Protect Your Identity - It Has Real Value!

You may think that your identity isn't worth very much, but, no matter what your financial condition is your identity can be worth a lot. Thieves may sell your information on the black market or use it to obtain money, credit or even expensive medical procedures. Unless you're vigilant in protecting your records, you'll have to work even harder to repair the damage to your credit. It can take months to rectify the problem. The average identity theft victims spend 30 to 40 hours just writing letters and making telephone calls to try and explain what has happened to them.

Some of the e-threats to your identity are:

Phishing: You get an e-mail that appears to be from your bank or an online service, most often PayPal or eBay, instructing you to click on a link and provide information to verify your account. These emails really come from a thief trying to steal your personal information.
Pharming: or spoofing. Hackers redirect a legitimate Web site's traffic to an impostor site, where you'll be asked to provide confidential information.

Mishing: This is phishing done with text messaging on your smart phone. It instructs you to visit a bogus Web site.

Spyware: You've unknowingly downloaded illicit software when you've opened an attachment, clicked on a pop-up or downloaded a song or a game. Criminals can use spyware to record your keystrokes and obtain credit card numbers, bank-account information and passwords when you make purchases or conduct other business online. They also can access confidential information on your hard drive

Unfortunately, you don't even need to have a computer to become a victim:

Vishing (voice phishing): You get an automated phone message asking you to call your bank or credit card company. Even your caller ID is fooled. You call the number and are asked to punch in your account number, PIN or other personal information.

Bank-card "skimming.": Crooks use a combination of a fake ATM slot and cameras to record your account information and PIN when you use a cash machine. Your credit or debit card also can be skimmed by a dishonest store or restaurant worker armed with a portable card reader. Crooks will steal your wallet or go through your mail or trash.

More than half of identity theft cases involve credit card fraud. Checking accounts are the second most popular target. But some crooks have other plans: At least 250,000 people have been the victim of medical identity theft in the last several years. Crooks use fraudulently obtained personal information to get expensive medical procedures or dupe insurance companies into paying for procedures that were not done. The victims of about 5% of reported identity theft cases are children. The fraud often goes undetected for years -- until the young adult applies for credit.

If you suspect that your identity may have been stolen you must act quickly in order to minimize the damage. This is a problem that will not go away and will certainly get worse as time passes. You may think your identity is not worth anything because you are deeply in debt but you are wrong.

If your your identity has been compromised, place a fraud alert with the three credit bureaus. When you place an alert, you are entitled to a free copy of your credit report. After that, take advantage of the free annual reports the bureaus are required to give all consumers. Stagger your requests so that you get a report approximately every four months.

If you've been phished, contact the bank or company named in the fraudulent e-mail. You also may want to notify the Internet Crime Complaint Center and forward the e-mail to spam@uce.gov.

If you are the victim of identity theft, take the following steps:

1. Make an identity-theft report to the police and get a copy. File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. Also, contact the office of your state's attorney general; you may be able to file a report there.
2. Close accounts that have been tampered with. Contact each company by phone and again by certified letter. Make sure the company notifies you in writing that the disputed charges have been erased. Document each conversation and keep all records.
3. Place a seven-year fraud alert or a "freeze" on your credit reports.
4. Begin the process of having the fraudulent information removed from your credit reports.
5. Consider purchasing identity theft insurance. It cannot protect you from becoming a victim of identity theft, but it can help you pay the cost of reclaiming your personal and financial identity.

We are here to help! Click Here To Email DNS and ask for a copy of our client support publication entitled "How to Dispute Credit Report Errors"

Richard Savrann, Legal Counsel
Debt Negotiation Services