If you think identity theft cannot happen to you, then you are wrong because no one is immune from identity theft no matter how diligent you are in protecting your personal information.  Most people do not find out their identity has been stolen until some type of damage is done.  One of the best ways to find out if your identity has been stolen is to monitor your bank statements and credit card accounts each month.  If you notice any thing out of the ordinary or any unauthorized charges, immediately notify the bank or Credit Card Company where you notice the discrepancy.  In addition, make sure you check your credit report once a year for free.

How a person finds out their identity has been stolen

• A collection agency calls you about any over due debts that you never made.
• You apply for any type of loan or mortgage and get turned down because there is a problem with your credit history.
• You receive some type of information in the mail regarding a house you never bought, a job you never had, an apartment you never rented, or a car you never leased.

Your identity has been stolen so what should you do

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Having your identity stolen can be a very frightening experience not to mention one that can takes months to years to straighten out.  If you have been a victim of identity theft there are certain rights that you do have as a victim.  When you know that you have become a victim of identity theft you have the right to file a report with the law enforcement agency and ask for a copy of it to use as proof your identity has been stolen.

You also have a right to get an identity theft report that is like a police report but does into more detail.  It should contain enough information that the businesses and credit reporting companies can verify that you are a victim.  It will also let them know just what information or accounts have been affected.

When you start to deal with the various credit reporting companies you have the right to put a ninety day initial fraud alert on your credit files.  You should do this if you think you are a victim or may become a victim of identity theft.  This alert just tells the users of your credit report that they must take steps to verify who is trying to get credit in your name.  To do this, all you have to do is contact just one of the credit reporting bureaus and they will contact the other two bureaus.

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Take action immediately once you realize you have become a id theft victim.  This is means that there are going to be hundreds of phone calls, countless hours, and lots of writing to keep meticulous records of all the conversations you have.  In addition, you need to realize that you are going to find yourself repeating some of the same information over and over.  You are also going to spending several hundreds of dollars on mailing out certified letters and documents not including the wages you may loose if you have to go to court.  You may also have to deal with collection agencies for bills you did not create.  You are going to have to check your credit reports to see what damage has been done, and you will need to make sure that your medical records have not been compromised.  There is so much that you will have to do to get your identity back.

You need to make sure your bank and credit card company have been contacted.  You should also contact at least one of the credit reporting agencies to report the fraud.  By law, they are required to notify the other two agencies.  They will also send you a free credit report.  Make sure that they put a fraud alert on your report.  You may also want to ask them if they can freeze any applications for credit until you tell them to remove it. In addition, make sure that you change your passwords and PIN number on all your accounts.
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This is a new type of fraud that continues to plague the public and refers to financial identity theft in which the identity thief takes the victim’s personal identifying information and uses it to create new accounts.  These new accounts are used by the identity thief to get services and products.  What is often used to commit new account fraud is stolen Social Security numbers.

When the identity thief makes a new account using the stolen Social Security number they will usually give a different mailing address.  This way the victim of identity theft does not receive the bills and they may remain unaware of these new accounts.  The victims usually find out about these accounts when a creditor calls and wants to know when a payment is going to be made on this account.

There are many variations to this type of fraud which include:

• Utility fraud—new utility accounts are open such as gas, electricity, and phone in the victim’s name.  This is about twenty percent of new account fraud incidents.
• Loan Fraud—to pull off this type of new account fraud the identity thief needs the victims Social Security number.  This is about ten percent of new account fraud incidents.
• Credit card fraud—this type of new account fraud is the most lucrative and prevalent type.  This is about half of all the identity theft cases and new account fraud cases.  Identity thieves love credit cards for the simple reason is that they are the easiest accounts to open plus they can be quickly be made into cash.

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No matter how complex an email client or web browser is a phisher can always find weakness and loopholes in which to commit identity theft.  The phisher just takes all these new tricks and adds them to already growing arsenal of identity theft tricks.  An example of this is when Phishing and spam filers are extremely effective, the better the phishers are getting at getting past them.

Address spoofing is one of the most used tricks of phishers.  Most of the email programs let the users enter their own information into the Reply and From fields.  This is very convenient for the people who have multiple email addresses.  On the other hand, it makes it easier for these phishers to write messages which appear like they did come from a source that is legitimate.

Some of the other things that phishers use for address spoofing include:

• Obfuscated links—while these URL’s look real they actually take the victim to the phisher’s website.
• Graphics—once the phisher determines which browser and email client the victim uses, the phisher can put security padlocks and pictures of address bars over the authentic address bars and status.
• Frames and pop-up windows—the site that the victim is directed to may have invisible lines around it that can harbor code that can be malicious or there may be malicious popup windows that appear. Read the rest of this entry »