There's always more to learn(The Wisdom of John Gardner)
Sometimes being able to hear from the experts is the best thing in the world. I am an Identity theft Risk Management specialist. Like everyone who specializes in this area I am self taught. There's no such animal as a degree in Identity theft prevention at this point. The closest thing we have to that is CITRMS, Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist which I am working on now. But every so often an expert falls in your lap. Last night that expert happened to be Attorney John Gardner.
You may have heard of Mr Gardner. He is the co-author of a little book titled "Chicken Soup for the Entrepreneur's Soul". He spent eight years as a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, but more importantly he saw the trend in Identity theft and set out to educate himself on it. He is probably one of the most educated individuals in North America if not the world when it comes to Identity theft and it's consequences. He is so far ahead of the curve concerning identity theft that in 2005 Money magazine ran an article saying medical identity theft was a figment of his imagination. Since then such respected publications and Reader's Digest and AARP have written articles warning us about medical identity theft. So Mr Gardner's little "figment" is real after all.
By his experience as a criminal lawyer he makes connections on this crime that are so far over the heads of the normal person it is amazing. Mr Gardner graciously turned our weekly business briefing into an extravaganza of learning for us all. Even after the briefing was over he joined us for a more informal fellowship time and made himself available to answer questions on this issue. I wanted to share with you a few things that he passed on to us last night.
Why is Identity theft exploding in America?
The answer is our demand for labor coupled with legislation placed on businesses to "qualify" potential employees as legally allowed to work here. America has become a haven for illegal workers. Don't fall under the impression that we are talking about strictly Hispanics either. Illegal immigrants are moving to America not only from Latin America but also from Russia, and Eastern Europe. Many come looking for work. When they arrive they cannot work without a social security number, they have to get them from somewhere, namely us. A valid social security number can fetch as much as $150 each.
What credit freezing really does for you.
One of the big things in identity theft protection is credit freezing. Yes that means no one can steal your financial identity, however it leaves your social security number, driver's license number, medical history and criminal history all at risk. In addition a credit freeze tells potential creditors you are at risk of fraud. If you continually freeze your credit, creditors will look at you as a risk for fraud and that will influence their decision.
Why is it so hard to recover from identity theft?
Everything today is computerized and automated. Information about you that enters the system, travels to different databases. Let's say you are a victim of a straight-forward financial identity theft. Someone opens a bank account in your name and writes bad checks. These checks will result in a criminal issue. In an attempt to prosecute the person responsible for the bad checks the police issue a warrant. That warrant then gets placed in the county database. From there it makes it's way to the state level and finally the Federal NCIC database. You clear up the financial issue. While that takes care of the information in the credit database it will not affect the information in the criminal databases. You believe the issue has been resolved because your credit is good but you still have warrants out for your arrest, you must address the information in all databases.
Credit monitoring/repair will not do that. These are just a few of the tidbits I picked up last night. Recovering from identity theft is truly beyond most of us. That is why we need help from attorneys and identity theft restoration experts.
You may have heard of Mr Gardner. He is the co-author of a little book titled "Chicken Soup for the Entrepreneur's Soul". He spent eight years as a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, but more importantly he saw the trend in Identity theft and set out to educate himself on it. He is probably one of the most educated individuals in North America if not the world when it comes to Identity theft and it's consequences. He is so far ahead of the curve concerning identity theft that in 2005 Money magazine ran an article saying medical identity theft was a figment of his imagination. Since then such respected publications and Reader's Digest and AARP have written articles warning us about medical identity theft. So Mr Gardner's little "figment" is real after all.
By his experience as a criminal lawyer he makes connections on this crime that are so far over the heads of the normal person it is amazing. Mr Gardner graciously turned our weekly business briefing into an extravaganza of learning for us all. Even after the briefing was over he joined us for a more informal fellowship time and made himself available to answer questions on this issue. I wanted to share with you a few things that he passed on to us last night.
Why is Identity theft exploding in America?
The answer is our demand for labor coupled with legislation placed on businesses to "qualify" potential employees as legally allowed to work here. America has become a haven for illegal workers. Don't fall under the impression that we are talking about strictly Hispanics either. Illegal immigrants are moving to America not only from Latin America but also from Russia, and Eastern Europe. Many come looking for work. When they arrive they cannot work without a social security number, they have to get them from somewhere, namely us. A valid social security number can fetch as much as $150 each.
What credit freezing really does for you.
One of the big things in identity theft protection is credit freezing. Yes that means no one can steal your financial identity, however it leaves your social security number, driver's license number, medical history and criminal history all at risk. In addition a credit freeze tells potential creditors you are at risk of fraud. If you continually freeze your credit, creditors will look at you as a risk for fraud and that will influence their decision.
Why is it so hard to recover from identity theft?
Everything today is computerized and automated. Information about you that enters the system, travels to different databases. Let's say you are a victim of a straight-forward financial identity theft. Someone opens a bank account in your name and writes bad checks. These checks will result in a criminal issue. In an attempt to prosecute the person responsible for the bad checks the police issue a warrant. That warrant then gets placed in the county database. From there it makes it's way to the state level and finally the Federal NCIC database. You clear up the financial issue. While that takes care of the information in the credit database it will not affect the information in the criminal databases. You believe the issue has been resolved because your credit is good but you still have warrants out for your arrest, you must address the information in all databases.
Credit monitoring/repair will not do that. These are just a few of the tidbits I picked up last night. Recovering from identity theft is truly beyond most of us. That is why we need help from attorneys and identity theft restoration experts.
1 people like it
Advertise on APSense
This advertising space is available.
Post Your Ad Here
Post Your Ad Here
Comments