When you picture an identity thief in your head you may imagine a masked man lurking in a corner or staring over people’s shoulders at the ATM. However, it is doubtful you will think of a 31 year old woman working in a nursing home as a big threat. Unfortunately, that is part of the reason that identity thieves are so successful. They prey on people in ways, and in places, that they would not expect them to.
For example, Jean Wright was victimized inside a nursing home by her own occupational therapist. When Wright stayed in the home for a brief period of a few weeks while recovering from knee surgery she befriended Danielle McClain who helped her with her rehabilitation. During the time she was helping Wright, McClain also happened to take a gander at her driver’s license information, and her close conversations with Wright allowed her to figure out just enough information to be able to guess her account passwords.
By the time Wright left the home, McClain had already applied for several loans naming Wright as the cosigner. Luckily, Wright got a call from American Express thanking her for opening a new account – an account she had no idea existed. This prompted her to check her credit report and find out about several additional accounts Wright had opened in her name.
There are two lessons that we can learn from this unfortunate incident. First of all, be careful who you share the personal details of your life with. It can be hard to tell who is genuinely being friendly and who has darker intentions. This doesn’t mean you can’t get to know new people. Just be very careful what you share until you are 110% sure that you can trust them.
The second lesson is to monitor your credit report. While Wright got lucky by receiving the telephone call, she would have had a much different story to tell if she hadn’t. The thief could have opened literally dozens of accounts without her even suspecting a thing.
One idea that would have worked for her was an identity protection service. Instead of getting a serendipitous phone call, she would have been expecting one at the first sign that accounts were opened without her consent. And she wouldn’t have had to frantically check her credit report. Her protection plan would have been checking it for her the whole time.
It’s unfortunate that we live in a day and age where millions of Americans have their personal information stolen each year. It’s a good thing that we also live in the age of identity theft protection or we would be in real trouble. Be thankful that there are so many plans out there that you can take advantage of, since you never know when you could run into a potential identity thief. If it’s not at a hospital or nursing home, it could be at the gas station, in the library or even at a family reunion. There is nowhere that is immune to the threat.