Traffic light cameras can be annoying and when we are caught by them we just pay whether it is valid or not.  Now scammers/identity thiefs are taking advantage of this and not only making a lot of money but also stealing identities.  This is a very simple scam in which an identity thief will just pick a phone number from the phone book and whoever answers the phone is told that they have red light camera fine that is overdue and needs to be paid.

This person tells them that if they pay right now over the phone they can avoid a court case, a large late fee, or even time in jail.  If the person hesitates or says they are not going to pay over the phone they are threatened with an arrest warrant.  By this time the person who answered the phone is scared and is not thinking.  They do not realize that there was no photograph because there was no camera to result in an overdue bill.  This scammer who called you has not ability to fine you, arrest you or take you to court.

One of the reasons that you are scared is that the person on the phone has identified themselves as an officer of the law and maybe even gave you a fake identification number.  The scammer or identity thief is hoping that you are going to be too lazy to do any fact checking and is working on you being surprised.  Being so scared that you might have to go to jail if you do not pay this overdue fine you ignore a few signs that would normally tell you that the phone call and the person making the call is anything but legitimate.

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Identity thieves can get your personal and financial information in a variety of ways, some simple and some very sophisticated.  This is why you need to be on your toes when it comes to protecting your information at all times.  There is one bizarre way that identity thieves will use to obtain personal and financial information that not too many people would thing they would use.  That bizarre way is to steal personal information from the dead.

Yes, the dead.  This does not mean that they go to the cemetery and take names off the headstones and apply for a driver’s license and Social Security card in a deceased person’s name that has been dead for many years.  No, they do it with a more modern twist.  The identity thieves scour the newspapers to see who has died and makes a list of them and their address.  They then go over to the home and grab any mail that is still in the mail box that no one has gotten around to getting or else they go through the garbage.  They are looking for any type of credit card receipts, utility bills, credit card statements, etc.  This may take several days or even up to a month to get these types of things.

Many times the relatives of the one who just died is still traumatized by the death and do not think about stopping the mail, picking it up, or even contacting the credit card companies and asking them to stop sending out the statement or closing the accounts because of death.

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Becoming a victim of identity theft and having your personal information stolen is not something that can be fixed overnight.  It can takes months, maybe even years to get everything straightened out and for you to get your identity back.  One way that you can prevent this from happening is to consider freezing your credit report.  As everyone knows your credit report contains information about the way you pay your bills which lenders and creditors us to make any decision about to give you credit or not.

If you decide to freeze your credit repot these creditors and lenders cannot check your credit score or report unless you give the credit bureau a password.  Since most places will require a credit check before they will give a person a loan an application for credit will most likely denied if they do not have the correct password to check your credit score.  You can freeze your credit report with all 3 major credit bureaus.

If you already have credit with a company they can access your credit score and report without the password.  In addition, there are certain government entities and law enforcement agencies that can access your credit score and report.  Your credit score is not affected by the credit freeze.

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This type of scam can take on my variations.  It could be someone is offering to pay you for a service or to buy an item that you advertised for sale.  There may even be an offer that promises an “advance” on some sweepstakes that you have supposed to have won, or to pay for the first installment on the millions of dollars you are going to receive for agreeing to have money from a foreign country transferred into your bank account for safekeeping.

In most instances of fake check scams the one doing the scam will request that you to send money back to them in some way.  What they will do is send you a check for goods or services for more than the amount that is requested.  They will tell you to go ahead and deposit their check and then you are to wire them back the additional money.

In some instances, the scammer will ask you to wire them money for processing, legal fees, taxes, shipping, or any number of other expenses that you are going to have to pay before you will receive your reward or money.  The checks that the scammers will send you will feel and look real no matter if they are a cashier’s check or a personal check.  These checks have even been known to fool a bank teller.  These checks could have been written fraudulently or may be from a legitimate corporation or business.

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Identity theft is in the news a lot but many people are still unsure how to protect themselves from becoming a victim of identity theft.  Some identity thieves will focus on using just one piece of information about you to steal your identity while others will steal your credit cards and max them out before you even know that they are missing.  The best thing that you can do to protect yourself from becoming a victim of identity theft is to be careful who you give out your data to over the phone, watch your personal documents, and be careful of mail theft. Just remember, no one is immune to identity theft and it can happen to you.

Identity thieves do not need your credit card number in order to steal your identity. Sometimes all an identity thief needs is just one piece of information about you and then they can gain access to the rest.  Make sure that you lock up those important documents such as social security cards and birth certificates at home in a safe deposit box which includes any credit cards that you are not using.

Many people do not realize that some of the non-financial personal information that you put online is sometimes enough for your identity to be stolen such as putting your full birthday on any social networking websites.  You should also make sure that you do not put in your home address or phone number on any website that you used for business or personal reasons.  This would include any job search sites.

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