How to Steal an Identity

Check out the news article: "New identity theft scam is targeting jurors" by Bob Audette of the Reformer news site. The paragraph that caught my eye is:

"Police said an individual called the man, saying the call was being made on behalf of Judge John P. Wesley in Brattleboro District Court. The individual stated that the man had recently missed his court-ordered jury duty, and therefore the court had issued a warrant for his arrest with fines attached. The caller asked the man to verify his address, telephone number and Social Security number. "

The article goes on to say that the gentleman was careful and not compromised, but how many were compromised? Who was calling these people requesting this information? The police have not caught this perpetrator and according to identity theft statistics they won't catch them. So if the authorities can't catch the criminals and the crime is growing by leap and bounds, what can you do?

There are infinite ways to have your identity stolen. It seems that everyday a business is hacked and thousand or millions of personal records are stolen. You could be fooled by a tricky e-mail or phone call. Someone could steal your mail. This happen to me years ago and my credit card was charged for a pre-paid phone card. I luckily caught the charge in time to have it removed from my account, but it was my wakeup call to protect my credit. Later I learned that my credit was just a small part of the identity theft problem. Credit card fraud is only 28% of the problem. bank fraud is 18%, phone and utility fraud is 19%, employment related fraud is 13%, Government documents & benefits fraud is 8% and medical fraud is growing.

How can someone else using your identity create a criminal record for you? Imagine a drug dealer gets your name, address and say your drivers license number. They have a fake ID made with their picture, but your information. They are caught for their crime, but it is your information that is put into the system. They don't show for they're court date and a warrant is issued for your arrest. Yes, you will be cleared eventually, but only after being cuffed and processed. Do you really want to deal with that? Wouldn't it be much easier to get a notice that you showed up in a criminal database somewhere and could preemptively solve the problem? Would you know how to solve the problem? How much of your time and trouble would go into solving a false record against your identity? If it were possible to make a 10 minute phone call and fax some documents to an expert in this sort of thing and have them clear the problem up for you, would you be interested in that service? Would you be more interested if that service cost only pennies a day? If so, then please continue reading.

It is almost impossible to fully protect your identity. Most of the data you need to protect is not in your control. Did you hear the recent new story about the notebook computer stolen from an employee of Veteran Affairs? Millions of identities were compromised in an instant. If you were in that database what would you have done the minute you heard about the theft? I knew exactly what to do. I made one five minute phone call to Identity Theft Shield and then let them handle the rest.

There are multiple products on the market that protect your credit. There is identity theft insurance available too, but that only give you money and instructions to solve the problem yourself. Identity Theft Shield is a complete solution. This is not identity theft insurance where they provide you funds and instructions to fix the problem yourself. Identity Theft Shield actually does the work and fixes the problem for you!

Odds are you will be a victim of Identity Theft. It's almost impossible to avoid being touched by it. I sleep better at night knowing I have protection. Wouldn't you like too? Please do your research and look into every form of Identity Theft protection that is available. Ask the hard questions from the companies providing this service. Ask "if my identity is compromised, what exactly does your company do for me?" 99% of the businesses offering Identity Theft protection are only focused on your credit or are going to "guide you" through the process of fixing the problem and in most cases they don't cost any less then Identity Theft Shield.