Comments on: Never Pay Someone to Protect Your Identity

By: Jeremy Duffy

Jeremy Duffy — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:47:33 +0000

@ Carmille:

AMEN! The credit reporting companies have been regulated up the wazoo, but still caused us problems until we got credit freezes. We need something like a freeze for these data brokers too and FAST.

By: Carmille

Carmille — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 01:04:18 +0000

I was a victim of Identity Theft and I believe the criminal obtain alot of personal information from the peoplesearch online services that sell private citizens information. I think there should be a civil lawsuit against companies like intellius, zabasearch, ussearch, peoplefinder etc.
Our name are private intellectual property and we did not authorize the selling of our name. They put us at risk and we do not even get a royalty fee for it.!!! sue I say!

By: The Pros and Cons of LifeLock | All Articles Homepage

The Pros and Cons of LifeLock | All Articles Homepage — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 21:57:24 +0000

[...] one of its competitors if you prefer. But remember that you can do most of what these companies do yourself. You can put a fraud alert on your own account, but you have to remember to renew it every three [...]

By: bossman1982

bossman1982 — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 19:45:30 +0000

OK, There is a lot of extremely important and relevant information here. There is one very important ingredient missing in protecting your identity. I am amazed how often this is overlooked in everything I read from blogs to USPS literature.

A cross-cut shredder is by far the best. But if somebody takes your mail before you can shred it, the shredder is useless. With a regular mailbox you may not even know you are missing mail. With a “locking mailbox” you may at least know somebody has taken your mail. What everybody really needs is a true security locking mailbox. One that you cannot just walk by and pop it open with a screw driver or reach down in and grab the mail. There are only a couple out there that fit the bill. I, of course, prefer the Mail Boss security locking mailbox. I can sleep at night knowing my shredder will get to chew on some trash the next day.

By: Arthur

Arthur — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 18:48:39 +0000

One that you missed, which offers some protection, but less than you might expect – DON’T sign your credit cards! Instead with a permanent marker, write “Request Photo / Signature ID” in the signature space.

This obviously can’t do anything to prevent telephone or on line abuse, but it should make it harder to abuse your card in person, and “live sales” are the harder abuse to trace*. The downside is that amazingly few clerks actually ask for the ID in my experience…

*In person abuse is harder to trace because the abuser doesn’t have to supply a useful address – just pick up the merchandise and leave. Telephone or online sales require an address to ship the merchandise to, which has to be accessible to the abuser in some way, and is therefore traceable.

ART

By: Saturday Links | The Doctor Is In

Saturday Links | The Doctor Is In — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 06:15:46 +0000

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By: links for 2008-06-20 « that dismal science

links for 2008-06-20 « that dismal science — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:16:46 +0000

[...] Never Pay Someone to Protect Your Identity – SavingAdvice.com Blog (tags: identity finance reference security tips Money fraud privacy) Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)DRM Free MP3 Sold by Yahoo!Brad’s Link Extravaganza! [...]

By: Cathy Sykes

Cathy Sykes — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:41:22 +0000

I stood beside a lady at the checkout counter at our local supermarket the other day. It was very easy for me to see her SS# on her check, so after she’d finished writing it, I said hello, then recited her number to her. She said it was more convenient to put her DL, SS and phone number on her check and seemed stunned when I told her how easily someone with her SS# or DL# could steal her identity. Even these days, with all that’s been written and broadcast about identity theft, some people are still clueless.

Cathryn Sykes
Publisher and Editor

By: Jeroen

Jeroen — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 11:30:44 +0000

Please remember that the word “Identity Theft” is a semantic trick played by financial institutions to turn the blame for their sloppy practices on customers. It used to be called “fraud” before. Your identity cannot be stolen, your name can be misused, and it should be up to the financial institutions thus defrauded to proof that it was really you who got a credit.

By: thiefhunter

thiefhunter — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 19:25:23 +0000

Point #6 is most troublesome: “Don’t get caught by phishing scams or phone scams.” This boils down to social engineering, in which you are conned into believing that you need to give up some bit of personal info. Tactics are endless, brilliant, and believable, right down to phony utilities workers who just need to check a pipe or a meter, and engage you in chat. It is sad but true: we must develop our cynicism skills and question people, instead of giving them the benefit of the doubt, which may be our nature.