Friday Grab Bag - 6/12/2009

It's Friday again, and that means it's time for the weekly SpendOnLife grab bag post. Here we share some of the week's more interesting tidbits from the world of credit and identity theft. Enjoy!

Does your dog have better credit than you do?

Darrell Coleman, of Wichita Falls, can surprisingly answer "yes" to this question. His pet Pomeranian, Gus, has been getting better credit card offers than him for years. It all started when Darrell sent in a warranty card, jokingly using his puppy's information. Now, pooch Gus is on countless mailing lists and even receives the occasional telephone call. Sorting through Gus' mail, you might find an application for a platinum Visa card, a Handyman Club of America membership, or even a job opportunity offering up to $13 / hour.

Delaware introduces ID Theft passport

Now, victims of identity theft in Delaware can apply for a passport that identifies them as such. Victims can show these passports to law enforcement officials, creditors, and credit reporting agencies as proof that their identity has been stolen. The passports should help victims to cut through red tape a little faster to reclaim their identities. The passports will include Izon holographic authentication technology, making counterfeiting that much harder. 

Higher credit scores, higher chance of identity theft?

Experian's latest market insight says that the rate of ID fraud rises dramatically as credit scores increase. This new finding doesn’t necessarily mean that ID thieves are targeting those with higher scores. Rather, the stolen identities that have the better credit scores are simply more likely to be approved for new credit and loans. CreditCards.com offers a breakdown of which scores are most at risk.

Intersections Business Services launches BreachCenter.com

BreachCenter.com isn’t aimed at helping businesses prevent breaches, but rather offers advice for coping with the aftermath of a breach. As John Scanlon, Intersections COO says, "It’s not a question of whether your company will be breached; it’s really a question of when." Most of the site's content is created on its wiki pages, blog, and forum, so the information is "from the community and for the community." 

A call for a new credit score formula

Miel at Dual Income No Kids has some changes she'd like to see to the current way credit scores are calculated. Her suggestions (like taking your complete financial picture into account, not just your credit and debt history) are spot on. Unfortunately, they would require throwing the current credit reporting structure out the window, which I don't see happening anytime soon. But it never hurts to think big - Thanks Miel!