An Identity Theft Lesson for Christmas Retailers (and shoppers)!
I just returned from a Kohl’s store where I was picking up a gift card for our annual Christmas Eve gift card swap with my wife’s family. Instead of giving everyone presents and going to all that work, we simply each buy a gift card for $10 that we think others would like to receive, and then we do a white-elephant lottery where the second person to draw out of the bag gets to take away the gift card from the first person (or blindly draw out a new card out of the hat) and so on down the line. At the very end, the first person gets to choose to take any one of the gift cards. It is low cost, low conflict and an absolute blast. You can probably already tell that my wife came up with the idea, not me.
So I was standing at the cash register at Kohl’s and the clerk asked the woman in front of me (who was paying) to see her ID in addition to her credit card. The woman complained and the clerk explained that it was for her safety, not his. “That’s Inconvenient!”, she roared, and stormed out of the store.
Grumpy Holiday Lady, listen to me:
Thank You Ft. Lewis and McChord Military Bases
It is the highest honor for me to be able to serve the United States military, who so valiantly and humbly serve every American. Just hours ago, I finished delivering an identity theft prevention speech to the soldiers and airmen of Ft. Lewis/McChord Military Installation in Tacoma, WA. Thanks to both bases, and to the Department of Defense for inviting me to speak with you.
During my speech, I promised to give you easy-to-complete action steps to protect your identity against theft, as well as that of your loved ones. I’d like to deliver on that promise by directing you to a full page article I’ve written specifically for you: The Military Identity Theft Protection Kit. If you have additional suggestions for protecting military IDs that I haven’t covered in this article, please include your comments at the bottom of the post. With your input, this conversation should contribute to the financial stability of our armed forces — Which is vital, because, as you are aware, financial readiness is mission readiness.
There were several questions that were asked after my speech was over that I wanted to address here:
- Does freezing your credit affect your ability to make charges on your credit card? Absolutely not! It only affects new accounts being set up (car loans, home loans, etc.) using your credit profile. It will not affect any existing accounts that you have. You will still be able to make purchases on your credit or debit card without any additional hassle.
Identity Thieves Targeting Home Equity Lines of Credit
As the economy continues to decline, people are finding creative ways to increase how much they make. Unfortunately, dishonest people often turn to dishonest means, such as identity theft, to increase their net worth.
It seems that home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) are the latest in a series of financial devices that identity thieves are using to undermine your net worth. As Jay MacDonald of Bankrate.com points out in a CNBC article:
…now that the door to subprime lending has slammed shut, thieves have set their sights on those with good credit and substantial equity in their homes — deep pools of cash that can be easily tapped via a HELOC.
Sharks in deep pools
The FBI says HELOC thieves typically use stolen identification to apply online for a line of credit in your name. Then they instruct the bank to wire the funds to their accounts, providing their own contact information in place of yours. That way, the bank unwittingly contacts the thief to verify the electronic funds transfer.
To learn more, read the entire article: ID Thieves Tap Home Equity Lines.
John Sileo
Financial Keynote Speaker
Thank You Luke Air Force Base!
It is the highest honor for me to be able to serve the United States military, who so valiantly and humbly serve every American. Just hours ago, I finished delivering an identity theft prevention speech to the Airmen of Luke Air Force Base in Phoenix, AZ. Thank you, Luke, and the Department of Defense for inviting me to speak with you.
During my speech, I promised to give you easy-to-complete action steps to protect your identity against theft, as well as that of your loved ones. I’d like to deliver on that promise by directing you to a full page article I’ve written specifically for you: The Military Identity Theft Protection Kit. If you have additional suggestions for protecting military IDs that I haven’t covered in this article, please include your comments at the bottom of the post. With your input, this conversation should contribute to the financial stability of our armed forces — Which is vital, because, as you are aware, financial readiness is mission readiness.
There were several questions that were asked after my speech was over that I wanted to address here:
- Does freezing your credit affect your ability to make charges on your credit card? Absolutely not! It only affects new accounts being set up (car loans, home loans, etc.) using your credit profile. It will not affect any existing accounts that you have. You will still be able to make purchases on your credit or debit card without any additional hassle.
Military Identity Theft Protection & Prevention Kit
Military personnel have unique and pressing reasons to pay extra attention to protecting their private information, as well as the private data of their loved ones, from identity theft. For example:
- Historically, the armed forces have used pieces of identity (including Social Security Numbers) to openly identify personal items, including: dog tags, military IDs, commission papers, pay checks and duffel bags. While this practice is being fazed out, it still increases the risk of identity theft among military personnel.
- If a member of the military has their identity stolen while deployed (especially overseas), it is exceptionally difficult to recover from the crime in a timely and effective manner. Can you imagine trying to repair your credit rating from the streets of Iraq or prove your innocence to a collection agency while crouched in the bunkers of Afghanistan? To add insult to injury, returning from a tour to find that your credit has been destroyed and that you are wanted for crimes you didn’t commit can be overwhelming.
- Our airmen, soldiers, sailors and marines can be called to duty in an instant. If financially unprepared, this leaves their families vulnerable to attack. It is imperative that we proactively protect not only ourselves, but our loved ones as well.
- Protecting the privacy of our military is a national security concern. In the age of cyber-attacks and digital warfare, we cannot leave our fighting and peace-keeping personnel open to attack.
Because of these additional risks, it is imperative for our military personnel to implement the steps below.
The First Eight Steps to Bulletproof Your Identity
Think about it…slowly, over time, we have given away our privacy. Many times we don’t even realize we are giving it away. We commonly trade our personal information for access to website content (free songs, email), the chance to win a contest (iPods, vacations) or a one-time 10% discount at a clothing retailer. I call this slow and unnecessary leakage of our personal information identity creep. Our information is requested in a subtle way, and because the immediate benefits seem substantial and often feel harmless, we overlook the downside—that we are gradually broadcasting our identity to those who shouldn’t have it.
One source at a time, we must reverse our bad habits and guard information rather than give it out. Understandably, we cannot entirely give up sharing our information. But we must determine what to share and with whom. We must begin to accumulate our privacy over time. This incremental approach keeps prevention from being an overwhelming task and reminds you to consider the risk anytime identity is involved.
Here are Eight Steps to Start the Process:
Why Aren’t Identity Thieves Arrested?
Someone asked a wonderful question of me the other day: “why don’t the police arrest people who steal your identity?”. It is a question I’ve never been asked before (which is odd, now that I think about it), but I’ve spend much time researching and pondering.
It comes down to three factors:
- Lack of Resources. When my identity was stolen the first time (a woman used it to buy a second home in my name), I reported it to the local police department. Their response was that I was number 6532 on this list of fraud complaints and that they would never get around to looking into the case. I knew the woman’s name, address and phone number, but law enforcement didn’t have the resources to investigate or prosecute the crime. And I didn’t have the resources to go after her legally. So it went untouched.
- Lack of Evidence. The average identity thief knows how to mask their real “identity”, meaning that when the police go to investigate who committed the crime, all they find is another victim whose identity was stolen and used to cover the first crime. Identity thieves live under layers and layers of alternate identities. For example, Joe uses Bill’s identity to steal John’s. It gets so convoluted that it becomes difficult to track. That is why it is estimated that only 1 in 1000 identity thieves is ever arrested.
Is Sarah Palin Safe? No. Identity Theft and Government Officals
You’ve probably seen in the news that a hacker gained access into Sarah Palin’s Yahoo.com email account. The hacker used a simple scheme and basic social engineering tools (research on Google and Wikipedia, common-sense guessing) to reset the password on the account and assume ownership of her email. [For a full account of how a professor, Herbert H. Thompson, used these tools to steal a friends identity (with their permission), visit his recent and extremely interesting article, How I Stole Someone's Identity and the companion radio interview.]
In addition to denying Governor Palin access to her own account, the hacker had full control to:
- Read every saved and current email in her account (hopefully she never sent her Social Security Number, passwords or account numbers via email, not to mention correspondence pertaining to her role as candidate for Vice President of the U.S.)
- Steal the email addresses and any other sensitive information stored in her contacts (John McCain might want to change his email address)
- Send out emails as if the hacker were Sarah Palin, or worse yet, send out official emails as Alaskan Governor, Sarah Palin
The potential for abuse is mind boggling. Sarah Palin should take immediate steps to protect her stolen identity and to secure her future privacy. Here are a sampling of the steps I would recommend:
Auto Document Storage
SentrySafe AutoSafe
The Privacy Problem: Thanks to laptops, smart phones, DVDs and a deluge of other data-holding mobile devices, we carry as much sensitive data with us as we keep in our homes and offices. These devices are at a much higher risk of theft when they are in transit.
The Privacy Project: To help you better protect identity-bearing devices while they are being transported and stored in your car (RV, boat, etc.). The solution…
Largest Identity Theft Ring Charged
Are you one of the 200,000,000+ Americans (almost 66% of the US population) who had their identity stolen from TJ Maxx, Marshalls, BJ’s Wholesale Club, OfficeMax, Boston Market, Barnes & Noble, Sports Authority, Forever 21 or DSW?
If so, you need to know that 11 people, including a Secret Service informant,
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