MOUNT VERNON

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

Protect your Identity!

A recent phenomenon called “Identity Theft” is something to be aware of.

In simple terms, identity theft occurs when someone uses your personal information such as your name, Social Security number, credit card number or other identifying information, without your permission to commit fraud or other crimes.  Crooks steal honest people's personal information and then run up credit card bills in their names, open new credit accounts and can ruin in days excellent credit ratings that took years to build.

Many people think the rise of online banking and shopping is to blame.  Not true.  Law enforcement experts say the vast majority of identity thefts still involve low-tech crime, such as stealing mail or retrieving sensitive documents thrown out in the trash.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't be careful when using the Internet for personal transactions.  However, the leading cause of identity theft continues to be a lost or stolen purse or wallet.  In the majority of other cases, criminals get their information through a job or an insider connection.

Consider some recent cases:

ü      A worker at a computer vendor that served credit bureaus sold people's personal information for $60 a record, resulting in the theft of more than 12,000 people's identities. Virtually every adult American has a record with the three major credit-reporting agencies. The ring operated for almost two years before being discovered last year.

ü      Two men posing as computer technicians broke into the files of several Florida restaurants, stealing personal information of thousands of people from credit card records, then created more than $7 million in fraudulent charges.

ü      Employees at the Social Security Administration in Houston were caught selling personal information to get illegal aliens into the country. 

ü      A phone call from a credit bureau questioning unusual account activity, including several applications for new credit cards, old cards being maxed out, and a change of address in the records for the first time in 17 years, alerted a Michigan man who discovered that a thief had obtained his personal information from a form the man had filled out at an optometrist's office years before. While purging old records, the office simply tossed the records -- including his personal information -- into a dumpster.

In reality, there's very little people can do to completely prevent their identity from being stolen. Victims often spend months trying to clear their names, convincing creditors they didn't open or max out accounts. And even after everything has been settled, they aren't protected against future thefts.

In 1998, Congress enacted an Identity Theft Act directing the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to establish the federal government’s central repository for identity theft complaints and to provide victim assistance and consumer education.  FTC logged 161,819 new cases in 2002, almost double the previous year's total.   Through September 2003, they had registered 131,000 new cases, projecting a full year total of 210,000 cases.

If you think your identity has been stolen, here's what to do:

1. Contact the fraud department at any one of the 3 major credit bureaus (see below) to place a fraud alert on your credit file. The fraud alert requests creditors to contact you before opening any new accounts or making any changes to your existing accounts. As soon as the credit bureau confirms your fraud alert, the other two credit bureaus will be automatically notified to place fraud alerts, and all three credit reports will be sent to you free of charge.
2. Close the accounts that you know or believe have been tampered with or opened fraudulently. Use the FTC’s ID THEFT AFFIDAVIT to dispute new unauthorized accounts.
3. File a police report. Get a copy of the report to submit to your creditors and others that may require proof of the crime.
4. File your complaint with the FTC. The FTC maintains a database of identity theft cases used by law enforcement agencies for investigations. Filing a complaint also helps them learn more about identity theft and the problems victims are having so that they can better assist you and others.

The Federal Trade Commission offers assistance to identity theft victims at (877) IDTHEFT or www.consumer.gov/idtheft.

One of the best resources for more information on Identity Theft is the FTC’s consumer education booklet, Identity Theft: When Bad Things Happen to Your Good Name. The 26-page booklet comprehensively covers a range of topics, including the first steps to take for victims, how to correct credit-related and other problems that may result from identity theft, tips for those having trouble getting a police report taken, and advice on ways to protect personal information. It also describes federal and state resources available to victims who may be having particular problems as a result of their identity theft. Last year, the FTC released a Spanish language version of the Identity Theft booklet, Robo de Identidad: Algo malo puede pasarle a su buen nombre.