Identity Theft

Chapter 2 – Common Warning Signs of Identity Theft

Identity theft victims, unlike other crime victims, are usually the last to know that they have been a victim of a serious crime. Depending upon the sophistication of the thief, it can be months before someone discovers that their identity has been stolen.

One way to tell if you are the victim of identity theft is to obtain a copy of your credit report. There are three main credit reporting agencies in the United States: Experian, Trans Union, and Equifax. Under the fair credit reporting act, Americans are allowed to obtain one free credit report from each agency per year. This is the easiest way to discover if someone has been using your identity. However, most Americans do not give their credit report a second thought until they need the report to obtain a loan or credit.

Americans tend not to give a lot of things a second thought when it comes to credit, which is what makes our society so vulnerable to identity thieves. There are usually clues given to a person that an identity theft has occurred and many people ignore the clues.

One clue that someone is about to become the victim of identity theft is a missing a credit card statement. Most credit card companies send out statements around the same time each month. If the victim has an unsecured mailbox, as most Americans do, the identity thief can grab the credit card statement from the victim’s mailbox.

This will probably go unnoticed by the victim who will believe that the statement has been “lost in the mail.” People often want to believe that the United States Post Office routinely loses mail or gives it to another person. While this does happen in some instances, the post office does not “lose” as mu...

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... This would be the case in which the identity thief committed a series of frauds in the victim’s names, such as passing bad checks. In this case, the identity thief was not apprehended by the police, so it will require the victim to prove that it was not them who committed these acts. This often results in the victim having to hire an attorney to represent them, costing the victim more money. Then the victim finds that in addition to committing fraud, the person using his or her identity has also racked up thousands of dollars in credit card and other lending debt. Needless to say, this is a virtual nightmare for the victim.

Paying careful attention to the signs of identity theft can help a person avoid becoming a victim or, if they already are, getting arrested for crimes they didn’t commit. The signs are there, people just have to take the time to see them.