Identity Theft
Credit card (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Identity theft is a large and growing problem today. By some estimates, one in five Americans has been a victim of identity theft and it is the fastest growing crime in the United Statesover the past four years - an identity is stolen every two seconds. All an identity thief needs is your name, date of birth, social security number, home address, a fake picture i.d. and they can do any of the following:
Open up credit accounts to steal goods/services, ruining your credit in the process
Steal money from your bank accounts
Steal your healthcare insurance coverage, potentially jeopardizing your future medical coverage and care
Steal your social security benefits
Apply for a job
Commit a crime
Thieves have gotten very sophisticated and no longer need to rely on stealing from you directly. It seems every day we are hearing about larger and larger security breaches at major retailers:
Home Depot has confirmed that its six-month long breach compromised approximately 56 million credit and debit cards, making it the largest retail card breach in history.
A bad credit historycan make it difficult to rent an apartment, get a job or purchase a home (or anything else on credit). In today's economy your personal information is out there at banks, credit cardcompanies, your employer, and is always at risk of being stolen as a result of a data breach. If you apply for mortgages, you have to provide tax returns and other personal information that can also include information about your children (social security numbers, home address).
Thieves can steal personal information out of your mailbox or the trash, which is why your mailbox should be locked and you should shred any junk mail. Unsolicited credit card offers received in the mail are a common source of identity fraud, which is why it is recommended that you "opt out" of credit card offers altogether.
There are several identity theft prevention companies out there that provide monitoring/protection services including credit report activity, bank and credit card accounts, internet "black market" sites where personal information is traded, support for "opting out" of credit card offers, public records, etc. You also have an option to pay a small fee to each of the big three credit reporting companies (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax) to completely "lock down" your credit, if you want to.
This website compares several of the top identity theft prevention companies. A few dollars per month and a few minutes of your time to setup the monitoring is well worth the effort.
The average person spends more than $3,000 and 500 hours to repair the damage caused by identity theft. If your child's identity is stolen, you may not know about it for years, until they open a credit card or other financial account.