You always hear about identity theft/credit card fraud... My question is: is it really all that common? or that big of a threat? I've heard a couple different times that it really isn't as big of a problem as credit card companies make it out to be, and basically it's sort of a ploy from the credit card companies to scare elderly people into buying identity protection services... bullshit?

on a lighter note: sometimes at work i have to get credit card info. from people over the phone... a lot of the older people get really ticked off when they have to give their credit card info. over the phone, so we always reassure them that the information disappears from the system as soon as we're done with it. every now and then one of them will ask: "well then where does it go?..." LOL... and i never know what to say. it's information in a computer, it's not tangible matter, lol... it JUST DISAPPEARS. haha... but you can't really say something like that to an old person.

 

[QUOTE=C_Unit,Nov 3 2006, 02:46 PM] You always hear about identity theft/credit card fraud...

 

C,

credit cards are the least of people's worries.

i had an associate that had her SSN duplicated and that was far worse than CC's.

the SSN was then sold to others

people were working under her SS number, were getting paid, and the workers were claiming tax exempt status with the employer.

come tax time, numerous income slips were generated for her number and was added to her income (obviously), the feds were looking to her to pay income tax on the incomes reported on the slips.

the tax bill was $146,000!!!

needless to say, it took A LOT of time (and legal dollars) to straighten the whole mess out.

 

All three major companies offer free credit reports. You can get one every year.

Experian, Equifax and Transunion.

Which reminds me, my free report is up...

 

advice: stagger them to get one free one every 4 months, you're still getting one free report from each bureau every year, but you're getting one report every 4 months as opposed to three once a year.



I shred all cc/debit receipts, cc offers, anything with my name on it in the mail that isn't important enough to keep, old bank statements >5 yrs old, and in general - anything sensitive that doesn't go in my perm. file collection.

bank of america has a nifty new feature, an online account number, i've yet to set that up but am planning on it for online shopping.

i also regularly scan my computer (mac) for viruses and other such related things, and am quite picky as to who i buy though.

only link accounts when absolutely neccessary.

SS i can't do much to prevent in my day-to-day life that I know of, but I do what I can.

 

It's for this exact reason that it pisses me off that so many companies (cell phone, credit card, student loan, etc) use your SSN as ID. Think of how many employees of those companies can pull enough info on you to sell to someone. It's ####ing ridiculous.

 

There should be no company still using SSN's as ID numbers. If they are, tell them to change it. My SSN is not used to identify me to anyone except the IRS.

misskatiemo is right about the reports. This is the easiest and cheapest way to protect yourself. Also use a cross-cut shredder. Strip shredders are useless.

Any amount of effort to protect yourself is worth it.