Identity theft is the fastest growing financial crime in America - striking thousands of victims each year. In a matter of seconds, your personal information such as a social security number, a credit card number and/or an address can be stolen and used to obtain a new mortgage, a line of credit or additional credit cards.
You may not know that your identity has been stolen until unauthorized transactions appear on credit card statements, collection notices appear in the mail or loan applications are declined. In a short period of time, extensive damage can be done as a result of a stolen identity event.
Restoring your name and good credit is a time-consuming and expensive process. On average, it takes six months to detect identity theft and approximately 200 hours to recover from the crime. Victims must endure a number of costly steps to dispute fraudulent debts and accounts opened by an identity thief.
Although there are many different ways to rip off someone's identity, there are two basic types of actual identity theft. The first one is generally the easiest and most basic way for thieves to achieve their objective. "Account takeover" is when a thief gets hold of your actual physical credit card, or perhaps just the card number and expiration date, using it to purchase services or products. This works out extremely well for the thief, as the credit card owner doesn't usually notice the additional purchases until they either receive their monthly statement in the mail or have attempted to use the card and found that it has reached the maximum limit allowed.
The second type of identity theft is called Application Fraud, otherwise known as "true name fraud". In order for a thief to be successful at application fraud, they must have access to your personal information such as your Social Security Number (SSN), full name, address, driver's license number, date of birth etc. Of course not all of this information would be necessary for a thief to get away with application fraud. Once the thief has any part of the information, he or she can use it to take over the victim's accounts. He or she can apply for loans and even purchase items and services. The thief can also apply for medical benefits, education assistance and other personal finances.
Having identity theft protection and using it is very important to your well being, in many respects. Identity theft protection is mostly about being aware and taking the steps to protect yourself from this fast growing trend. It is also important to be able to spot when something is happening to you. You should have access to theft restoration, theft insurance and recovery. If you don't, you could find yourself having to unwrap quite a tangled mess later on. Being a smart consumer is necessary here.
Like many, you may assume that identity theft only happens to those people who might be a bit more careless when it comes to safeguarding personal information. Or perhaps you think that because you don't really have a lot of money in your personal account or don't have credit cards with large spending limits, that identity theft thieves wouldn't necessarily target someone like yourself. Well, make no mistake about it; identity theft can happen to anyone, including you! Basically, if you have an identity (and we hope that you do) then you are susceptible.
Identity theft is the "perfect crime" Everyone who is anyone can be a victim including children. The best way to prevent yourself from being a victim is by learning about the crime and getting protection. There are millions affected every year.
ID Theft - Fastest growing financial crime in America - To learn more about this author, visit Teena 's Website.
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Dave Kurlan
Dave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development.
Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit.
He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine.
He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball.
He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Teena
(Visit Teena's Website)
After working for years for other people,
I finally got sick and tired, literally.
Had a great job in finance, but, never had
a dollar left after paying my bills. As a
single mom, driving 45 minutes to and from
work, with constant interruptions from
school, I found myself crawling to bed at
the end of the day and wound up in the
hospital. I knew there had to be a better
way.
The home based business market offers a
number of good ways to build a serious
income from home. It helped me turn my
life around and can do the same for you.
Visit my site for details about an amazing
opportunity, helping people in today's
marketplace.
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Most of us were never taught how to win the money game and if we were, most likely we were taught by people who weren’t very good at it. – T. Harv Eker
