Identity Theft – “It Wasn’t Me!”

Have you been an identity theft victim?
Have you ever had to say, “It wasn’t me!”? Have you ever been surprised when you applied for credit and was told that you had all kinds of charges made in your name – charges you knew nothing about? That would be your first thought, wouldn’t it – it wasn’t me!

So if this has happened to you, you know only too well what identity theft is. And identity theft safety actually comes in hindsight for you. But identity theft is a very real threat these days – all around the world. And if you’ve been fortunate enough to have avoided this horrible crime, then consider that fact – you’ve been fortunate!

So count your blessings and start developing your identity theft safety program today! And then you won’t be one of the millions of people who’ve had to say, “It wasn’t me!”

And don’t ever be one of those people who say, “It’ll never happen to me.” If you really believe that, then you’re a prime target!

Identity theft statistics speak for themselves
Still not a believer? Ask one of the 27.3 million victims of identity theft in the U.S. in the last five years. They’ll tell you! They’ll tell you of the months of hassle and the thousands of dollars it cost them to re-claim their identities. And that’s not an exaggeration, by any means.

Want more evidence? Check out the numbers compiled by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC):

In 2000, there were 31,117 cases of identity theft.
In 2001, there were 86,198 cases of identity theft – up 177%.
In 2002, there were 161,891 cases of identity theft – up 87.7%

And those were just the ones reported to CRAs (credit reporting agencies). The FTC estimates there were actually 3.6 million cases of identity theft in 2002. And they figure that less than 7% of victims actually report the crime.

A couple of other independent studies conducted in 2003 reported that there were around 7 million cases of identity theft that year – and that’s just in the United States.

The statistics are backed up by the country’s leaders
Identity theft is not a minor issue. In fact, it’s such a major issue that the country’s top leaders are speaking out loud and clear, alerting people to be aware.

In May, 2003, the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Wayne Abernathy, said, “In a recent national survey of homeowners, 12% reported having been casualties of identity theft…It is hard to think of another crime that has touched such a large portion of Americans... A separate survey recently found that Americans are more concerned about becoming a victim of identity theft than they are of losing their job.”

With all the focus on job security these days, it may seem surprising that people are more worried about identity theft than losing their jobs. But that’s how scary this crime is!

And that 12% of homeowners? That’s one out of every eight! So look up and down your block. There’s at least one family close to you that’s been through the horror of identity theft.

And here’s what U.S. President, George W. Bush, had to say on the subject: “One of the most harmful abuses of personal information is identity theft. Victims usually find out about such frauds when collection agencies pursue them for payment on these illegally created accounts, or they are denied credit because of unpaid debts accrued by identity thieves.”

What can you do to protect yourself from identity theft?
Identity theft safety is something you need to be very aware of. You can call it identity theft protection, or you can call it identity theft prevention. But whatever you call it, it’s a very real necessity in your life if you want to avoid ending up as a victim.

There are a number of steps you can take, and a number of guidelines you can follow, to lessen the chance of becoming an identity theft victim. Take note that identity thieves don’t just target one area of your life. They come at you from all directions. So here are the areas where you need to be aware and protect yourself.

Your mail:

Pick up your mail from your mailbox as soon as possible. And never leave outgoing mail in your mailbox for the mailman to pick up. That’s an easy target for identity thieves.
Never have your checks mailed to your home. Always have them mailed to the bank, where you can pick them up.
If you’re going on holidays, have the Post Office hold your mail for you.
Be aware of your mailing cycles. Know when your bills come. If you don’t get one when expected, phone the creditor and see if it’s been mailed. As much as we don’t want to get bills in the mail, it would be a lot worse if an identity thief got to them first.

Your computer:

Keep your virus protection up-to-date. Some viruses gather your personal information and email it to identity thieves.
Keep your critical updates up-to-date. They provide extra security , protecting you from identity theft.
Never open an email unless you know who it’s from, no matter how friendly it appears. A lot of identity theft begins with an opened email.
When you’re giving out personal information on the Internet, be very sure to look at your status bar to see if the site you’re on is secure. If it is, there’ll be a closed lock icon there. If there’s no lock icon, then it may not be secure, and you need to find another way to complete your transaction.
Never leave a laptop unattended. And always use passwords. It’s very easy for a thief to tuck your laptop under his arm and run off with it.
If you’re upgrading or changing your computer, get a software program that completely wipes out your hard drive. When you delete files, they’re still there in your computer, if you know how to find them – and identity thieves do!

Your records:

Make use of a shredder or a shredding service. Shred all documents that have any kind of personal information on them.
Protect your wallet/purse at all times. They’re a prime target for identity thieves. You know how devastated you are if you lose your wallet. It has a whole lot of personal information in it – enough for someone to create a whole new identity – your identity!
Find out who has access to your personal records at your place of employment. Identity thieves can bribe employees to give them your information.
Check your credit report regularly. That’s usually the first place you find evidence that you’re a victim of identity theft.

Make identity theft safety an important part of your life
There are a number of things you can do to create a continual identity theft protection program. You can buy identity theft insurance. You can also buy identity fraud protection. You can make use of a credit monitoring service.

There are many ways you can protect yourself from identity theft. You need to be aware of them all, and you need to make use of as many of them as you can.

Think of the alternative – a victim of identity theft. Living for months, trying to get your identify back. Trying to prove to creditors that it wasn’t you that made all those charges. Trying to prove to the police that it wasn’t you that committed that crime. Trying to prove that you’re a victim of identity theft.

So don’t be one of those eight families on your block. Don’t be one of those 7 million victims. Treat identity theft seriously. And if you follow all the guidelines, and take all the steps to protect yourself, hopefully, you’ll be safe!

Photo found on: Pseudo-Funny Screencaps,
From The Simpsons

Masking Credit Card Numbers

Businesses could be failing to protect your private purchasing information. How
safe are your transactions?

How often have you eaten at a restaurant in town, paid by credit card and
noticed on the receipt you’re about to leave on the table that your entire
credit card number is displayed? Anyone who picks up that receipt will have your
private payment information and your signature at their disposal, including the
restaurant staff. Business's should be masking your credit card number so it
shows up with only four legible numbers ie. xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-1234.

January 25, 2007 Re: NOTICE California Legislation Regarding Credit Card Number
Truncation on Receipts

Current laws prohibit a merchant who accepts credit cards from printing more
than the last 5 digits of the credit card account number or the expiration date
upon any receipt provided to the cardholder.

The new law, effective January 2009, prohibits the merchant from printing more
than the last 5 digits of the credit card account number or the expiration date
upon any receipt retained by the merchant, (signed or not signed by the
cardholder), which is printed at the time of the purchase, exchange, refund, or
return.

To help you prepare for this change, we have provided the language from the
amended Civil Code, below.The people of the State of California do enact as
follows:

SECTION 1. Section 1747.09 of the Civil Code is amended to read:1747.09.(a)
Except as provided in this section, no person, firm, partnership, association,
corporation, or limited liability company that accepts credit or debit cards for
the transaction of business shall print more than the last five digits of the
credit or debit card account number or the expiration date upon any of the
following:

(1) Any receipt provided to the cardholder.

(2) Any receipt retained by the person, firm, partnership, association,
corporation, or limited liability company, which is printed at the time of the
purchase, exchange, refund, or return, and is signed by the cardholder.

(3) Any receipt retained by the person, firm, partnership, association,
corporation, or limited liability company, which is printed at the time of the
purchase, exchange, refund, or return, but is not signed by the cardholder,
because the cardholder used a personal identification number to complete the
transaction.(b) This section shall apply only to receipts that include a credit
or debit card account number that are electronically printed and shall not apply
to transactions in which the sole means of recording the person’s credit or
debit card account number is by handwriting or by an imprint or copy of the
credit or debit card.(c)This section shall not apply to documents, other than
the receipts described in paragraphs (1) to (3), inclusive, of subdivision (a),
used for internal administrative purposes.(d) Paragraphs (2) and (3) of
subdivision (a) shall become operative on January 1, 2009.

Your credit score will depend upon the amount of credit cards that you have and how much you have on them. Obviously, if you don’t use your cards you won’t have any credit history, but did you know that having more than one isn’t that bad as long as you use it wisely. Since your personal credit report is determined, by how much credit you have compared to your debt.

Therefore, if you have three credit cards and you keep one for emergencies, one to use for your own use, and then one that you never use you will have a very good credit rating. The key is to have three credit cards. The card that you for daily things should be your lowest credit, so you can build credit but not get out of hand with the spending.

Then you should use a card with medium credit amount as an emergency card. You can keep it locked up, but do not always carry it with you or you are more likely to spend. The longest range of credit should be reserved. If you receive a card and you have thousands of dollars as a credit line, you will want to first accept the account, but make sure there are no yearly fees.

Then you will want to cut up the card for that line of credit. This way you are never tempted to use it, but you have an open line of credit. If would prefer to lock it up in a safe, that is fine too, but you will need to do something so that you never use the card. As long as you keep up with your membership, you should still have the line of credit.

Now that you know the importance of your credit line, you should also know how to be more responsible with them. You should never max out the cards. This will lower your credit rating and you may be paying your cards off for the rest of your life. Try to keep your balance half of what your credit line is. You will want to make sure that you send the payment on time.

If you are late one or twice, your credit will not be affected, but if you get behind every month than you will have some troubles and the credit company will report you. As for the payments, you should try to make big payments. You do not have to pay it off, however, you should pay at least twice the minimum balance. This way you and your credit card company will have a good solid relationship. If you send the minimum, you will notice that you will end up paying a lot of interest of time.

In addition, you should never charge anything to your card that you cannot pay off within a few months. Always make sure that your balance is well within your paying range. Most credit companies have a fine line in their contracts where they can demand the rest of your balance immediately.

Old Man Pie - Credit Credit card Song "Never Never Never"

This is a song about the Credit Crunch in America. We all need credit cards. Its become a way of life. Here is a catchy tune that's been on the web a while from "Old Man Pie" Please enjoy!

Wasn't that great! Hey it time for a Starbucks..

Lets enjoy one free by using a Starbucks Credit
card.

Let’s have a look at the scenarios:

US spending in Iraq


Fact: Spent & Approved War-Spending - About $600 billion of US taxpayers' funds were spent in Iraq. President Bush has requested another $200 billion for 2008, which would bring the cumulative total to close to $800 billion.

$800 billion wow...what if that was spent through a credit card?

If the Starbucks Duetto Visa card was used that would mean that 1% of all the spending could be accumulated back as Starbucks rewards. 1% of 800 billion is 8 billion dollars for coffee. That’s a lot of free coffee. How much coffee well …..a lot. And since Starbucks annual income ending September 07 was reported just a little over 9 billion dollars it would mean Starbucks giving away almost as much coffee as it sold. Would Hillary Clinton choose this option for her military spending?

“Starbucks Participates in Clinton Global Initiative
Starbucks chief executive officer Jim Donald participated in the first-ever Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) last month.” Story here

What if the Hilton American Express Card was used? Let’s see Hilton and American Express is giving away 3 Hilton Points for every dollar charged to the Hilton HHonors Visa card. $800 billion divided by three is around 2400 billion reward points. They say if you redeem about 10000 points you get a free night. So that’s 240 Million nights of accommodation. Let’s divide that by the 2900 Hilton Hotels for 82758 night’s accommodation at each hotel. With 365 nights available, Hilton better have at least 266 rooms at each hotel just for US Government Rewards.

I wonder if you can book the Clinton Suite at the Hilton with these points?

General Motors and Visa offer a Rewards Credit Card. They like Starbucks also offer 1% back on purchases. With a quick calculation, if GM didn’t impose any maximum reward application, that would be $8 billion in vehicles. At an average of $2500 saving per vehicle that’s a handy 3.2 million vehicles that taxpayers may be missing out on receiving a discount for. In 2007 GM sold 3.8 million vehicles in the United States meaning the government could discount every GM vehicle owner $2000.00 on their last years purchase.

The republicans appear to be driving GM vehicles. Mike Huckabee drives a 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe and a 1995 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck. John McCain drives a Cadillac CTS. For the democrats I think John Edwards still has an old 1994 GMC truck.

I could give you example after example of rewards for military spending from Disney rewards, Airline, Hotel, and Merchandise. The list goes on. Even if the US Government can’t charge a new fighter plane or two to a credit card, US Politicians can all put their personal expense funding through rewards cars. And that’s a lot of Free Coffee!

I wonder what the effect on the economy would be if the US Government used Reward Credit Cards for Military Spending. What do you know?
 

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