Big Three Credit Bureaus Oppose Credit Freeze

A recent USA Today article described the effectiveness of credit freezes for preventing identity theft. 37 states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws which permit a consumer to place a freeze on their credit report. Until it is lifted, the freeze can block access to the credit report and score by creditors as well as by the consumer themselves making it impossible for anyone to borrow money in the consumer's name. The Consumer Data Association, a tradegroup which represents the three major credit bureaus, has opposed freezes. They claim that freezes can hurt a consumer's ability to obtain emergency credit. However, the credit bureaus make millons of dollars annually by compiling and selling the consumer data, and freezes hurt that business. In 2006, Equifax earned $166.3 million dollars from the sale of consumer data. In 2006, Experian had $756 million in total sales. 21% of that revenue ($152.8 million) came from the sale of consumer data. Transunion is privately held so they do not have to release these figures. To learn how to place a freeze on your credit report and score, go to this website.

Buy Bump Key Proof Locks

Recently, there have been many articles and videos posted on the internet concerning “bump keys”. These are easy-to-make, readily available keys which can be used to defeat the vast majority of deadbolt locks used in the United States, Europe and Asia. Bump keys can be purchased online, or can be bought from your local hardware store or locksmith. With a little practice, anyone can use them to gain entry into your home or business. There are over 2,390,000 websites listed on Google which contain information on bump keying and 345 online videos teaching this technique. Even if you have not heard of it, the criminals have.

This technique is insidious, because it leaves no sign of forced entry. If a burglar uses it, it will be difficult for a homeowner or business owner to prove that a crime took place. An insurance company could make the difficult to refute argument that the crime was staged or that the homeowner or business owner was negligent for leaving their door open. Finally, an intruder could gain undetected access to the property many times because of the nature of this technique.

To protect yourself, you should replace your locks with “high-security” locks. These locks cannot be bumped, either because they do not use keys, or because they are designed to prevent it.

Medeco Locks manufacture bump proof high security locks. They have a video on their website demonstrating how their locks prevent this practice. You may also want to consider, electronic keyless, remote or biometric locks.

Expert Tips to Avoid Identity Theft

Marketwatch.com has a useful article regarding the ways identity theft and computer security experts protect themselves from identity theft. “Catch Me If You Can” identity theft expert Frank Abagnale and Other Security Experts discuss their techniques for avoiding identity theft. Here is a summary of their recommendations and a few of my own:

Use a Credit Card Credit Card issuers do more to protect their customers from fraud. To protect your credit rating, pay the bill in full each month. Also, if you do use a debit card, have the merchant run it as a credit card so that you do not give up your Personal Identification Number.
Also, if you have the debit card transaction processed as a credit transaction, you may fall within some of the protections offered to credit card users.

Use a service which monitors all of your credit accounts and notifies you by e-mail whenever someone is trying to use your credit.

Shred your documents with a micro cut shredder which reduced the information to sawdust sized particles. Abagnale recommends even shredding the back pages of catalogues so that dumpster divers cannot access your retail accounts.

Opt out of creditors’ information sharing arrangements. You can do it by telephone or by signing up at http://www.optoutprescreen.com/.

Set up your main banking accounts so that they do not permit transfers to other institutions. This way should a thief get your account information, they will be unable to transfer your money. Also, monitor your accounts frequently.

If you are going to shop online, do not use links created by search engines, type the address in your browser yourself. Some of the links are created by thieves to steal your credit card information.

Don’t write checks at stores. They are insecure and thieves can obtain account numbers, routing codes, addresses and other personal information simply by copying them. Also, there are techniques for altering checks by washing them with chemicals to change their amounts. They may also be scanned and altered.

Have a two-way firewall on your computer so that it blocks information from entering your computer and makes it harder for hackers to hijack your machine and send information out.
Don’t store your passwords on your computer.

Read more here

Identity Thieves Use Stolen SSN#'s to Create Fake Identities

Identity thieves have started using stolen social security numbers to create fictional persons. In what authorities have termed "synthetic identity theft", thieves have started creating fictional persons. They use these identities for a variety of purposes incuding, employment, obtaining credit and open bank accounts. This is a much harder type of theft to detect, because the frauds are not committed in the victim's name. Oftentimes they do not even appear on credit reports.

Identity Thieves Create Fake Identities

In a new twist to identity theft, thieves have started creating "synthetic" identities by stealing a person's social security number and "tying" it to a different name in order to create a new, fictional person. This is much harder to detect because the frauds are not committed in the victim's name so they do not readily appear on their credit reports. At the same time, the social security number may appear in many different databases, including those used for background checks. This type of theft is also much more difficult to recover from, because there is no way to

Credit bureaus sell your phone number to lenders - Los Angeles Times

In another invasion of privacy, the nations largest credit bureaus have started selling leads to lenders. When you apply for a mortgage or other loan, the credit bureaus sell those leads to other lenders. Some lenders are paying in excess of $20,000 per month for these "Target Leads". To opt out of this practice and protect your privacy go to www.optoutprescreen.com. To get rid of sales calls, register with the national do not call registry at www.donotcall.gov.

Credit bureaus sell your phone number to lenders - Los Angeles Times