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How to Avoid Identity Theft

Oct 31, 2012

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What Do Identity Thieves Do?

Identity thieves take your personal information and use it to harm you in a number of ways, including these:

Gaining access to your credit card account, bank account, or brokerage account
Opening new credit card accounts in your name
Opening new bank accounts in your name
Buying cars and taking out car loans in your name
Buying cellphones in your name
Using your name and credit to pay for utilities, such as fuel oil or cable television
Using your medical insurance to obtain medical services, thereby corrupting your medical records
Renting a home
Using your name when committing crimes

Although you might not be responsible for fraudulent charges, the damage to your credit as reflected in your credit report can affect your future employment, insurance applications, and loan applications, as well as any future credit arrangements you might want to establish.

Nowhere Are You Safe

In November of 2003, in Virginia, an emergency medical technician was arrested and charged with credit card theft, credit card fraud, attempted grand larceny, and identity theft stemming from an incident that occurred when the EMT was called to a nursing home to assist an 80-year-old resident. While going through her purse for identification, he took one of her credit cards. When he returned to the fire station, he went online using the fire department’s computer to order a 42-inch plasma television paid for with the stolen credit card. Fortunately, the credit card company was vigilant and flagged this unusual purchase for an elderly nursing home resident. They called the victim’s daughter who managed her mother’s financial affairs. She promptly told the credit card company that it was a mistake. It did not take Sherlock Holmes to identify the villain because the stupid thief gave the address of the fire station as the delivery address for the television. Due to prompt action in investigating the matter, the television never was delivered. The computer provided further information that led to identifying the EMT who had helped himself to his victim’s identity.

Dumpster Diving

Dumpster diving is the name for the practice of going through trash for “goodies” such as credit card applications and other items considered to be junk by the person throwing out the material. In the hands of an identity thief, some of this trash can be transformed into gold. Go to any post office and inevitably you will find in their trash containers much of this material that owners of post office boxes toss out when they go through their mail before they even leave the post office. Too often people do not even bother to tear up the items. In the case of preapproved credit card offers, all the identity thief has to do is fill in the application, change the address, and send it back to the bank. In short order, the thief will receive a credit card, and a careless individual will become the victim of identity theft as the identity thief begins to use the credit card and runs up debts in the victim’s name.

You Are Only As Safe As The Places That Have Your Information

No matter how careful you are about protecting your personal information from identity thieves, you are only as safe as the places that have your personal information. These places include companies with which you do business, governmental agencies, and any club or association to which you belong. It is not unusual for rogue employees to steal the personal information of its customers or members and either use it themselves for identity theft purposes or sell the information to professional identity thieves.

Hackers

Computer hacking of government and private business computers have resulted in the personal information of millions of people being compromised. The Secret Service reported in the President’s Identity Theft Task Force report of 2007 that major breaches in America’s credit card systems were done by hackers from the Russian Federation and the Ukraine.

As the old cartoon character “Pogo” once said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” As more and more of us make greater use of our smart-phones, iPads, and other portable electronic devices, people who make sure that their home computers are equipped with proper security software fail to do so with their portable electronic devices, and identity thieves are constantly exploiting this weakness.

The Drug Connection

Steven Massey was convicted of conspiracy to commit computer fraud and mail theft for his operation of an identity theft ring in which he enlisted methamphetamine addicts to plunder mailboxes and a recycling center for preapproved credit card applications and other material that could be utilized for identity theft. Methamphetamine addicts are perfectly suited for identity theft. They often stay awake for days at a time and can patiently perform boring tasks such as going through mail and even piecing together torn credit card solicitations. Drug money for identity theft information is a growing problem throughout the country.

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