http://www.jamestharpe.com/2007/06/what-i-did-when-my-data-was-stolen/

I was lucky though. Nothing out of the ordinary happened, and my credit was safe.

One thing I would suggest is not only filing a fraud alert on your credit reports but *also with your friends*. The data found in your trash can be used not just to steal your identity, but it can also be used to scam your friends!

[...] other day I mentioned a post at Get Rich Slowly about Identity Theft.  I just wanted to highlight this brutal story that Beth posted in the comments. Last fall I married a man I had known for years as a [...]

I hope everything ends up working out. I can’t imagine what you and your husband have gone through.

This does not work with things like tax documents and other non bills though

Family member identity theft happened to my husband too.

Last fall I married a man I had known for years as a friend/fellow employee that had had his identity stolen for years and did not realize it until January of 2005. The identity thief was his wife!! She had set up post office boxes for mail she didn’t want him to see, made elaborate copies of checking and savings statements that were his accounts to show him if he ever asked – which he seldom did. She forged his signature on CD and IRA cash out requests. Nobody ever questioned the requests. All in all, she went through almost $95,000 he had saved. (His first mistake was trusting her to handle the bills and finances without any oversight by him) It all came crashing down when he received a phone call at work from a credit card company demanding payment. He knew he didn’t have a credit card with them and realized in his heart what had happened because she had done it once before about 10 years prior, but not to the great extent it turned out to be this time. She even had taken out a mortgage on his family home – been in the family over 100 years – that he knew nothing about. One week after he confronted her, she committed suicide. He has spent the last two and a half YEARS, with the help of an attorney, getting everything straightened out. We still occasionally get a letter or call from some company looking for the deceased wife. So yes, identity theft can be an absolute nightmare. Don’t ever trust anyone to handle your checkbook, finances or anything without YOU knowing exactly what is going on.

I have more secure household mail and a PO Box now. I actively “deter,” but my mail was a weak spot – not anymore!

[...] via email. Thanks for visiting!One of my favorite blogs is Get Rich Slowly.  J.D. recently did a great post about identity [...]

[...] JD’s mail was stolen, he looked into how to prevent identity theft. (Read it at Get Rich [...]

[...] has a post with some great tips for deterring ID thieves, defending yourself and detecting that a crime has taken place. He also took the time to convert some helpful FTC documents into PDF format (the FTC encourages [...]

[...] has already occurred (defend). For more, check out the FTC’s official identity theft site. How to Prevent Identity Theft — Deter, Detect, Defend [Get Rich [...]

[...] Using too many social networks and revealing your private information from various websites can lead you to identity theft. You can, however, prevent that by following the three D’s. [...]

The problem with fraud alerts is that the lender is not legally obligated to contact you, even though they are supposed to.

I did a post about the differences between credit monitoring vs. fraud alerts vs. credit freezes here: http://www.identitythoughts.com/credit-monitoring-vs-fraud-alerts-vs-credit-freezes .

Some people were asking about LifeLock. A TV station recently did a comparison of LifeLock, TrustedID, and Loudsiren by basically simulating an identity theft. I have a writeup about that here:
http://www.identitythoughts.com/tv-station-puts-identity-theft-protection-companies-to-the-test

Sorry to hear about your mail theft JD. My brokerage “lost” my a bunch of my son’s info, and I have nightmares of my 7 month old already having a mortgage and 3 cell phones.

-BD

I am a Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist. There are five basic types of identity theft; Financial is the most common, 26% of the cases reported to the FTC are financial in nature. The other types are DMV/Drivers License Identity Theft (someone using your driving record or your DL number), Social Security Identity Theft (someone using your SSAN for employment or Social Security benefits), Character/Criminal Identity Theft (someone committing a crime and giving your name), and Medical/Medical Benefits Identity Theft (someone using your medical plan to get medical services or changing your medical record). Medical can be the most dangerous to you. To view videos about these, see http://fortunevideos.com/sitemap.aspx

Many of you asked about LifeLock. This covers financial only, and as another commmenter added, for all they do, you can do it yourself.

According to the American Bar Association, it is likely that 70% of the time you have to deal with some kind of compromise of your identity, a lawyer will be needed to assist. Financial is the easiest to resolve, but the other areas get a little more tricky.

Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc, a 36-year old company traded on the NYSE, offers a legal services plan that works much like a medical coverage plan, without the deductible. We can contact a lawyer for advice, ten times a year, or ten times a month, or ten times a day, without ever receiving a bill. We got our wills, living wills, and healthcare directives prepared at no cost, and we get annual updates for free. We can have a contract reviewed before we sign it, again at no cost, only rich people have this service, those who can afford to keep a lawyer on retainer.

Pre-Paid legal teamed up with Kroll Background America, another 35+ year old company, that deals internationally with Risk Management. Kroll offers (through Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc) a consumer Identity Theft Shield. The plan uses the same concept of Defer-Detect-Defend. It starts with a credit report, then continuous monitoring of both your credit history and USPS address changes (to avoid someone opening new credit in your name and changing the address). If an incident occurs, they assign a licenses investigator to do the work for you to restore your good name. They will check all areas of possible fraud to resolve all issues related to your case, not just financial.

After you view the videos above, check out http://www.mjjm.info

There are more videos here. If you have any questions, leave a message for a reply. The cost of the Pre-Paid Legal Services and the Identity Theft Shield is a monthly membership fee of $35.95 (with a one time enrollment fee of $10.00). For less than a bottle of water a day, you could have complete peace of mind. If someone wants just the Identity Theft Shield without the legal service, the cost is $12.95 a month (with a one time $10 enrollment fee).

If interested you can sign up at http://www.mjjm.info

My information has been potentially stolen due to exposures by companies with my information. For example, a big story on my university revealed over 30,000 names were compromised. As a result, in addition to prior precautionary efforts (e.g., shred mail, scrutinize CC statements), I checked my credit reports, subscribed to a monitoring service, and watch my credit score. Triple Alert (Experian) is only $5/month, and notifies me if anyone accesses my credit report. I was notified when I purchased a new car, and when I opened a new bank account. I’m pleased with the service.

As for watching your credit score, it’s important because fraudulent activity on an existing account can cause a dip in your score, and a credit monitoring service may not notify you (depends on your service). I got a Providian credit card years ago, and as a free benefit, they show me my Transunion credit score on their website. I never use the card, but I check my score monthly.

Keep in mind that the media reports some big stories if consumers’ personal information is compromised. However, there are a lot of other potential ways your information can be treated insecurely. Watching your credit is imperative whether or not you know your information has been stolen.

Ben

this one went even farther to masquerade as her! she has a foreign name, he was a foreign guy, and different countries use the name for both males and females.

and one thing we never expected to hear: fraudulent use of health insurance information!

from: http://www.consumersunion.org/campaigns/learn_more/003484indiv.html

There are more than eight million new victims of identity theft each year in the U.S. Many of these victims find that crooks have used stolen personal information like Social Security numbers to open new accounts in their victim’s name. A security freeze gives consumers the choice to “freeze” or lock access to their credit file against anyone trying to open up a new account or to get new credit in their name.
When a security freeze is in place at all three major credit bureaus, an identity thief cannot open a new account because the potential creditor or seller of services will not be able to check the credit file. When the consumer is applying for credit, he or she can lift the freeze temporarily using a PIN so legitimate applications for credit or services can be processed.

In my state:
Fees: No fees for identity theft victims. All others pay $7.50 to place the freeze, no fee to lift it temporarily, and $5 to remove it altogether.

Cheap, especially in my position where I cannot imagine a reason that I would need to apply for credit.

I recently had a debit card number (not the card, just the number) stolen and the thieves proceeded to drain my bank account. My financial institution alerted me to the fact that I had fraudulent charges (I’m usually more diligent but I hadn’t checked online in about 2 days) and I filed a fraud claim with them; my funds were returned the day after I filed the claim including one NSF fee. Before filling out the paperwork, I had also filed a police report and had a printout of all of the charges from my online statement.

Through my experience, even though it was quickly remedied (and I knew where my number was stolen and the police contacted me about two months later and said they were in the midst of making a case against the thieves), I learned that the burden of proof is really on us, the consumers, and I felt lucky that I knew to file a police report and had a financial institution that, while not sympathetic, was helpful during the process. You really have to have all your ducks in a row to get things remedied and I feel awful for people who have their entire identities stolen and collection agencies after them and no one will believe or help them. You’re considered a thief until you can prove otherwise which is difficult to comprehend particularly if you’ve been a law-abiding citizen your entire life. I was lucky and I’m much more diligent with my debit card and primarily use cash now when I’m out and about. I was considering using a credit card with no balance on it as a way to purchase items that I would use a debit card for in the past and of course pay it off each month. Sorry this was lengthy, just wanted to share how the more info you can provide, the more it might help in situations such as this.

For a service that purports to reduce your exposure to identity theft, that’s pretty insane.

Thanks for the tip, J.D., but I really think you should recommend a different site.

[...] I read this post on Get Rich Slowly today, too, on steps to take to prevent and deal with identity theft.  And remember, you can get a [...]

With such a freeze the potential creditor cannot run a credit report to approve new credit under your SSN without a special PIN number. After requesting the freeze the credit agencies each send you a letter with a PIN number. From there it is just a matter of keeping those three letters in your safe and not losing them.

I don’t use much credit, and I haven’t opened any new lines since I froze my reports, so I don’t know how creditors react to this relatively new situation when they cannot pull your report without your PIN.

It may be a hassle to figure out which credit reporting agency the creditor uses and give them the correct PIN, but it is my sincere belief that opening new lines of credit should be hard.

Along with these, one of the most common mistakes people make is providing too much information on their printed checks – you should provide as little information as possible. For example, never, ever, put your social security number or your driver’s license number on a check unless you are required to do so in person, at a place that you trust, and even at that you should question it. With a social security number and a driver’s license number, your bank account number, plus your real name and address, and possibly phone number, checks are fraught with identity theft danger.

Along with this, you should avoid mailing checks using your own mailbox (if you don’t have a P.O. box) and the little red flag — most people who use outgoing mail from their mailbox are sending bills – with checks or credit card numbers in them. Drop them off at a secure post office box (preferably the post office). That little red flag is a “green light” to more than just the mail carrier…