Identity Theft

The book I read to research this post was 50 Ways To Protect Your Identity In A Digital Age by Steve Weisman which is an excellent book which I bought from kindle. Steve has a blog devoted to identity theft and associated issues at http://scamify.com This book is also one of the most comprehensive guides to what is a wide ranging subject. The most common form of identity theft is giving law enforcement officers someone else’s identity with connection to crime. This of course can result in some poor person being arrested for something he hasn’t done. One poor man got arrested 3 times for possession of cocaines and even had to spend 2 nights in jail while it was being cleared up. Luckily his fingerprints were checked and they realised they had the wrong man. Identity theft is the fastest growing crime worldwide. Much of this type of crime is carried out on a large scale by organised criminals but also there are many one man operations often with no previous convictions and usually on a much smaller scale. The FBI won’t investigate crimes where less than $100,000 is involved. Often banks and credit card companies don’t investigate relatively small infractions. It’s not just your computer that puts you at risk either, many people have smartphones, internet televisions and tablets which in many cases have very little protection. One example of a method of hacking in the book is very few people change the default pin for their voicemail so anybody can eavesdrop on their messages. Much identity theft is carried out by friends and relatives who can fairly easily gain access to things like your credit card etc.The better your credit rating the more likely it will be stolen. Also popular sources of identity are dead people, children & old people. By law in America you are entitled to a credit review from each of the 3 major credit reference agencies for free per year. If you space them out that works out at one per 4 months which is good as it is free.