Identity TheftIdentity TheftThis section may sound a bit paranoid. It is not -- but you may want to pursue only those items that you think critical. From experience I know that they are ALL critical.
If you are a full time traveler, security of your documents and money is paramount. Read my disaster section. My RV was stolen. All of my credit account numbers were on Quicken – including passwords to the online accounts. Many of my duplicate credit cards and checks were in my lockbox. My cash was in a box. My passport was in the lockbox. My birth certificate was in the lock box. All are now in some malevolent person’s hands. These malevolent people were charging on the cards and writing checks the same day they were stolen.
These people have every bit of personal information to duplicate you as a person. They have your credit cards, checks, birth certificates, passports, everything. They know your family names and their histories. They even have pictures of everyone. They can open new accounts within an hour of stealing your papers.
I was lucky that they never found my Quicken accounts. Or
maybe they did after I closed the accounts. Maybe they will find
them in the future.
Statistically in the next few years you will have the problem.
Be part of the solution.
When I wrote this, I was emotionally strained and a year or two
younger. Many things have happened since then. One of the
most notable is that the public information on identity theft has
increased greatly. The fear of identity theft invades everything
we do. This is sad and I believe is the direct result of the
losses that the banks are taking on this. Especially with the
current administration, the banks have considerable power and political
clout. For example, the new bankruptcy law which protects the
banks against loss at the serious expense of those individuals
needing help the most. But that is a different podium.
The problem now is that with all of the paranoia on identity theft,
people are not living their lives as freely as they should. And are
buying Identity Theft Insurance
from their banks and credit cards (aka banks). This insurance is
for the interest of the bank and not for your interests! Until
the Republicans change more laws, the current law protects you from all
costs associated with identity theft. Almost -- but we discuss
that later.
Watch your money and bills and take action on discovering anything suspicious or wrong. You can look at the Identity Theft web site for their information. The following paragraphs contain suggestions to protect your identity.
This is easy: do not write checks. I write approximately 5
paper checks a year. Two of these are my vehicle
registrations. I use online banking for all check writing.
Almost all online bank checks are actually EFT entries and no paper
check ever exists. The remainder are actually paper checks and
are computer printed and sealed so that only the person receiving the
check ever sees its contents.
If you do use paper checks, you want a minimum of printed
information on the check but then if you really are writing paper
checks to pay your bills, you are not serious about the identity theft
problem.
I keep a minimum of credit cards: Discover, Visa, Mastercard (2), American Express/Costco. I have a Sam's Club card. I have a debit card for each of my two checking accounts. I shred duplicate cards. I shred the account information card that comes with the plastic card. I carry the cards I use regularly and keep the others in a lock box in the RV.
Many years ago I carried only one credit card. The bank closed this card on its own volition for no reason. The card was always paid in full and on time and I never even approached the credit limit. I discovered the closure when a store refused the card. For the next six months life was very difficult while we tried to correct this. Now I carry the cards I use and have a couple spare accounts that are used only in an emergency. Moral: never trust a bank.
Carrying cards, cash, checks, passport, and other valuable documents keeps them from being stolen with your other property. It also makes you vulnerable to pickpockets.
Having survived Rome and other cities losing nothing to pickpockets, my daughter has taught me how to preserve my property. Anything in your wallet, kept in a rear pocket or a purse is easily stolen, with or without your knowledge. Obtain a money belt/pocket. The ones that hang around your neck are easily stolen. Buy one that goes around your waste and under your clothes. Place large amounts of cash, your passport, tourist permits, and rarely used cards in this belt. Never expose the belt in public and never leave it behind unless your RV is in a secured area.
The credit card companies have come up with a new scam. They sell Identity Theft Insurance. This is expensive insurance for which they charge you monthly. And for this, you have no protection against Identity Theft. It is insurance solely for the issuer of the credit card so that they will not be hurt. Laws already protect you against their liability.
Easy. If someone else writes a check, you are not liable -- even if it is your check. The person accepting the check is responsible for identifying the writer. You help by following the suggestions below in notifying your bank to close the account and the check verification companies if you have checks stolen or you have unauthorized statement entries.
Similarly, when your credit and debit cards are stolen, you immediately notify the issuers and your liability for each is limited to $50 – of unauthorized purchases BEFORE the notification. You are liable for NOTHING after the notification. Most banks will wave the $50 if you respond rapidly.
Remember all those letters you received for "Mortgage Insurance"? This was not only a rip-off but exactly contrary to your own best interests. This insurance paid off your mortgage if you died. Mortgages are the cheapest money you can borrow. Paying off a mortgage early is rarely to your advantage and certainly not to your widow's advantage. Mortgage insurance pays the bank. If you think that this is appropriate, obtain your own life insurance policy and instruct your widow (before your death) to use the money to pay the mortgage. Life insurance is cheaper than Mortgage Insurance and can be spent according to your widow's discretion. Having taken various university insurance and risk management courses and having worked for different national insurance and insurance processing companies, I can assure you that there is ALWAYS a better use for your money than mortgage insurance and pre-paying your mortgage.
I think the Identity theft Insurance falls into this same category. For the most part, identity theft is a major inconvenience to the victim. It is a financial expense to the victim's banks.
If you take reasonable precautions for your own security and you act rapidly to investigate any appearance of fraud in your name, you can stop the identity theft quickly with little or no expense to you. The operative words here are rapidly and act.
You should not buy this insurance as it does little for you.
Get yourself a free Internet mail address that you do not use elsewhere. Yahoo, Juno, Hotmail, or any of many places have these available at no cost. Remember the logon name and password and do not write these down anywhere.
Go online with each of your credit and bank accounts.
Never, ever use your mother's maiden name for security purposes. If your birth certificate is stolen, the thief knows your mother's maiden name, your father's name, the state, the city, and the hospital where you were born.
If you have a choice of security words, pick your favorite -- store this with your other account information on the secured written list.
Before you take off, send for a credit report. Equifax is one of the three credit reporting companies. You can get a credit report from them or search for ‘free credit report’ on Google.
You may get the report in the mail or online. If you get it online, print out a hard copy. The report will list all credit cards and accounts, open and closed. You may learn about problems you did not know you had. Clean these up.
The important part here is you want to close any accounts that you will not use and may not even have records of any more.
Use the report as your list of accounts that you must update with your new address and online access.
Each account will have a phone number to access the account. Call each phone number to inform the account of your chosen security code and to permit no access without the code. Most banks and credit accounts will accept a password for access. Your mail service will.
A little preparation this way covers a lot of ground when you return to find your RV ransacked or stolen.
Shred the credit report when you are finished. If you have a trustworthy friend or relative, you may pass the accounts sheets and credit report to them. Remember that you may need these in the middle of the night without warning.
If this catastrophe happens to you, get your heart rate under control and hit the Internet and the phone fast.
Inform the police immediately. Make sure that the theft report indicates that personal account information was stolen. Then you may use the police report as documentation to companies pursuing you for invalid purchases on your accounts.
Inform your insurance company of the nature of the loss:
Go to your secured account list to obtain all of your account numbers, codes, passwords, addresses, phone numbers, etc. Since this is stored elsewhere, the thief does not know about this list.
Write down all of your other account numbers, reference information, and telephone numbers:
You are liable for no checks at all, if you notify the banks immediately and close the old account. The person accepting a check is responsible for verifying the identity of the person writing the check. In my case, Telecheck, check cashing companies, and lawyers wrote me nasty letters about the cashed checks for almost 9 months.
For each check or other illegally used account, write a letter indicating the nature of your loss and that you are not liable. Include in this letter that this will be your only response to this item. Also indicate that further communication to you on this item by themselves or any other agency will be treated as harassment and that they are not to transfer, forward, sell, or otherwise distribute their debt. This is important because merchants regularly exchange these debts with each other to reduce your claim of harassment. Include with your response a copy of the police report as documentation. Keep a file of these communications in the case you do pursue a harassment claim.
Do not pay for documentation to these companies. If your bank will send you a notarized copy of the account closure for these reasons for free, accept it. If they want to charge, do not. This theft has already cost you a lot. There is no reason for you to pay to prove your name.
If your identity is stolen, you will have problems for the next 20 years: the information will be sold multiple times with new problems starting over periodically.
You are not liable for any charges made or checks written after you have closed an account.
You are not liable for any charges made or checks written after you have closed an account.
You are not liable for any charges to any credit account as soon as you have made your phone call to them. The bank may want written verification but the debts stop with your phone call.
You may have to assume an aggressive attitude with collection agencies: they want their money and do not care who they get it from. They will inform you that all debts are your problem: they are not your problem if you have followed the above procedures.
Properly handled, you are not liable for anything except the $50 per credit card -- and that is often waived and it is not even owed if you called before the charges were incurred.
You have enough problems -- do not be afraid to be tough with the money people. Certainly be tough with the police officer if he tries to short circuit the theft report.
When my RV was stolen, I had nothing except what was on my back and my bicycle. Within two weeks, I had a new passport, birth certificate, and Social Security card. The birth certificate can be gotten by going to Google and typing 'birth certificate'. You can get one for anyone for $20. Preferably you will get your own. With the papers my thieves had, they could have gotten a dozen of my birth certificates. Once I had the birth certificate, getting a passport meant going to the nearest US Post Office. The Social Security center was just across the street.
The thieves could have done this. And as a matter of fact, they could hold what they stole and sell it sometime in the future. Do not kid yourself: they do this.
Remember that just because you are not paranoid does not mean that they are not out to get you.
We have the technology. If Congress and the banks had our best interests at heart, Identity Theft would not be a problem.