Legal Smart

The Perfect Evening & The Perfect Crime

admin — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 09:51:12 +0000

It’s the perfect evening. The children are at the babysitter and you and your wife are just returning from a Friday evening out. When you look in your Read view mirror and get that sinking feeling your evening is about to be wrecked. You don’t know why the police would be stopping you and you have no idea how bad the situation is about to get.

You watch the officer leave his patrol car and walk to your window. Driver’s license, insurance card. It’s only a broken tail light. The officer tells you to remain in the car while he runs your information, and if you’ll promise to get it fixed you’ll be on your way in no time. You take a sigh of relief, he isn’t going to give you a ticket. Stay in the car, he’ll be right back.

A few minutes later the officer returns, asks you to step out of the car, put your hands on the hood and you are being handcuffed. Don’t talk. The officer informs you that the record shows you have a hit and run in a southern state and a warrant for your arrest. You protest that you’ve never even had a parking violation and absolutely have never been to Florida. But you are now in the back of the Police car on a Friday night. You know there’s no way to call a lawyer until Monday. Your wife is crying, she’ll follow you to jail. How much is bail? Will you really have to stay there until Monday? What will happen next?

If you think this can’t happen to you, think again. You have just become a victim of American’s number one crime… Identity theft. There were 10 million victims of Identity theft in the US last year and the number is rising.

It happens all over the country, everyday. Innocent Americans have their identities stolen by thieves who use the identity of the victim in the commission of a crime. When the crime is detected, it often results in the innocent victim spending a night or several in jail, posting bail, enduring humiliation and discovering they have a criminal record they were unaware of until that fateful night when they were stopped for something as simple as a broken taillight.

Insult is added to the injury because you actually believe that once you contact an attorney, you will post bail and all this will be worked out. You will return home and be finished with this nightmare… in actuality your nightmare has just begun.

Once the theft is discovered nearly 20% of Identity theft victims also discover that on it has been 4 years since the criminal assumed your ID. During that time they have made purchases, used your social security number to gain employment, accrued traffic tickets and damaged both your credit and your character.

But the story is about to get really ugly. You will have a difficult time proving you are, who you are… and generally that will be done in a very expensive court of law. There will be lawyers to pay and an investigation, and most of this will need to be done in Florida where the incident took place.

The average household spent an average of $3500 on restoring their identity, and for 23% of those it took more than 7 months until they were made whole again. For many, complete restoration never happened. The amazing statistic is that under 10% of America’s carry Identity Theft Protection… until after their identity was stolen.

Even if you are eventually able to clear your good name, that job you were hoping for is long gone, your professional life suffers and your relationships are strained. The home you were about to purchase is forgotten and life is in a holding pattern until you are proven the victim rather than the perpetrator. You will also find that law enforcement is slow to be concerned over Identity Theft. You will be offended at their mention of a victimless crime, after all if was you , the real you, who sat in a jail cell over the weekend. It was you who spent $3500 and 600 hours to restore your identity .

As you ride to the police station, handcuffed, scared and humiliated you don’t know it yet, but you will soon become familiar with what many already know… this is a crime no one is ever caught or prosecuted on. This is Identity Theft, America’s Number One crime.

The first time you realize how serious it was when someone steels your identity to commit a crime, is as you hear the jail door slam behind you.

ID Theft Protection Resources

What More Could You Do To Protect Your Identity, Than You’ve Already Done?

admin — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 02:25:23 +0000

Are You Doing Enough To Protect Your Identity?

Is There Time To Protect Your Identity?

You’ve done everything you’re supposed to do – document shredding, password changing and all the privacy stuff on Facebook – but even after all of that, you still know your chances are good that one day you’ll become a victim of America’s fastest growing crime: Identity theft.

An estimated one in 10 people in the United States is victimized by identity theft each year, the number is growing and all the password changing you do won’t protect you.

The sums of money stolen from Identity theft victims and businesses, rivals the recession-proof income of the drug trade. People are not just making a living from it, they are getting filthy rich.

A new wrinkle in the ID theft handbook is “moles”. These people, unknown to a business, are hired to work inside places like credit card companies, banks, schools and hospitals, car dealerships. Their position is to gather credit card numbers, SS numbers and other vital, valuable and private information. That information is then sold on the open market.

There are entire companies based on theft. One bust involved a call center where workers combed obituaries and then, working from scripts pinned to a wall, called funeral homes saying they needed to verify specific information so the grieving families could receive their death benefit payments.

A few questions later and ka-ching. The caller had all the information necessary to open a credit card account under the name of the deceased. This scheme is particularly profitable, because prosecutors can’t prove the victim didn’t give the information voluntarily – which is necessary for a conviction, because all the victims in the case were dead.

“Moles” get paid well for their work. On average $500 for a Social Security number pilfered from a county tax record and another $500 to change an address on a credit card account.

The ultimate Rate of Return is generally realized when these ID’s are sold at Flea Markets and to underground Identity traffickers … who resell the numbers and cards to illegal immigrants, drug dealers and criminals.. all with the intent of stealing you blind before you know what happened to you.

People who run such schemes typically invest $2,000 on moles and other expenses involved. For this investment they charge up to $75,000 in purchases and just before closing the account, get cash advances of as much as $10,000.

The average identity theft victim doesn’t realize he or she is being ripped off until a more than a year after the deed is completed. By that time the culprit has done significant damage to your credit, your finances and your character and closed the account. With so little evidence the likelihood of catching the criminal is slim and prosecution even slimmer.

One of the strongest and, maybe the only battle, to be fought on Identity Theft is to raise awareness. As more and more people understand the seriousness of Identity Theft, more will find good policies to protect them… and as the protection companies get involved and begin tracking and prosecuting these people as the criminals they are, there will be the opportunity to change this trend.

Recent Medical Identity Theft Statistics

admin — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 09:46:04 +0000

More than 1.4 million people have been victimized by medical identity theft. Victims pay about $20,000 each to resolve their cases, and more than half say they had to pay for medical care they didn’t recieve in order to restore health coverage. Nearly half of victims also lost health coverage due to fraud, and nearly on-third said their health premiums rose after they were victimized. Fewer than 10 percent say their incidents were completely resolved. (Ponemon Institute, 2010)

Study Reveal Sharp Increase In Medical Identity Theft

admin — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 09:19:44 +0000

Sharp Rise In Identity Theft According To Study…

The alarming increases in every area of identity theft,includuding medical ID theft, is taking a huge toll on Americans and the worldwide population. The impact of identity theft is not only causing crisis financially, but now is often life threatening.

An overwhelming majority of healthcare providers—96 percent—admit that they have lost patients’ medical data in the last two years, according to a newly released study. And the number of medical data breaches surged 32 percent in 2011, a worrisome trend as the healthcare industry pushes to digitize all medical records.

According to the study, published by the Ponemon Institute, which studies data and privacy, the 72 healthcare organizations surveyed suffered an average of four data breaches over the last year. About 30 percent of those breaches already have led to identity theft, respondents said. Read the entire story here

Do you know someone that has, or is, a victim of medical identity theft? It seems that it is only a matter of time before every family is effected by this awful crime. Identity Theft Protection and Restoration Resources

Years of ID Theft and Fraud by One Woman

admin — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 07:51:49 +0000

Even in small townAmericana people are not safe from the reach of identity thieves. How well do you know your neighvor or the clerk at the grocery store?

Karina Karla Martinez, 36, of Rexburg, was arrested on a charge of forgery and other charges pending, Rexburg police said Thursday.

The department saysMartinezpassed fraudulent checks under other people’s identities. Police say their cases date back to 2007 whenMartinezopened up checking accounts under false names and passed fraudulent checks throughout the area.

Police say they are aware of 15 such checks being passed in 2011.

Kent Chalmers, a resource officer forMadisonJunior High School, was handling a case that dealt with a fraudulent check the school received for a student and was able to identify the suspect and make the arrest, according to a news release.

Police say they recovered fake ID cards that came from other states, as well as questionable Social Security cards and checks.

Rexburg is a small community located in eastIdaho. It is also home to BYU Idaho, aLDSUniversity, where the crime rate is low. Even so, it still cannot escape the growing problem of identity theft. Statistical information, provide by poodwaddle.com where live statistical data can be viewed, shows there are over 78,000 reports of identity theft daily. Keep in mind, these are only the reported cases of identity theft.

Read the entire article here

Thousands of Children Daily Becoming Victoms of ID Theft

admin — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:41:32 +0000

Child identity theft continues to increase at an alarming rate. Each day young people are discovering they have also become a victom of ID theft.

Reported by: Katheri

When Axton Betz applied for an apartment – rental and utility companies checked her credit, and she got some shocking news. The college student, who had never even taken out a loan or credit card, was thousands of dollars in debt. She requested her first credit report and, stunned, found page after page of unpaid accounts. Read article here

Are your children safe from the crime of identity theft? What is available to protect children from ID theft.