You may not be the person your credit card company thinks you
are. Because someone has stolen your identity and you are the
victim of identity theft. Somewhere, somehow, they have acquired
enough information or false documents, to pose as the real you,
and open new accounts or order credit cards which are now being
maxed out. Identity theft is a huge problem and you won't be able
to prevent it if you don't read your credit report or check your
credit report on time.
Identity theft can be done with very little basic information
such as name, address, social security number and mother's maiden
name. The proliferation of sites on the internet offering faked
I.D.s, including drivers' licenses, is a gold mine for the identity
thief. Credit card companies send out "pre-approved"
applications, and never ask for proof that the signature that
comes into their office, is really that of the person whose name
is going on the card. That makes identity theft very easy.
Fortunately, federal law limits your liability on each card,
to $50. But that doesn't eliminate the feeling of insecurity that
such an identity theft can cause. Nor does it save you from what
may be months of hassle to eradicate the false information that
has piled up against you with various companies and credit institutions.
Identity theft often stays with you if you don't check your credit
report.
Many people don't realize how they may be put at risk in their
everyday activities. Ask yourself, how many businesses you deal
with, have bonded or checked the background of those employees
who could have access to your personal and credit card information?
Then consider how easy it is to request a personal report on someone
over the internet. For relatively little costs, you can now request
information on anyone at all, and get any or all of the following:
Phone number
Professional, educational, criminal/legal action history
Names and phone numbers of their neighbors
Registered assets and bank accounts
Their last six addresses
One estimate suggests that identity theft is growing at a rate
of 50% a year. As many as a thousand people a day may be victims,
whose crimes are never "solved" or prosecuted. In 1997
alone, the U.S. Secret Service made over 9,000 arrests for identity
theft and fraud, and that was just the tip of the iceberg.
Don't let yourself become a victim of identity theft. Take some
common sense precautions, and verify that they are working by
ordering a credit report twice yearly to make sure that there
is only one, you.
