Scams and Identity Thieves
I recently reconnected with an old friend from high school on Facebook a few days ago. Last night he sent me an invitation on Messenger. Or at least I thought it was him. In reality, it was a scammer from overseas that saw he was recently added to my profile and copied his photo into a fake profile and pretended to be my friend. I knew there was something odd when he only wanted to talk about a grant program that gave him $150,000 cash. He showed me a picture of a pile of cash and a FedEx driver who delivered the box of cash. "All you you have to do is call a number and pay a small application fee," he said. "Trust me, it's not a scam." Turns out this is a big scam and I ended up blocking this person. They just take your application fee and maybe any personal data you provide and you get nothing. This got me to thinking about data breaches and identify theft, which have been big news this year.
Data theft is a big business. According to Javelin Strategy, the number of identity theft victims in the US rose to 16.7 million in 2017. The cost of all of that lost data amounts to over nearly $17 billion. 2017 was not the worst year for identity theft losses so far, however. It seems every day we are hearing about larger and larger security breaches. Here are just a few of the biggest data breaches so far in 2018:
Facebook - 87 million records
MyHeritage - 92 million records
Under Armour - 150 million records
Exactis - 340 million records
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 new 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 in your name
Commit a crime using your identity
A bad credit history can 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 card companies, 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. 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.
There are several identity theft prevention companies out there that provide monitoring / protection services including credit report activity, bank and credit card accounts, internet "dark web" 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. At a minimum you should put a fraud alert on your credit, so it will make it more difficult for new accounts to be setup without first verifying some personal information with you directly. It's pretty easy to do this by filling out an online form at one of the credit bureaus and they will share with the other bureaus.
Identity Theft For Dummies is a good book to read for more background on the issue. It's also worth it to sign up for a monitoring company like LifeLock or TrustedID so you can regularly monitor changes to your credit and also safeguard your bank accounts, credit cards, etc. A few dollars per month and a few minutes of your time to setup the monitoring is well worth the effort.
The time frame for recovering from identity theft and getting back on track depends on several factors, including: Your willingness to put in the time: According to SANS Institute, identity theft recovery takes an average of 6 months and 100 to 200 hours-worth of work.
Disclaimer: I use affiliate links where I get paid a small amount if you buy the service or product. This helps support my blog.