ChickSpeak

Identity Theft.  The phrase itself sounds like something distant, something that emits the response “It couldn’t happen to me”. 

Unfortunately, that is the attitude of a lot of young women, and it’s a big mistake.  Identity theft can happen you. 

Take the story of Karen Lodrick who lost thousands of dollars due to relentless thief who was determined to take her identity and all of her money.  Karen’s story is extreme, she chased down her thief when the police were not able to help her and after spending 6 months of her life acting as her own private investigator in the search to clear her name and bank account. 

In her story, she tells that after returning from Thanksgiving vacation there was message on her voice mail from a bank requesting a verification that she had made several large withdrawal’s from her account within the past few days.  Karen was confused, she had not made any withdraws from her account since before she left on her trip.  This was just the beginning of her nightmare. 

She soon learned the thief had taken over $2,400 from her bank account.  It turns out, the identity thief had been targeting her mail and stealing credit card applications, credit card, and bank statements from Karen and obtained information she would need in order to apply for an account both credit and bank with Karen’s exact information.  Even after Karen had requested passwords be attached too all of her accounts, the thief stole mailings from creditors which had her new password on it.  This brave women actually found her thief buying a coffee in a local Starbucks and chased her down until police could apprehend her.  Wow, talk about everyday heros! 

 While most of us will hopefully not have our identity stolen or have a high paced chase with the perpetrator we all should be protecting ourselves from this growing crime.  Most of us probably get several credit card applications a day, credit card statements, and the inevitable utility bills.  Keep in mind these are all ways in which we could become victims of identity theft. 

Here are some tips to help protect yourself from this unsavory crime.

• Invest in a shredder and shred old credit card statements, utility bills, pay stubs, and absolutly anything that has personal information on it
• Don’t carry your Social Security Card in your wallet. Keep it in a safe place at home, and only take it with you when you need it
• Do all of your banking on-line
• Request credit card statements on-line, this not only reduces your risk for identity theft, but it also saves a few trees
• Reduce the amount of unsolicited credit card requests by calling the Consumer Credit Reporting Industry at 888-567-8688 and opt out of future credit offers