that about 10 million Americans are victimized by identity theft each year, according to the Federal Trade Commission, you may wonder why the government isn’t doing anything to try and stop these crimes. However, the fact is that the government is trying. In fact, in the past few years, several bills have been made into law to help aid in prevention. The three biggest ones are as follows:

Identity Theft Assumption and Deterrence Act
In 1998, the federal government took a huge step in the war against identity theft: making this crime a federal one when it involved activity between more than one state. Before this, it was pretty much up to the states to figure out the prosecution and punishment for themselves. As a result of this law, some sentencing guidelines were put into play, and thieves faced penalties of up to 30 years in jail – plus the option of getting consecutive sentences if they had multiple convictions.

Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act
More commonly known as the CAN-SPAM ACT of 2003, this law was passed partially in an attempt to weed out individuals who send phishing attacks or other fraudulent emails. It made it a crime to send out unsolicited email without opt out instructions and some kind of label saying the email was unsolicited. The problem with this law is that it doesn’t spell out how exactly the labels have to read. Plus, the law can’t effectively govern spammers who send fraudulent mail from overseas, such as the good old Nigerian scammers.

Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act
One of the biggest moves forward in the past decade was the passage of this law in 2004. It added more punishment rules than had been in effect before. More specifically, it introduced the crimes of aggravated identity theft and terrorism related identity theft. Aggravated identity theft refers to identity theft committed with malice and the attempt to commit another crime. Terrorism related identity theft, of course, refers to identity theft that is committed as part of a plan to partake in a terrorist act.

You can see the full text of all of these laws at LLRX.com
http://www.llrx.com/features/idtheftguide.htm

Just note that even as more and more laws are passed, it’s still ultimately your responsibility to protect yourself from identity theft – well, you and your identity theft protection service.

Don’t have one? Probably a good idea to sign up for one now. Start by viewing our comparison chart then dig into the individual company reviews.

Ok, we usually don’t write blog posts on identity theft crimes as we like to hold ourselves to a higher standard and provide great content and quite frankly that would have us posting multiple times every day and would just make the important content hard to find. This one, however, caught our eye and just goes to show you that identity thieves don’t care at all about the victim of their crimes.

Normally, when you think of individuals who an identity thief might target, it’s unlikely for your first guess would be a centenarian. It’s a little difficult to pass for someone that age, and the real person’s photograph may show up on Al Roker’s televised birth announcements on the morning news. If they do decide to target someone of a certain age, they should probably not choose Josephine McBride, the oldest graduate from Norfolk, Virginia’s citizen police academy.

The accused identity thief is Mark Hillard, who allegedly forged checks, used them to make purchases at local retail stores and then returned the items that he purchased for cash on a later date and at different establishments. Ironically, Hillard told the press that this was a case of mistaken identity, his identity. He says that police have gone after the wrong guy.

McBride said that she has no idea how thieves got a hold of her identity. This is a common problem among victims. Not everyone who gets taken by an identity thief leaves his or her wallet on a bus or forgets to password protect a laptop. That’s what makes an identity protection plan so important. It is nearly impossible to prevent identity theft on your own, even if you’re a wizened in years police officer.

One of the great things about having an identity theft protection plan is that even if you do become a victim, it does not have to be catastrophic. Think about how bad it could have been if the police had not caught this alleged culprit. Poor McBride could have found her bank account completely emptied. Unless, big unless, her protection plan alerted her to changes made to her finances that she wasn’t aware of. Perhaps this did happen, and that is how law enforcement got involved. Surely, this is the case in many a situation like this one. After all, there are about 10 million victims of identity theft per year in this country alone.

Most likely, if a child under 18 becomes a victim of identity theft, it’s because a parent or relative stole the child’s personal information and used it for identification or to obtain credit. When the child finds out what has happened, it can take quite an emotional toll on the family.

First of all, the child, naturally, could feel betrayed by the family member if he or she is old enough to understand what the crime entails. Secondly, other family members may become angry or resentful of the family member –and even of the child. It’s important for others close to the child to be supportive of the victim, not to make out the thief to be the actual victim, due to financial hardship or what have you.

Another problem in cases of child identity theft is that the child and his or her close family may be encouraged not to file a police report solving the crime. The problem with sweeping the theft under the rug, so to speak, and simply paying off the debts incurred in the child’s name, is that it could make it look like the theft didn’t actually occur and the unpaid debts are actually the child’s fault.

In order to get the child’s credit record cleared, a police report is essential. Even if you, or some other family member, feels bad for the person who committed the crime (possible because they are a family member), it is imperative to get it on record. Otherwise, the credit errors could follow the child around for the next decade or longer – potentially affecting his or her ability to purchase a car or a house in the future.

To keep child identity theft from running in your family, you may want to look into identity theft protection plans for all the kids. We currently recommend LifeLock and TrustedID for your child’s identity protection.

Even if you believe that none of your family members would commit such a crime, it is better to be prepared than to be blindsided. Last year, a full seven percent of identity theft victims in the United States were age 19 or younger, and seven percent of 11 million is a whole lot of people. If this doesn’t worry you, it should. That number is only likely to get larger in upcoming years.

Learn more about child identity theft by reading these other blog posts.

Child Identity Theft – Yes Junior is at Risk To

Learn Why You Should Protect Your Child from Identity Theft