Identity Theft - You've Been Sold

On September 15, 2004 Investors Business Daily reported a help desk worker at a company that provides credit reports pled guilty to stealing information from over 30,000 people, netting thieves up to 100 million dollars. On the next day, the Wall Street Journal said that if you use a “computer to access the Internet, your privacy and your security are all in jeopardy. An international criminal class of virus writers, hackers, digital vandals and sleazy business people wakes up every day planning to attack your computer.”

Records at your local Court House are public unless sealed by Court Order. These include what you own, what you owe, your social security number, your birth date, your drivers license number and sometimes very private divorce files. Some of this information is included on UCC forms filed when you borrow money on a car for instance, in deeds and mortgages, on some leases that are filed, etc., etc. Almost all public records are being computerized and are available on line to anyone.

Any school you have ever applied to has your social security number and birth date, as does any company you have ever applied to work for. Every insurance agent and company you have ever applied to has this information as do the agents and companies of any company you have ever worked for. Any company you have ever borrowed money from and your banking institutions all have this information, not to mention the utility companies. There are companies that aggregate information from all these sources and many more and the information is for sale.

The question is, how can all your most private information be for sale. The reason is you have given each company, institution and office permission to sell everything about you. Each of us receives “Privacy Notices” that tell us they are going to sell and share everything about us to whomever they want, whenever they want. You must call and or write and request your info not be sold to “Opt Out”. The vast majority of us simply filed them thinking our privacy was being protected. The notices sometimes say they will not sell “except as provided by law” or except to their “subsidiaries”. My advice, read the notices from now on – there is an “Opt Out” procedure for a reason.

What kind of information is sold other than that above mentioned? Virtually everything about you; what you watched on TV last night, every page of every website you visit each night, the drugs you take, what and when and where you buy your clothes, your food, your preferences, your habits. All collected and sold with your permission because you have not responded to privacy notices for years.

The average American is in 50 separate databases, which have collected information about you. In the space we have here we cannot possibly cover the challenges we all face as a result of the average American being profiled down to their “strange and unusual habits.” The beginning of the solution is in the recognition of the problem.

Lost Wallet = Identity Theft and Jail Time

Folks, the stories are starting to come in and the misconceptions are being debunked. A man in in St. Petersburg lost his wallet and it landed him in jail after someone tried to cash a check in his name. A big thank you to Thomas Lake, a reporter for The St. Petersburg Times, who did a tremendous amount of research and wrote a fantastic piece. Although I have never met Thomas, it is journalist like him who will help lift the veil and show the reality of this insidious crime.


"Costly Mistakes"

"A forgotten wallet leads to an error-riddled check fraud investigation. The cost to a man, his family and their community could be immeasurable."

By THOMAS LAKE
Published June 3, 2007

TAMPA -- "When it was over he stood in the laundromat, by the clothing revolving in fresh-scented soap, and he sighed as he thought of the dream that washed away."

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Synthetic Identity Theft

Thank you to Bill Garner for this recent story ...

We first heard of this type of Identity Theft in 2005 when idAnalytics, an identity management company, released their research on the topic. A recent report put out by an NBC affiliate in Milwaukee prompted this posting.

Synthetic ID Theft
John Mercure - Today's TMJ 4 Milwaukee

"There's a rapidly growing form of identity theft that's being called the most sinister yet. You may be a victim right now, and not even know it for years. It's called Synthetic ID Fraud, and there are red flags to watch for...so you can minimize the damage."


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Identity Theft - The Third Misconception

Through various conversations and research, it has become apparent to me that there are three major misconceptions about Identity Theft.

1. That it is just about your credit cards or your finances
2. That you can't be held liable for the debt racked up in your name by thieves
3. That you can take steps to 100% prevent the crime
Nothing could be further from the truth.

Identity Theft - The Third Misconception

"That you can take steps to 100% prevent the crime"

It truly amazes me that there are companies and so-called "experts" out there that tell you, and the rest of the marketplace for that matter, that there are steps you can take to completely prevent identity theft. Have you heard of the product that can lock your life down "Guaranteed"? The company CEO is so audacious in his claims that he actually posts his SSN on the entry page of the website. Well a good friend and mentor of mine says "Time will either promote you or expose you" and I have been saying since day one that this particular company is a ticking time-bomb. Curios to know what I am talking about, check this out. I wish the CEO no ill-will, but I love that he is a victim of a crime that he says his product guarantees he can't be a victim of.

I only wish I would have written my post about the Five Common Types of Identity Theft earlier. Maybe they would have known that locking down you credit, which is something you can do on your own by that way, can't help in every area of Identity theft. Oh well ...

Wow, I guess you can even get tangential in a blog ... okay, back to the matter at hand. Why do I know that you can't 100% prevent the crime? Simple, it is not about what you do with your information, but what others do. See all the shredding in the world cannot stop a company who has your personal information from losing it or having it stolen. It is a concept I call, The DataBased You TM.

The DataBased You is the sum total of all of the information about you in the marketplace, whether on paper of electronic, that can build a better biography of you than you could of yourself. Think about this ...

Your name is literally in thousands of databases. Your address is as well. Your social security number is with The Social Security Administration and everyone you have ever given it to. You criminal record and legal history is out there. You real estate is a matter of public record (check out Zillow and put in your address). Your military history. Your employment history. Your insurance claims. Your driving record and car registration. Your phone number. The tracking information your GPS chip in your cell phone tells your provider where you are 24/7 ... and so on.

The point is, there are thousands of records, that are out your control, that have your private information in them. Between February 15th, 2005 and June 14th, 2007, whether it was hacking, lost computers, or lost data tapes, there were 155,166,602 records containing sensitive personal information lost! The question is, did one or more of them contain YOUR information?

No matter what you shred or what you buy, there is nothing you can do to 100% prevent Identity Theft from happening to you.

Identity Theft - The Second Misconception

Through various conversations and research, it has become apparent to me that there are three major misconceptions about Identity Theft.

1. That it is just about your credit cards or your finances
2. That you can't be held liable for the debt racked up in your name by thieves
3. That you can take steps to 100% prevent the crime

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Identity Theft - The Second Misconception

"That you can't be held liable for the debt racked up in your name by thieves"

Forget about those "comfy" old rules you think you know about fraud being committed in your name. Those commercials where someone is in trouble or under duress and their confidant says "just imagine someone stole your (fill in the blank) check card" and all of sudden, things are peachy, are a not only a joke, they are dangerously misleading.

I encourage you to download the Federal Trade Commission's Free Report "Take Charge: Fighting Back Against Identity Theft". On page 19 of this publication, you will read firsthand why the second misconception is just that, a misconception. It reads:

"send your letter so that it reaches the creditor within 60 days. If an identity thief changes the address on your account and you didn’t receive the bill, your dispute letter still must reach the creditor within 60 days of when the creditor would have mailed the bill"

What this means is, you could wake up tomorrow owing $75,000 on a debt that you can prove is not yours but because you did not dispute within the required time frame, you 100% owe the money. The notion of zero liability is a joke.

Here are two great stories that will hopefully help you kill the second misconception:

1) "Getting there money back isn't always easy"

2) "Forget about those comfy old rules about fraud"

Our next post will cover the third misconception, "That you can take steps to 100% prevent the crime".

Identity Theft - Beware of Peer-To-Peer Networks!

A big thanks to Aaron Hillyer, a good friend of The Identity Theft Times, for this story.

"Beware P2P Networks With a Tunnel to Confidential Data, Study Warns"
InformationWeek (05/15/07) ; Greenemeier, Larry

Peer-to-peer networks are being used by cyberthieves to tunnel into networks and access confidential information, according to a new study of corporate data leaks released by researchers at Dartmouth business school. Eric Johnson, a professor of operations management at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business and a co-author of the study, noted that most users were not sufficiently protecting their files and data from peer-to-peer networks. He added that the majority of peer-to-peer software applications have interface designs that are confusing and even deceptive in a way that gets users to unwittingly share the contents of their entire hard drive. This can open up consumers to identity theft, and can also give criminals access to confidential information stored on corporate networks, such as job performance reviews and the results of security audits. There are a number of ways that companies can see whether their data has been leaked onto peer-to-peer networks. For instance, security professionals can set up their own accounts on the most popular peer-to-peer networks and search to see if any information being offered is similar to their proprietary data or intellectual property. Security professionals can also keep track of all searchable keywords that would lead a Web surfer to their company, including firm names, abbreviations, and ticker symbols, and use those keywords to search peer-to-peer networks.

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Identity Theft - The First Misconception

Through various conversations and research, it has become apparent to me that there are three major misconceptions about Identity Theft.

1. That it is just about your credit cards or your finances
2. That you can't be held liable for the debt racked up in your name by thieves
3. That you can take steps to 100% prevent the crime

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Identity Theft - The First Misconception

"That it is just about your credit cards or your finances"

Identity theft is so much more than just your credit cards or your finances. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission reports that only 28% of identity theft has to do with your credit cards and less than half of all reported instances are financial in nature. Please refer to the May 14th post to review the five common types of identity theft to gain an understanding on what Identity Theft really is.

My definition of Identity Theft is: "When someone gets some piece of information about you, personally, professionally, or financially, and uses it to their benefit and your detriment". The mainstream media is missing the boat because the majority the of reporting done focuses on the financial side of the equation. They are completely missing 4/5's of the problem.

Here are three great stories that hopefully will help you kill The First Misconception

MEDICAL IDENTITY THEFT: The Information Crime that Can Kill You

Identity Theft Woes

Illegal Immigrants and Identity Theft

Our next post will cover The Second Misconception: "That you can't be held liable for the debt racked up in your name by thieves"