Identity Theft and Credit Monitoring Blog

I was contacted this morning by someone who became a potential identity theft victim over the holiday weekend - her purse was stolen from the front seat of her car while she ran into a friend's house. She explained "well it's a really nice neighborhood, and I was only running in for a few minutes" after I (politely) inquired why she left her car doors unlocked.

If you’ve been paying attention to the news lately, you know that the state of Michigan is cracking down on the identity theft penalties. Those jealous spouses had better think twice about snooping around their partners’ personal accounts and belongings.  Rochester Hills resident, Leon Walker, was recently arrested for reading his wife’s email account on their home computer.

Online identity theft happens to thousands of innocent people every day - You would be surprised how easy it can be for a hacker to crack your password.  This could allow someone to access your computer when you’re not around, or to get into online accounts that store personal and financial information.  Even if it’s just your Facebook being hacked, the resulting pain can be high.

If you’re considering identity theft protection, now is the time to buy a shredder for your home and start destroying documents that contain personal information.  It’s not illegal for another person to go through your garbage, which makes it easy for anyone to get their hands on papers you’ve tossed.

With the growing use of handheld technology for online access, mobile banking is definitely on the rise and it’s happening fast.  The financial institutions are advertising left and right for all of the banking functions you can do using your Iphone, Droid, or any of the handheld technologies that contain a browser.

Right now, we’re not hearing much about mobile banking and identity theft but it’s just a matter of time before identity thieves start to be become proficient at ways to intercept these secure interactions to commit identity theft or simply criminal theft.

Have you ever found a wallet on the ground and returned it to its rightful owner (out of the goodness of your heart)? Well that’s what happened in this Pensacola, Florida story when a grocery store employee found Jade Ingalls wallet left behind. When the store clerk searched the wallet for identification, there were five different driver’s licenses bearing different names and the same photo.

Identity thieves aren’t always attempting to use stolen identities to steal from the victim…sometimes they are using the stolen identity to hide their own identity.  If the thief commits crime(s) while using the stolen identity, they are committing something called criminal identity theft.

Earlier this month, an identity thief out of Renton, WA was sentenced to three years in prison for identity theft while using the stolen identity of a deceased child. 

A recent article in the NY Times highlights details of how identity theft affects U.S. military personnel.  Identity thieves target the military in unique ways:

Military personnel commonly use social security numbers as personally identifying information.  They use their social security numbers on a routine basis whether filling out forms or performing some activity that requires a soldier to use identification to check something out.  Apparently, this is a known issue in the military and steps are being taken to change the age old practice.

It turns out that while the number of identity theft victims - individuals and businesses - are large, there’s a lag in the prosecution of those that perpetrate identity theft crimes.  Many victims simply don’t report the crimes.  They instead focus on the recovery, perhaps because it has a more tangible outcome that directly affects them going forward.  In addition, it can be tough for both the victim and law enforcement to track down the identity theft criminal because they could be anywhere.  Getting support from the remote law enforcement can be difficult, especially

For those of you out there who aren't too computer savvy, wi-fi and internet security can be confusing.  Not understanding internet security can result in identity theft or credit card fraud, so here’s a quick primer on the key things to think about when using your computer at home over a wireless network.

One of the most basic forms of identity theft protection is free. It’s the ability to request a 90-day fraud alert to be turned on with one or all of the major credit monitoring agencies. The purpose of a fraud alert is to improve the chance that a potential creditor will not grant credit to an identity thief.

If an identity thief obtains your personal information, for instance, they might try to open a line of credit with a big computer manufacturer who sells directly to consumers, purchase the computer on credit and then have it shipped out (yes, this happened to me) .

Identity theft initiated through email can not only be damaging but for the less savvy computer user, but it can actually be difficult to keep it from happening repeatedly.  A resident of Valencia, CA was recently the victim of a type of identity theft no less than four times in two years.  Apparently, the thieves had gained access to her checking account on each occasion and linked the account to online PayPal accounts.  They then drained the checking account into their PayPal accounts and disappeared with the money. 

We all know the logical safety rules for ATM use: don’t visit the ATM alone at night, be cautious if someone is standing directly behind you, keep an eye out by using the small mirror, so on and so forth. There’s a new danger at ATMs that few are aware of: ATM skimming.