Identity Theft site
How can someone steal your identity?
By co-opting your name, Social Security number, credit card number, or some other piece of your personal information for their own use.
* They open a new credit card account, using your name, date of birth, and Social Security number. When they use the credit card and don’t pay the bills, the delinquent account is reported on your credit report.
* They call your credit card issuer and, pretending to be you, change the mailing address on your credit card account. Then, your imposter runs up charges on your account. Because your bills are being sent to the new address, you may not immediately realize there's a problem.
* They establish cellular phone service in your name.
* They open a bank account in your name and write bad checks on that account.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The New Era of Identity Theft Protection By 2010, 1 in every 10 U.S. consumers has already been victimized by identity theft.
SFSU students' information stolen
School alerts 3,000 affected by theft of faculty laptop [June 2006]
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/23/BAGQLJJ2LB1.DTL
In all, the Social Security numbers of 2,751 former San Francisco State students and 65 current students were stolen.
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President Bush signed legislation on Dec. 4, 2003, giving consumers new ways to protect their identities. The new law:
• Gives every consumer the right to request a free credit report every year.
• Makes it easier for consumers to report identity theft with one phone call. Credit card companies and credit bureaus are required to participate in a national ID theft alert system.
• Requires merchants to black out Social Security numbers, credit card numbers and debit card numbers on receipts.
• Requires financial institutions to develop a system for identifying ID theft faster and taking steps to minimize the damages early on, even before a consumer is aware of the problem.
• Orders federal regulators to establish guidelines for recognizing and combating identity theft and to hold financial institutional accountable for implementing the guidelines.
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GENERAL GUIDE FOR VICTIMS OF IDENTITY THEFT California Attorney General 2003
http://caag.state.ca.us/idtheft/tips.htm
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A 34 page booklet all about ID theft:
ID Theft: When Bad Things Happen To Your Good Name
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/idtheft.htm
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What You Should Know About Identity Theft published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, September 15, 2002
http://www.clevelandfed.org/Research/com2002/0915.pdf
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Identifying Identity Theft
By Robyn Greenspan January 17, 2003
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) found a reported 86,168 instances of identity theft during 2001, and Aberdeen Group estimated more than $8.75 billion in related losses in 2002.
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The FTC found that most victims of identity theft were in the 30-39 year old age range, with New York City having the highest number of identity theft victims, followed by Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, Miami, and San Francisco.
Data from the FTC indicates that victims' information is most often misused in frauds related to credit cards (42 percent), phone or utilities (20 percent), and banks (13 percent), as well as employment, loans, government benefits, and other criminal acts.
http://www.internetnews.com/stats/article.php/1571681
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The FDIC references identity theft and identity fraud as
"terms used to refer to all types of crime in which someone wrong fully obtains and uses another person's personal data in some way that involves fraud or deception, typically for economic gain. "
They refer to such issues as your
bank account or credit card number,
your telephone calling card number,
other valuable identifying data, but especially your
Social Security Number (SSN).
Drivers license number
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CONTEST BILLS THAT RESULT FROM IDENTITY THEFT.
Consumer and privacy advocates suggest not paying any portion of a bill which is a result of identity theft and not filing for bankruptcy.
This will involve disputing credit card charges with the card company by writing to the address for "billing error" disputes - not the bill payment address. You should follow the directions given by the credit card company for disputing charges. This information must be provided by the company. Your credit rating should not be permanently affected, and no legal action should be taken against you as a result of identity theft.
If any merchant, financial institution or collection agency suggests otherwise, simply restate your willingness to cooperate, but don't allow yourself to be coerced into paying fraudulent bills. Report such attempts to government regulators immediately.
http://caag.state.ca.us/idtheft/tips.htm
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People have trouble with passwords. The idea is to have a random string of letters, numbers, and symbols that is easy to remember. Alas, random strings are by their nature hard to remember, so people use bad but easy-to-remember passwords, such as "hello" and "password." (A survey last year of 1,200 British office workers found that almost half chose their own name, the name of a pet, or that of a family member as a password; others based their passwords on the names Darth Vader and Homer Simpson.) Moreover, computer users can't keep different passwords straight, so they use the same bad passwords for all their accounts. [How about you?]
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2002/09/mann.htm
* Be aware that almost every time you call an 800, 888, or 900 number,
your name and address are captured by the company you dialed. This information becomes part of your electronic profile.
With a person's name, social security number and date of birth, someone can get loans, access the person's existing bank accounts, open new bank accounts, lease or buy cars, get insurance
Imagine finding out that someone had gotten a mortgage in your name. Clearing that up with the bank and getting it off of your credit history would be quite a battle.
http://www.howstuffworks.com/identity-theft2.htm
* Public records - These records that are open for public inspection include driver's license information, real estate records, business records, vehicle information, certain types of professional certifications and licensing information, and any other types of data collected by public entities.
* Information that is publicly available - This means non-government information that is found in newspapers, such as classified advertisements and reports, as well as phone book entries.
* Open-source information - This refers to information about you that may be found in periodicals and on Web sites.
While some information about your life is pretty well protected, such as medical, financial and academic records, your other identifying information (social security number, home address, etc) is not so protected.
One way that wrongdoers improperly obtain personal information of bank customers so as to be able to commit identity theft is by contacting a bank, posing as a customer or someone authorized to have the customer's information, and through the use of trickery and deceit, convincing an employee of the bank to release customer identifying information. This practice is referred to as "pretext calling." http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/SRLetters/2001/sr0111.htm
# DON'T mail bills or documents that contain personal data (like tax forms or checks) from your personal mail box. Take them directly to the post office or an official postal service mailbox. Where thousands of postal workers have the opportunity to steal. It's too easy for someone to take mail out of your mailbox on the street. From there, they can dip your checks in special chemicals to remove the ink and then rewrite them to themselves!
As you can see, reviewing your credit report is a good idea. A copy of your report costs $9 plus any taxes, shipping and/or handling charges. Or, you are entitled to a free copy of your credit report once every 12 months if:
* You are a victim of fraud
* You've been denied credit for some reason
* You are unemployed and plan to seek employment within 60 days
* You are on welfare
The cost of the report is regulated by the Federal Trade Commission as part of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The FTC usually reviews the cost annually and may increase it to stay in line with inflation. That price limit was increased to $9 in 2002.
Dispute inaccuracies - If you find that your report has inaccurate information, then you can dispute the information and the CRA has to reinvestigate it within 30 days. Until it is proven accurate, they cannot put the disputed information on the report unless they include your written statement of dispute along with it. If you prove that the information is inaccurate, then it has to be removed from the report permanently within 30 days. It is then the responsibility of the national CRA you are dealing with to inform the other national credit reporting agencies of the error.
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Information in Your Credit Report
Information that makes up your credit report includes:
* Personal identifying information - This includes your name, address (current and previous), social security number, telephone number, birth date, your current and previous employers, and (on the version you get) your spouse's name may be included as well.
* Credit history - This section includes your bill-paying history with banks, retail stores, finance companies, mortgage companies, and others who have granted you credit. It includes information about each account your have, such as when it was opened, what type of account it is, how much credit it includes (or the amount of the loan), what your monthly payment is, etc. If you've closed the account or the loan has been paid off, then that information shows up as well. If there were missed or late payments, this is where that appears.
* Public records - Information that might indicate your credit worthiness, such as tax liens, court judgements and bankruptcies. This information is readily available from public records.
* Report inquiries - This section includes all credit granters who have received a copy of your credit report. It also includes any others who were authorized to view it. In addition, lists of companies that have received your name and address in order to offer you credit are included. These companies don't actually see your report, but get your name if you meet their criteria for an offer of credit, insurance or other product. This is where all of those "pre-approved" credit card offers come from.
* Dispute statements - The report may also include any statements you've made disputing information on the report. Most credit bureaus allow both the consumer and the creditor to make statements to report what happened if there is a dispute about something on the report.
Things that don't appear on most credit reports include:
* Bank account balances
* Race
* Religion
* Health (although medical bills may show up as debts)
* Criminal records
* Income
* Driving records
There are different versions of credit reports available depending upon whom is requesting it. The consumer version includes all of the above information, as well as a listing of all inquiries for the report. The business version includes all of the above information, but only the inquiries made by companies with a "permissible purpose" -- this usually means someone you have initiated business with. http://www.howstuffworks.com/credit-report2.htm
Credit Bureaus..............
Equifax – www.equifax.com
To order your report, call: 800-685-1111 or write:
P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
To report fraud, call: 800-525-6285/ TDD: 800-255-0056 and write:
P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
Experian – www.experian.com
To order your report, call: 888-EXPERIAN (397-3742) or write:
P.O. Box 2104, Allen, TX 75013
To report fraud, call: 888-EXPERIAN (397-3742)/ TDD:
800-972-0322 and write: P.O. Box 9532, Allen, TX 75013
TransUnion – www.transunion.com
To order your report, call: 800-916-8800 or write:
P.O. Box 1000, Chester, PA 19022
To report fraud, call: 800-680-7289/ TDD:
877-553-7803 and write: Fraud Victim Assistance Division,
P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92634-6790