Guarding against ID theft
Date: February 14, 2004Source: knoxnews.com
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Of the 516,000 complaints the FTC received nationally last year, 58 percent were fraud-related, according to Chuck Harwood, regional director of the FTC in Seattle. The rest were identity-theft complaints.
Of the fraud cases, more than half were connected to Internet-related complaints, compared with 45 percent in 2002, Harwood said.
"That was one of the more significant changes we noticed," he said.
Harwood wasn't sure whether the jump was due to more Internet use, more consumers being scammed or simply more reporting complaints to the FTC.
Harwood talked about what consumers should do to protect themselves from fraud and identity theft.
Q: Were you surprised by the jump in Internet fraud numbers?
A: I guess we knew they were going up, but that was a significant jump.
One reason they've gone up is because we've actually gotten better about collecting consumer complaints. And I think the consumers have become more savvy on where to complain.
Q: What are the most common cases of ID theft?
A: The most common complaint we see with identity theft is misuse of personal identity to get a credit card.
After that, nationally, we see the misuse of personal identity for services such as a cellular phone.
The third form of identity theft is the misuse of identity to get access to a bank account.
Q: What advice to you give consumers to avoid becoming a victim of fraud or identity theft?
A: As to fraud, the old advice is still good: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. You should review the statements on your monthly (bills) and be cautious about buying stuff over the phone.
As for ID theft, prevention is the best thing you can do here. You should shred all personal information, such as bank-account statements and insurance-account documents - anything with personal information on it.
At times, you have to give out personal information. The trick is understanding why you need to give it to them. If you're at a doctor's office and they need your insurance number, that's one thing. But if it's some business, then you need to be clear why they need it.
Q: What about the Internet fraud concerns?
A: The problems with online purchases and security issues relate not to the information being transferred over the Internet but what happens once it gets there and what efforts the company takes to protect the information once they have it.
Q: Any other suggestions?
A: I would pull up a copy of your credit report regularly. Currently it takes about $9 to get a credit report, but thanks to new laws, it will soon be available for free.
These credit reports can be easily obtained on line from the major credit reporting companies such as TransUnion, Experian and Equifax.
Q: What should you do if you are a victim of identity theft?
A: First, contact the police and file a police report. Then, with a copy of that report in front of you, contact the company of the account that has been compromised and cancel it or have them put a hold on that account.
Then call the credit reporting agencies and tell them you're a victim of ID theft. You only need to call one of them since they share the information. The credit agencies will flag that account and will remove all derogatory information on it.
Finally, call us, and we collect these reports and share them with law-enforcement agencies.
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