Continued from Part 1 of Identity Theft Plagues Consumers and Businesses… Certified ID theft risk management specialist Joseph Campana works with small businesses to help prevent this type of crime, but he says it’s not even on the radar of many executives. “Unfortunately, some businesses just don’t care. In fact I’ve had many businesses tell [...]
Continued from Part 2 of Identity Theft Plagues Consumers and Businesses… But the time and frustration involved with contacting law enforcement officials, creditors and other institutions – and convincing them your identity has been stolen – takes an additional toll on already stressed-out individuals. Harmon says she spent five to six hours per day with [...]
Continued from Part 3 of Identity Theft Plagues Consumers and Businesses… Observers say small business owners are particularly vulnerable to ID theft, though, since they often use personal assets and their own name for business transactions. The damage can be severe, as Campana explains: A farmer who wanted to buy a crop duster was turned [...]
Continued from Part 3 of Account Number Morphing… After the account is deleted and then reinserted, the CRA fails to notify Consumer A within 5 business days that they are re-inserting the account information. The ironic twist to all this is that the CRA then argues that the “reinsertion” of the account was not their [...]
Continued from Part 2 of Account Number Morphing… Consumer A is now distraught. He calls the department store and reiterates his story that the department store had earlier investigated, agreed with him that he did not owe the debt and that “they would take care of it” for him. These words come back to haunt [...]
Continued from Part 1 of Account Number Morphing… An example would be helpful here to illustrate. Let us say that Consumer A is receiving bills for a $600.00 balance on a department store credit card. Consumer A never applied for such a card and therefore the debt cannot be his. He suspects someone stole his [...]
The Federal Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) makes it mandatory for Credit Reporting Agencies such as Experian, Equifax and Trans Union “to follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy of the information in the [consumer's credit] report….” A willful and negligent failure to do so is violation number 1 of the FCRA. One wonders then [...]
We usually think of identity theft in terms of money. The identity thief wants to use your good credit to purchase things he or she wants, to write cash advance checks on your credit cards, or to drain your checking account. There’s a second reason for stealing your identity: To steal your personal history along [...]
