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Identity Theft Shield
Aug 22, 2005
Author: IdentityTheftSurvival.com
Identity theft is a crime that occurs when someone uses your name, social security number, credit card number or other personal information without your permission. Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America; according to a recently released Federal Trade Commission survey, 27 million Americans have been victimized within the past five years.
Victim Matt McGrigg knows first-hand how difficult and time-consuming recovering from identity theft can be. When his wallet was stolen, the thieves accessed every penny of his checking account, leaving no money to pay bills. “The days and weeks that followed were completely consumed with my attempts to minimize the damage,” McGrigg said.
The good news is that there are ways to help keep your information secure including: ....
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Identity Theft Prevention
Aug 22, 2005
Author: Liz Pulliam Weston
Now that intruders have raided a second big consumer database, we're bound to hear lots more calls for increased federal oversight of the companies that buy and sell our personal information.
What will get far less attention, unfortunately, is the fact that these incursions wouldn't be so incredibly damaging to consumers' finances if lenders didn't make that information worth stealing in the first place.
Think about it: The only reason an identity thief cares about knowing your Social Security Number or other private data is that it can be used to open accounts in your name and commit fraud. Lax verification procedures at credit card companies and other financial institutions make that possible -- even easy.
“Companies are so eager to grant credit,” said Linda Foley, executive director of the Identity Theft Resource Center, “that they will grant it to almost anyone for any reason.”Find a loan that's right for you at the Loan Center.
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Stop Identity Theft
Aug 22, 2005
Author: Jeff Wuorio
Americans are facing an attack on their personal and financial privacy unlike that seen by any prior generation.
Shielding your private financial information with no risk of a breakdown may be impossible these days. But it’s critical to understand how your privacy can be compromised and the consequences of such a breach -- and take a few simple steps to, if nothing else, better the odds in your favor.
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Identity Theft Survival
Aug 22, 2005
Author: Lyle Evans
Identity theft is on the rise in America. Con artists want something for nothing. Unfortunately many innocent people get hurt because of the fraudulent activities of others. Restoring your good name and credit can take much longer to repair than it took to be destroy. The worst part about the whole thing is that you are the one responsible for restoring your identity even though you are not the one who used your name fraudulently. We will discuss some of the simple things you can do to get your identity on the road to recovery and simple things you can do to keep it there.
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Identity Theft Protection
Aug 12, 2005
Author: Chemain Evans
Identity Theft: How to Protect Yourself
by Chemain Evans
Identity theft encompasses a wide range of deception, from a stolen credit card used to charge purchases to an existing account, to stolen information used to impersonate the victim, open new accounts (even ones for utilities), and rack up thousands of dollars in debt.
With over 500,000 new cases each year (and some say upwards of 900,000), identity theft is one of the fasting growing crimes in America. In many states it isn't even illegal, or hardly punishable if it is. Often the perpetrator goes uncaught and unpunished. Worse still is that it takes on average 12 months for the victim to realize he is a victim and by then it may nearly impossible to climb back out of the black hole of damaged credit, costing hundreds of hours and hundreds of dollars to try to fix it.
Sadly, since much of this goes unpunished, companies often write off the bad debt and then charge you and me higher interest rates and fees to cover their losses. So we all are indirect victims of identity theft. The more vigilant we become, the better off we will all be.