Protect Your Team; Protect Yourself

Protect Your Team; Protect Yourself From
The 5 Faces of Identity Theft
Glenn W. Wooten, Sr.

I am a certified identity theft risk management specialist, or CITRMS. In other words,
I’ve been trained to inform you about the dangers and methods in which identity theft
occurs. Despite what you think you know about the No. 1 crime in the world, there’s
much more to it. The majority of media reports concentrate on financial or credit identity
theft, but would you believe that credit identity theft comprises only 28 percent of all
identity theft? The other 72 percent of cases are non-credit related. Why, then, is the
focus on the financial realm? Most likely because money touches every facet of our lives.
First, let’s take a closer look at the five areas in which information is stolen in identity
theft:

1. Character or criminal data
2. Credit/financial data
3. Department of Motor Vehicles data
4. Medical data
5. Social Security number

It can be devastating to have information stolen from any of these areas, and as it is the
nation’s No. 1 crime, it’s not a matter of if it will happen, it’s a matter of when. The
numbers are staggering in America alone, showing more than 16,000 victims per day and
growing. Would you believe that only one in 750 thieves are caught and prosecuted? So,
whether you are a victim now or will be at some time in the future, you are going to need
three things:

1. Access to qualified legal counsel in identity theft
2. Ongoing monitoring in all five areas
3. Professional identity restoration

As you can see, it will take an integrated team approach to address the legal, monitored
and restorative aspects of the problem. Having one part of the team without the others
renders any attempt of total restoration incomplete and ineffective.

Many people think that correcting an identity theft problem is simple—not a big deal—
until it happens to them. Just ask someone who has been arrested for mistaken identity or
has written a check only to discover their account has been cleaned out by a thief. The
statistics are alarming: A Gallup poll released in August 2005 found that roughly two-
thirds of these people who had never been a victim of identity theft said they thought it
was unlikely to happen to them. It’s no wonder thieves find it so easy to turn people’s
lives upside down—too many people have the “it won’t happen to me” mentality. Most
people have become complacent since identity theft doesn’t require that the thief break
into a home. All thieves have to do is wait until someone puts the trash out or places mail
in their mailbox. Thanks to our high-tech society with private information floating around
in cyberspace, thieves have access, not only to you, but to everyone in your household,
on your block and in your city with just one keystroke.

The average out-of-pocket expense incurred by identity theft victims was $500. For those
who suffered from “New Accounts and Other Frauds” identity theft, the average
monetary loss was $1200.

The amount of time needed to correct identity theft issues depends largely upon how soon
the theft is discovered. It’s like a cancer: the sooner it’s found, the easier it can beremoved. The amount of time taken to correct identity theft ranges from one hour to
over 600 hours.

How would you like to spend your time and money taking care of a stolen identity? I can
assure you it won’t be easy or fun. How do you think your employer will respond when
he or she discovers that you are spending all of your time at work trying to restore your
identity? That’s another problem. The majority of agencies that you will have to report
your identity theft to are open only during normal working hours. Isn’t that when you
work, too? How will you get it done? Well, you can use only so many vacation days, sick
days, lunch hours, etc. Do you get the picture? This is not the problem you want to take
on by yourself.

Let’s look at some common ways identity thieves might attack you. A low-tech method
thieves used to steal identities is by stealing mail from your mailbox to look for account
numbers, checks, personal information or even cash. Experts say consumers make it easy
for thieves to steal mail by lifting the small red flag on their mailbox to alert the mail
carrier that they have mail to be picked up also. This red flag alerts thieves as well.

Another way to lose information is to key your credit card number or password into a
keypad or by giving it out over the telephone. The thief may be watching or listening
over your shoulder, using a method called “shoulder surfing.”

“Phishing” and “pharming” are two Web-based methods thieves use to steal information.
Phishing is a scam that tricks people into giving out account numbers, their Social
Security number, PIN numbers, passwords and other personal information via fake e-
mails or fake Web site fill-in forms. These e-mails look as if they were sent from a
company with whom the consumer has previously done business such as eBay, PayPal or
banks and credit card companies.

**Warning**Always look for these red flags to an identity phishing scam:

. Be cautious if a verification or a cancellation notice is sent via e-mail.
. Do not open the e-mail or fill in any information.
. Forward the questionable e-mail to spam@uce.gov .
. Call the company using the phone number from the company’s official Web site,
not the impostor site or e-mail.
. Look closely at the URL in the address bar at the top of your browser. Usually it
will have a different domain name than the company it is pretending to be.

. Do not give any personal information to anyone who asks for it via the Internet orover the telephone.

“Pharming” is an electronic scam that targets personal information from many people at
the same time via “domain spoofing.” This consists of redirecting people to a fake Web
site where hackers gather illegal information. The site will look very much like the real
thing. The copycat pharming site mimics official bank Web sites and credit card Web
sites so well that if you aren’t paying attention, you will enter your personal information
and soon discover that your account has been cleaned out.

“Skimming” is a very high-tech method in which thieves quickly steal credit card
numbers and run them through an electronic reader that has been programmed to retrieve
personal information. Your card only has to be out of your sight for mere minutes, such
as when you give your card to a server at a restaurant. The thieves then harvest the card
information later, either to make new clone cards or to simply use the information. Days
later, thousands of dollars are charged and then the cloned cards are abandoned when the
thieves move on to new victims.

Identity theft is real and very dangerous to your financial health. It is very important touse a team approach in protecting yourself and your identity.

Remember TEAM:
Together
Everyone
Achieves
More

Want more information? ==>> Go now to http://www.glennwooten.com