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There have been so many warnings and news stories about identity theft facts in the last few years, that they can all become a blur to your eyes and a buzz in your ears. Sometimes you hear another warning and lump them with the “Don’t run with scissors” category of advice. WAKE UP! Don’t look at identity theft facts as someone scolding you or threatening you, take it as a compliment that someone went through the trouble of trying to keep your money and your sanity safe.
You wouldn’t go driving down the highway during rush hour with a blindfold on, would you? Hopefully not (and if you do, please let me know what roads you drive on). If you do not protect yourself from identity theft, that’s basically the same as driving blindfolded. Don’t think identity theft can never happen to you because you are too well educated or too poor. Identity theft can happen to anybody from all walks of life. According to The President’s Identity Theft Task Force, about 10 million Americans become victims of identity theft a year. The good news is you can protect yourself from identity theft for free and by using your common sense.
There is a lot of talk about identity theft in the media today but few are reporting on the fastest growing demographic of identity theft victims, children. Children are at particular risk for identity theft due to the fact that they receive a valid social security number at birth and few families bother to monitor their children’s credit reports since they assume there’s nothing to monitor. Years later when the child reaches adulthood and attempts to buy a car or get a credit card, the fraud is noticed and the application is declined. What follows this event is a desperate and often futile attempt to clear the credit record so the young adult can get on with their life. This article will discus this phenomenon in more detail and review some simple steps you can take to protect your child from identity theft.
Studies done by the Federal Trade Commission have shown identity theft against children to be the fastest growing sector reporting complaints of identity theft. In many cases the children can’t even trust their parents to protect them because sadly family members commit the majority of child identity thefts. The government needs to step in and take measures to protect children from greedy or misled relatives. In addition, corporations who have taken steps to be more forgiving to adult victims of identity theft have to become more understanding when dealing with complaints of child identity theft.
Identity theft insurance coverage is big business for companies looking to profit from the fear of consumers regarding identity theft. This has provided consumers with many different ways to pay for identity theft losses. Generally all consumer identity theft coverage policies fall into one of two categories, prevention services and insurance coverage. Identity theft is best avoided but since no one is one hundred percent invulnerable to identity theft, insurance provides a nice soft place to land if you do fall victim.
Reports of identity theft and fraud top the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) list of consumer fraud complaints this year and have every year since 2000. In fact reports of fraud and identity theft make up about 39% of consumer complaints with fraud resulting from Internet auctions in second place with about 16% of consumer complaints. This just proves how big a problem identity theft is for consumers today. The cases of identity theft have gotten more complicated and now include not only credit card fraud and stolen bank funds but also identity theft used to avoid prosecution when committing other crimes.
In May of 2006, President George W. Bush signed a presidential order to create the very first identity theft task force in the United States. This was just another step on the part of the President to protect his public from the crime of identity theft. Three years earlier he had enacted legislation that required better security measures on the part of venders to protect sensitive payment information, such as credit card numbers. The identity theft task force was made up of 17 different departments and worked hard to put together a strategy to reduce the number of Americans falling victim to identity theft. By September of 2006, the task force had developed preliminary recommendations to be adhered to until the identity theft task force set up by the President could develop something more detailed and in depth. This article will briefly discuss four of the interim recommendations made by President’s identity theft task force.
Identity theft is now such a major issue both on and offline, that many web sites have been established to provide the public with help, support and advice on how to prevent it from occurring. Both the prevention of identity theft, tips on the warning signs and what can be done once identity theft has occurred are all covered by these web sites. Identity theft help web sites are extremely useful as they bring awareness to the public and give information on what to look out for and the best ways to protect personal details. They are a place to go for those in need or those who wish to learn as much as possible about protecting themselves.
Identity theft is a major issue and cannot always be prevented regardless of how careful you are. This is why people should be aware of the legal services regarding identity theft before they become a victim. The legal services surrounding identity theft could save victims a lot of time and money to sort out their lives and restore their credit ratings.