People Need To Get Wiser about Identity Theft

Early in April this year, 62-year old Marion Kminek of Cape Coral succumbed to identity theft. The credit card company of whose services she availed notified her on April 4 that eight Blockbuster and computer repair accounts were set up in her name. This prompted Kminek to check her credit records and she found a regular charge of $25.95 every month since December 2006 for a supposed use of a pornography website. There had been another overseas fraudulent charge from her account ten years ago. That incident was fast detected.

Kminek lamented the hassle involved. But she thought she was lucky for she could have been worse hit compared to what she gathered from news about people who had even worse experiences. News-press published this on Aril 19, 2007.

After these happenings chief security officer for Riverside Bank, Rod Shoap is adopting ways to catch the culprits as well as help people become wiser in operating their accounts.

According to the Better Business Bureau, one should not just throw away pieces containing personal information. BBB recommends tearing the salary stubs to pieces after receiving one's end-of-year W-2. It would also be safe to shred ATM, debit and credit receipts after reviewing the monthly statements. Similarly, shredding utility statements after getting the next bill is advisable.

Norma Miller, a business relations representative for BBB cautioned about dumpster diving that helps identity thieves to collect people's information. A driver's license in the hands of criminals can similarly do quite a bit of damage. These thieves can even open bank or credit card accounts in others' names. Kndo published this in news on April 19, 2007.

Rod Shoap of Riverside Bank sat with the City Manager to talk about prevention of identity theft. The administrative staff of the Police Department discussed with the City Manager about the unsigned letter alleging that department members took improper actions.

Identity fraud was a national problem and thieves were getting smarter, said Shoap. Cape police spokeswoman Dyan Lee said in news that News-press published on April 19, 2007 that identity theft trickles down to other crimes.

Related article: Paypal – Web Hosting Services Need To Work Hard To Tackle Phishing

» SPAMfighter News - 4/27/2007