A few months ago a friend of mine received an email on an official looking United States Treasury letterhead informing him that he was owed several hundred dollars by the federal government. It went on to say that the money would be sent if my friend would just provided some personal information. While I had not heard of this particular scam, it seems highly unlikely that the federal government would notify people about refunds in this way. To make sure we checked with the US Treasury. They confirmed my opinion, although they had not heard of this ID theft scam either, and we forwarded the email on to them.
LifeLock Identity Theft Prevention - Save 10%
Identity theft. It is one among the many negative effects of the electronic communication age of credit cards, phones, and the Internet. It is thought that about 9 million Americans each year are victims of identity theft, and many additional identity theft victims are found in Great Britain, Canada, Japan, and other developed nations. Most reports indicate that $10,000 is the average loss per victim in the United States. If these numbers are correct, the annual amount defrauded in this country alone is around $90 billion! The global incidence and cost of identity theft is increasing rapidly over time as credit cards and the Internet spread throughout the world.
Identity thieves prey on the fears and greed of individuals. Greed is the only explanation for why we see so many emails, often supposedly from Africa, promising millions of dollars to a trustworthy person if he can safeguard huge sums of money for a while. All that is asked from these potential victims is some information on their bank account numbers and a few other pieces of personal information. While these promises may seem so absurd that one wonders why anyone would respond, the emails are cheap to send, and can be profitable for the theives if only a very small fraction of recipients fall for it.
Other identity theft scams rely on fear rather than greed. One real example is a telephone call from someone alleging to be a state or local government official. This "official" threatens that the person called is subject to arrest because he or she did not report for jury duty. However, the thief reassures the victim that arrest could be avoided if the victim would provide some personal information that could help clear up their record.
Often it is difficult to sympathize with the victims because they are trying to get rich quickly in ways that usually involve participating in illegal activities. Still, effective avoidance of identity theft is most desirable since so many people are victims. Most victims spend as many as 600 or more hours over the course of several years trying to clean up the mess identity theives make on their credit.
Identity theft will negatively impact your credit, and don't think that it can't happen to you. While you may not be likely to fall for one of these scams, there are more ways than you can think of for ID thieves to steal your personal information. Your trash is one very way. Theives will go through trash to find personal information that can be used to steal your identity. Recently a ring of identity theives were caught stealing information right off credit cards when people went to restaurants!
The next time you pull your credit report, you don't want to see credit accounts for which you did not apply. That car loan that you know nothing about, or cellular phone service......Don't wind up in the position of having to repair your credit and your credit score. Be proactive. Protect yourself with an identity theft prevention service such as LifeLock. It is the only identity theft prevention service of its kind to offer a $1 million guarantee. You have probably seen the reports in the Wall Street Journal, and on CNN about how effective LifeLock really is. Signup today for a subscription at LifeLock.
LifeLock Identity Theft Prevention - Save 10%
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Identity Theft Scams