What Can You Do to Protect Yourself?

Explains the steps you can take to protect yourself from identity theft.

Identity theft is a serious crime. It occurs when your personal information is stolen and used without your knowledge to commit fraud or other crimes. Identity theft can cost you time and money. It can destroy your credit and
ruin your good name.
Deter identity thieves by safeguarding your information.
■ Shred financial documents and paperwork with personal information before you discard them.
■ Protect your Social Security number. Don’t carry your Social Security card in your wallet or write your Social Security number on a check. Give it out only if absolutely necessary or ask to use another identifier.
■ Don’t give out personal information on the phone, through the mail, or over the Internet unless you
know who you are dealing with.
■ Never click on links sent in unsolicited emails;
instead, type in a web address you know. Use firewalls,
anti-spyware, and anti-virus software to protect
your home computer; keep them up-to-date.
Visit OnGuardOnline.gov for more information.
■ Don’t use an obvious password like your birth date,
your mother’s maiden name, or the last four digits
of your Social Security number.
■ Keep your personal information in a secure place
at home, especially if you have roommates, employ outside help, or are having work done in your house.
Defend against ID theft as soon as you suspect it.
■ Place a “Fraud Alert” on your credit reports, and review the reports carefully. The alert tells creditors
to follow certain procedures before they open new accounts in your name or make changes to your existing accounts. The three nationwide consumer reporting companies have toll-free numbers for placing an initial 90-day fraud alert; a call to one company is sufficient:
Equifax: 1-800-525-6285
Experian: 1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742)
TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289

-FTC.gov

Duration : 0:8:40

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The secret service is working what could be one of the largest– if not the largest identity theft ring, in bernalillo county. Police say more than 20 people will be charged– in connection with stealing personal information, and identies of hundreds of people. Kayla anderson spent hours today combing through court documents. She’s live in downtown with more. Kayla? The district attorney’s office says there’s no way to tally up how much money was ripped off from albuquerque citizens and business– but we’re told it could be astronomical. Today the first group of suspects arrested in connection with the case was in court. The suspects are all facing a variety of charges– including fraud, forgery, identity theft and rackateering. The case first came on the radar of the secret service back in january– after security officers at various banks reported small financial losses. We’re told as the case unraveled— police learned that the suspects were allegedly manufacturing dozens of checks and credit cards– then going to local retail stores. The d-a says the suspects used every method they could to obtain personal information. “they used every single basic tactic that there is, stealing identities from businesses, from dumpsters, from mailboxes, from any place that they could. They can buy it on the street- there’s market value for identies.” The d-a’s office says the suspects could face more than 100 years in jail if convicted. We’re told more arrests are in the works. Law enforcement will be contacting victims. But the da’s office recommends people run a credit report if you’re worried.

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are there any hacking software that i can download, so i can save my mom from identity theft. yesterday someone broke in her car and took her purse, the thief who stole the purse is caught. but the purse was left in a public street. she told me its okay, the cops would find it, but i don’t trust cops, i can understand they are doing a good job, but it takes a long time to get it back and someone could use my moms SSN to register for credit cards and stuff. and company’s send her name to collection, when she owes $50,000. She canceled her Credit cards. but i still wanna look for more thieves. Please help. i wanna also stop sex pre4dators, they have become smarter. hackers get paid $4000 for every crook they caught

I was visiting my brother a couple of days ago. I turned on my laptop and instantly found 3 networks to which I could connect. On 2 of them, I could get into the router since they did not change the default password. A smart predator will use an unsecured connection such as the ones I found. With a laptop, a PCMCIA network card and an Anonym OS CD, they could boot up the laptop and use one of these open connections and be virtually untracable. The only way you are going to catch a sexual predator is to actually get him/her to agree to meet you after pretending you are a minor. You’d have to completely document your activity and the evidence would have to hold up in court. If I were you, I’d leave this type of activity to law enforcement and the predator groups that they work with.

I do part time marketing for businesses. I have a client who wants me to market his free seminar on identity theft. Brunch is included on a Sunday. I advertise on about 10 free sites in the Cleveland Ohio area, but I do not think that will bring 50 people. He mailed out 16,000 flyers in the past and only had a few people. Any ideas how to advertise this event?

Advertise the seminar on free classifieds, relevant forums and social networking websites. Monitor the response you get periodically to find out what works best. From http://ad5.info

Age: 17.5. Crime: Credit Card Fraud (Found on Ground, used) Total Spent= 850-900 Dollars. First Criminal Offense of Any kind. Will I be looking at jail time or just fines and community service? Or all three…? How will this affect going to college or succeeding in the working world?
State is Illinois.

coooool story, brao.

My husband’s profile (very basic info, no pictures, etc) showed up on 2 "free" dating sites, but he can’t figure out how they got there. Can someone obtain your ip address and sign you up based on general info you might have on another website?

Lots of people end up on "dating" sites to make them look active. It’s usually women though. You should probably ignore it.

This brief 10 minute video is a good introduction to protecting oneself against identity theft, but is especially applicable to raising the awareness of young people, many of whom are completely unaware of the dangers of exposing personal identifying information freely.

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The credit bureaus are keeping quiet about the best identity theft prevention option, the Credit Freeze.

They apparently dont want you to know about the credit freeze (a.k.a. Security Freeze) because once your credit is frozen they can not sell your personal credit information to numerous marketers.

We want you to know about this little known secret and ask that you share it with your friends and family; the most effective personal option for identity theft prevention is the credit freeze, period.

A credit freeze is a more effective method of identity theft prevention than a fraud alert (what Lifelock and others sell) because with a fraud alert, creditors still have access to your credit file and often ignore the alert and grant credit anyway!

So both methods are aimed at stopping identity thieves from obtaining new credit lines in your name but the credit freeze is a much more potent protection for consumers concerned with identity theft prevention.

Because the credit freeze is only obtainable directly from the credit bureaus (and they dont want you to know about it) there is very low public awareness about this identity theft prevention option.

It is easy to learn how you can freeze and unfreeze your credit at the three major credit bureaus through the use of a credit freeze. We show you how, step by step in this video.

Please visit http://www.IdentityTheft.info, for more information about a security credit freeze and identity theft prevention.

Identity theft affects fifteen million victims a year resulting in fifty billion dollars in fraud. As these numbers show the impact of identity theft is staggering.
What can you do to protect yourself? Hi, Im Bob Sullivan from MSNBC. The safest and frankly the only effective way to stop many types of identity theft is to place a security freeze on all three of your credit files.

A freeze prevents anyone from accessing your credit report. Without that credit history a company wont approve a loan or issue a credit card. So identity thieves can not get credit in your name.

Let me take you inside id theft for the info you need to get a security freeze.

Credit freezes arent free. Prices vary from state to state. If youre a victim of identity theft credit bureaus may waive the fee. You will have to contact all three credit bureaus; Experian, Equifax and TransUnion and provide them with your personal information. The process will be slightly different at each bureau.

At Experian you will first get this warning that a security freeze may make your life very difficult, but dont worry because it is not permanent. You can lift the credit freeze if in when you want to apply for credit. Now, pick your state. Then you will be asked for your name, social security number, date of birth, current and past addresses dating back two years, a copy of your drivers license and one utility bill. Notice you will pick a pin unlock code, write that down and put it in a safe spot. You will need it later to have the credit freeze lifted. Send the paper work by certified or overnight mail to Experian PO Box 9544 Allen, TX 75013 and in a few weeks you will get a notice from Experian that your credit file is frozen.

You will need to contact the other two credit bureaus too to be sure your credit is safe.
Again, it is important to note that to obtain the highest identity theft prevention level you must put a security freeze in place at all three credit bureaus.

To get a credit freeze from Equifax, send a certified letter with the requested information, a utility bill for proof of address, a police report if you are a identity theft victim and payment. Fees are different depending on where you live so you should check for your state online.

TransUnion wants similar information; a copy of your drivers license and payment. Send your credit freeze request to TransUnion Fraud Victim Assistance Department PO Box 6790 Fullerton, CA 92834. In a few states residents can apply by phone.

Security freezes offer real piece of mind to people who are worried about identity theft prevention. Remember a credit freeze may delay any new loans, credit applications or other purchases you legitimately want to make so you will have to plan ahead for thawing that credit freeze.

There is no full proof method of identity theft prevention but a credit freeze is currently the best option available.

Duration : 0:3:15

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VISIT http://www.polijam.com/ FOR ALL THE TOP NEWS!!!

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Here are some important tips to help protect yourself from being a victim of identity theft or credit card fraud.

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