Identity theft is a federal crime under the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act. It occurs when a con artist uses your personal information, such as name, mailing address, Social Security number, credit card number, birth date to set up a clone identity, which then buys merchandise, takes loans and makes other financial transactions. The impersonator keeps the loot, while you get stuck with the bad credit. Identity theft scams have received their fair share of media attention in recent years.

The crime of identity theft has reached epidemic proportions, with identity theft scams making headlines more and more every day. One of the high-profile identity theft scams involving a New York’s restaurant busboy, Abraham Abdallah, is the largest identity theft in the history of the Internet. Abdallah, a 32-year-old high school dropout, breached the private finances of 217 of the Forbes 400 wealthiest people in America. Using a few web-enabled cell phones, virtual voicemail and a public library computer, the so-called “busboy” is said to have guessed the passwords of his favorite tycoons, input personal information so conveniently available in Forbes magazine, swiped Social Security numbers, and accessed brokerage accounts.

Soon Abdallah forged bank’s stationeries deployed multiple couriers to escape detection, and had credit cards in Steven Spielberg, Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey and Ted Turner’s names! Law enforcement officers called it one of the most ambitious identity theft scams they had ever seen, a hi-tech scheme of Hollywood proportions. Even though the police arrested Abdallah five years ago, they are still trying to trace the complex electronic trail to figure out exactly how much money was siphoned.

Of the recent high-profile identity theft scams, the MphasiS BFL - Citibank case is particularly noteworthy, because of the ease with which five young employees from MsourcE, an Indian call center allegedly pulled off a financial fraud worth nearly half-a-million dollars. The accused were no geeks, and did not break through firewalls or decoded encrypted software. Instead, they devised a simple modus operandi. Being the authorized e-banking service providers to Citibank, these MsourcE employees were privy to confidential details of various account holders. The only pieces missing were the passwords, which these employees apparently got by “sweet-talking” the account holders.

Identity theft does not have to be big and news worthy to ruin peoples lives. The small time con artist can assume several different identities and ruin the financial lives of dozens of people, semingly overnight!

Keith Londrie II is a well known author. For more information on Identity Theft, please visit Identity Theft for a wealth of information. You may also want to visit keith’s own web site at http://keithlondrie.com/

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Credit monitoring services alert individuals to changes to their credit report instantly- either via email, text message on cell phones or by phone calls. Many people use credit monitoring services to help them keep an eye on their credit histories and to increase their ability to recognize a fraudulent activity.
The US Federal Trade Commission estimates that it takes about a year before a consumer notices that they have been victims of identity theft. If you are using a credit monitoring service, you would have noticed the activity much faster than if you were only obtaining your credit reports annually. With over 10 million Americans falling victim to identity theft crimes annually, it0s no wonder we are willing to pay for services like credit monitoring.
Most credit monitoring services charge a monthly fee between $10 and $15, with the price dependent upon the level of monitoring you receive.
Information Provided by Credit Monitoring Services
Each credit monitoring service offers information for a fee; although the exact information provided and the price you pay for it may differ slightly between companies.
Most credit monitoring services give you access to your credit score, although some may only provide the FICO score and others might provide access to […]

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Several states allow individuals to freeze their credit report- which prohibits credit from being issued in their names. While some states, including Texas, Illinois, Washington and Vermont, only allow credit freezes if the individual has already been the victim of identity theft- other states, including California, New York, New Jersey, Louisiana, Maine, North Carolina and Colorado.
All states allow individuals to place a fraud alert on your credit report. This means that before issuing credit in your name, the creditors are supposed to contact you for permission. This might sound like a great idea, but there are no laws that require that creditors follow the alert process, and usually even with the alert, credit is simply issued when applied for if the individual is approved.
What is a Credit Freeze?
When you freeze your credit report, no one can open any credit in your name. Potential lenders, insurers and potential employers cannot access your credit report. When you apply for lending or your employer wishes to check your credit report, the credit reporting agency will tell the company trying to look at your frozen report that they can0t see it due to an account freeze. Most companies […]

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