There is a false belief circulating that children of a certain age are not targets for or are somehow immune to identity theft. This could not be any farther from the truth. Children are just as at risk for theft of their identity as any adult. When the crime actually happens to children, it cannot even become apparent that anything took place until years later.

Horror stories of newborns and middle-schoolers becoming victims of identity theft have become more and more frequent. Many of these stories turn out to be truthful. The sobering fact is this: your kids are at risk of identity theft.

Stopping Child Identity Theft

Depending on their age, the first step needs to be sitting down with your kids and explaining how important their information is. Children are using the web with increasing familiarity and much younger ages. Every time they log on they will be bombarded by offers requiring their name, address, etc. Scammers send out emails that say they are from the bank, or are oversea and need help, all of which ask for a slew of personal info. Cell phones, text messages and especially the risks with Facebook should be addressed too. The more educated your children are on the existence of the threat, the less possible a vulnerability will exist. Stress the importance of their SSN, PIN numbers, & bank info early on (early teens).

The rest is up to you.

If your kid has gotten pre-approved offers in the mail, red flags should go up. Find out why. Just like you, your children get a credit report every year too. Don’t carry their SSN cards or birth certificate with you unless it’s an isolated and necessary incent. If someone requests a copy of either, you need to be cautious. Ask why. School registration should really be the only case.

Hopefully this will ensure the safety of your kid’s identity.

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Many people in this country still have traditional mail boxes. Why not? They are, in many cases, beautiful accents to a yard and can add curb appeal. They days however, such aesthetic additions come with an inherent risk. These mailboxes do not have a lock on them. So anyone can come by and see who is delivering things to you. What’s worse, they can take what they want. In many cases they can do so without you ever noticing.

Even if you live in a neighborhood with a guarded front gate, the danger is still there. Do you know all the people who live there or how they financed their house? And then think about all the times you didn’t know the code to one of those communities and followed someone else in. What’s to say fraudsters couldn’t do the same?

According to Larry Logan, Senior Deputy of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department in Southern California, mail thieves often go “popcorning,” slang for cruising neighborhoods in search of outgoing mail left unattended, signaled by red flags in the upward position on mailboxes. “Everyday, somebody’s going up and down the street, looking in mailboxes.” When residents put mail in an unlocked curbside mailbox and put up the red flag to signal postal workers, it sends the same signal to burglars: Your mail is ready to be taken. He recommends taking your mail to a blue collection box. “Otherwise, you and your neighborhood will become a target.” ¹

You should realize that this is a false sense of security. Thieves searching for a new identity to steal do not bow to your security beliefs. It is not just an online crime.

The prevention of your identity is often as simple as making it harder for crooks to get to your mail. Remember, your new credit and debit cards as well as personal and financial documents all come through the mail. By forwarding your mail to a P.O. Box at the post office or a USP store by your local grocery store, you can assure that criminals won’t be taking your mail. I know it seems like a real inconvenience, but weight it against getting your life back and dealing with the government and you will see how small of a change in weekly routine it can be.

1)http://identitytheft911.org/articles/article.ext?sp=49

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The House has voted. It has approved a legislation that will let certain business be exempt from the Identity Theft Red Flags Rule. These certain businesses will also include physicians and many hospitals. This bill was approved by the Senate with unanimous consent. The final say on the bill now awaits President Obama’s signature.

The latest version of the bill was introduced by Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., and Mark Begich, D-Alaska. The new bill includes the measure S 3987. Unlike the one introduced back in May, the latest version approved by the House and Senate doesn’t quite spell everything out. Originally, it said that certain professionals with 20 or fewer employees are exempt. Now, it uses more general terms to more and narrowly defines the term “creditor”. This way far fewer organizations have to comply with the “Red Flags Rule”.

So who actually gets these exemptions? According to Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., the legislation covers “lawyers, doctors, dentists, orthodontists, pharmacists, veterinarians, accountants, nurse practitioners, social workers, other types of healthcare providers”. These businesses have to not receive payment in full from their clients when they provide their services, so long as they don’t maintain accounts that have a “reasonably foreseeable risk of identity theft.”

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The government is surprisingly not sitting idly by or spending countless hours in pr efforts on this one (I know I can’t believe it either).

“Federal agencies have worked to eliminate unnecessary uses of Social Security numbers (SSNs) in their programs,” the report says. “For example, the Social Security Administration has removed SSNs almost entirely from its internal human resources forms. The Department of Defense has issued a plan to reduce its internal use of SSNs, including their removal from military ID cards. The Internal Revenue Service has been redacting taxpayer SSNs to the last four digits on all federal tax lien documents filed in public records and issued to taxpayers and their representatives.”

*Quote found on www.hstoday.us

The Task Force on Identity Theft, circa 2006, has been keeping with the initiative since too.

This doesn’t mean you’re safe. In fact, just a few days ago a friend of mine had to spend five hours on the phone because someone hacked their network and went on a $5k shopping spree. Take the quiz at the Dept. of Justice and see if you are in good shape.

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There is a new product that has been launched out of Denver by the company ID Watchdog that may actually be able to tell you if you are a victim of identity theft in less than ten minutes. The product is a simple card, not unlike a gift card, that is called idCheck.

“Nine out of ten people who are victims don’t know it,” said ID Watchdog President Daniel Mohan. “(The card) designed to answer one simple question; are you a victim of identity theft right now, yes or no?”

The idea behind it is simple. For ten bucks you can find out if your SSN is out there being used by someone else. Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the modern world. After the card is activated for its one time use, the user continues to ID Watchdog’s website and enters in the corresponding information. After a quick analysis and search for patterns in data, the user gets a definitive answer to the simple question, ‘Am I a victim of identity theft?’

I am not sure the “pregnancy test” metaphor the company is using to describe the way the idCHECK card works is the best angle PR-wise, but the fact remains that this is a fist of its kind product. It definitely addresses a problem with a simple solution. There are, of course, more solutions out there. This little card is a good indicator, then if a problem is found the company assumes you will use their other solutions to fix it.

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“Identity theft services may be able to help resolve your identity theft problems, but no service can absolutely prevent your personal information from being stolen. It’s important for consumers to know what to steer clear of when purchasing identity theft services.”

-Susan Grant, Director of Consumer Protection at the Consumer Federation of America

This is the reality of the matter: Many companies out there make false promises, embellish their abilities, or make blatant misleading claims. So while you are trying to protect yourself from being the victim of identity theft, scams and fraud, you are in fact running the risk of experiencing them to some degree in the shopping for a protection service.

So here are a few tips to remember while you are looking of an identity theft protection service:

1. Do you actually know how much you are going to spend on the service you are looking at without having to give out your payment info? Chances are, if the company isn’t telling you until you get that far, they aren’t a reputable company.
2. Be thorough. If the company says they are going to monitor your personal data and let you know when someone else tries to access it, find out what exactly they are going to look at. Check their website or ask customer service. This should be disclosed. How often it is looked into should also be addressed.
3. Don’t go anywhere near companies that claim they can protect you 100%. Companies on the level won’t do this sort of thing.
4. You should find out if it is insurance or if it’s a guarantee.  Also, ask what it covers. If you incur expenses at the hand of someone else obtaining your info, do they reimburse you? Some services contact your creditors for you; others just give out information on where you go from here.
5. Read the privacy policy. Seriously. Make sure you know what information the company is going to collect from you and how or when it will be shared. What control do you have over its use?
6. No scare tactics. These are red flags. Legitimate companies won’t try to frighten you into thinking you could be the next victim.
7. How did you hear about them? Can you find a lot of information on them easily through a search engine. You should be able to find out where their headquarters is and all its contact information. Be sure to perform such a search especially if you got word of the service by email, social media message or a banner ad.
8. Find out how the company will actually help you. Just because it says protection doesn’t mean it will actually be comprehensive.

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In November of 2009 President Obama’s administration established a group responsible for holding accountable the individuals that aided in bringing about the financial crisis. This task force would attempt to prevent another such event from happening yet again. The Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force as it was called set out to improve the efforts of the government in the investigation and prosecution of significant financial crimes. The task force is the broadest coalition of law enforcement, regulatory, and investigatory agencies ever assembled to fight fraud. It consists of more than 20 federal agencies, 94 US Attorneys Offices and state and local partners.

The task force ensures just and effective punishment of those who perpetrate financial crimes. It recovers proceeds for victims and addresses the possibility of financial discrimination in the lending and financial markets. The coalition’s mission is very broad, as is the crimes they have been tasked with quelling, including the likes of:

• mortgage scams that target the elderly
• Ponzi schemes
• tax fraud that steals money from our nation’s coffers
• predatory lending that discriminates against vulnerable communities
• credit card fraud

Their site should be viewed by anyone wishing to learn and protect. Why? Because investment scams alone amount to losses of $1 million an hour.

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If you are worried about the possibility of becoming a victim or if you have already experienced the detrimental effects of having your identity stolen, the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) can help. They are a Better Business Bureau accredited organization that seeks to reduce the rate of this modern crime and raise awareness against it. What is it they do?

Provide best in class victim assistance at no charge to consumers throughout the United States.

Educate consumers, corporations, government agencies and other organizations on best practices for fraud and identity theft detection, reduction and mitigation.

Provide enterprise consulting and outsourced services related to information breach, fraud and identity theft.

This nonprofit is a nationally respected organization that is dedicated exclusively to the continued understanding of identity theft and its eventual prevention. The organization excels at providing victim and consumer with support that includes public education.

The ITRC also advises governmental agencies, legislators, law enforcement, and businesses about the evolving and growing problem of identity theft. This award winning organization has brought peace of mind to many individuals over the years.

Many individuals think they have done an amazing job taking care of their personal info. In many cases they probably have. Its the other guys, the people they trusted their info with, that turn out to be the weak links in some cases: Here are the High Profile Breeches of Security .

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No doubt there have been crazy cases that have come through the courthouses of this nation. We can be sure that many of these cases have been relating to identity theft. In fact, a few months back I referenced one relating to medical identity theft. I recently came across a pretty good one on The Consumerist and I felt the need to share.

The story begins with a jury of our peers congregating together to hear the criminal charges brought against someone. The irony begins with the environment. Apparently, the only criminal was not sitting on the stand, but in the jury box as well. A 20-year-old Bronx woman has been accused of stealing the credit card of another juror and going on a shopping spree of clothes and shoes (Air Jordans) to the tune of $500. Irony number one.

The crime within a crime took place while the woman was serving as part of a jury in a March 2010 trial of Warren Stewart. It just so happened that the trial was on the charges of burglary. The particular type of burglary allegedly committed? Credit card theft. Three cheers for irony and the stellar United States Judicial System.

In case you were wondering the charges this “calling-the-kettle-black” juror is facing the run down looks like this:

Criminal possession of stolen property, 4^th degree

Two counts grand larceny, 4^th degree

One count identity theft, 2^nd degree

Two counts petit larceny

Jennifer Mercado has pled not guilty and could see 4 years in jail if convicted.

New York Daily News Article

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