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Don't Lose Your Good Name
Protecting Your Family from Identity Theft By Cara Stevens
Chances are one in eight that someone has taken your identity for a test drive in the past five years, according to the federal government. In fact, according to the Federal Trade Commission Identity Theft Survey Report (September 2003), almost one in 20 Americans reported that their identity had been compromised in the past year. Also according to the report, individuals and companies lost more than $50 billion in the past year due to fraud and spent an average of 30 hours per person resolving their problems.
The high incidence rates of mail fraud, credit card scams, check washing at the bank and impersonation for criminal, non-financial means are just a few signs that identity theft is here to stay. The good news is that there are a few simple steps you can take to protect yourself from being taken for a ride.
1. Stealing information from businesses or computers
2. "Dumpster diving" through personal or businesses' trash
3. Obtaining unauthorized credit reports
4. "Skimming" credit and debit card accounts and authorization numbers using high-tech information retrieval devices
5. Stealing wallets and purses
6. Stealing mail
7. Diverting mail by completing a change of address form
8. Stealing personal information from your home
9. "Phishing," or posing as an official representative of a company or government to gain confidential information from you
"We have been victims of identity theft on two separate occasions over the years," says Renee Cooperman* of Long Island, N.Y. "The first time, a woman stole our credit card information when we were at a restaurant on vacation in California. We realized something was wrong when we saw a charge for $2,000 worth of shoes at a store in Utah." Fortunately, the Coopermans contacted the credit card company and all of the credit reporting agencies immediately, and were able to get the charges removed with no penalty.
