Your identity is like a fine wine-It ages well
Datalosses happen everyday. It's important that you know about them and there are two great resources for tracking these security breaches.
The First is the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse the second is Dataloss DB
You can track security breaches through these two sites to know if your information has been compromised by someone. And that is important information to know. If it's a financial institution, you have legal remedies available and these are time sensitive. 60day is the benchmark for challenging fraud on a credit card. With banking you can limit your liability also. Check your local consumer protection agency to find out what the limitations are.
But you need to understand one big point, what you know identity thieves know. They know that in most cases the entity that loses the information will be providing you with credit monitoring for a set amount of time that can vary from three months at the low end up to two years at the maximum. Identity thieves are not stupid, and it's not the guys sitting at his computer in a stained wife beater sending out viruses you have to worry about, it's the identity theft rings.
Identity theft has evolved into a huge money maker for Organized Crime entities around the globe. In 2005 the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported that the revenue generated by trafficking in stolen information surpassed the revenue generated by trafficking in illegal drugs. In 2007 the US Secret Service agreed with the FBI.
How are these criminal organizations making so much off of your information? Like I said they know what you know. They know that there will be a heightened awareness by people right after a breach. They know that your information may be watched for as long as two years. There is no expiration date on your information! They just sit it on a shelf and let that information 'age'. When a couple of years pass they take it off the shelf and put it into circulation.
Now two years later, you have forgotten all about those records your doctors off threw into a dumpster that triggered the security breach. Nothing happened in the two years since then so you think nothing of it. Then on the 15th month, fraudulent charges appear on your credit card. Or you get pulled over for speeding and the next thing you know your are under arrest for passing hot checks. Or maybe you get a bill from a medical provider demanding payment for surgery you did not have. And you are now wondering how you became an identity theft victim. It's simple they just sat on your information until it was 'safe' to use.
The First is the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse the second is Dataloss DB
You can track security breaches through these two sites to know if your information has been compromised by someone. And that is important information to know. If it's a financial institution, you have legal remedies available and these are time sensitive. 60day is the benchmark for challenging fraud on a credit card. With banking you can limit your liability also. Check your local consumer protection agency to find out what the limitations are.
But you need to understand one big point, what you know identity thieves know. They know that in most cases the entity that loses the information will be providing you with credit monitoring for a set amount of time that can vary from three months at the low end up to two years at the maximum. Identity thieves are not stupid, and it's not the guys sitting at his computer in a stained wife beater sending out viruses you have to worry about, it's the identity theft rings.
Identity theft has evolved into a huge money maker for Organized Crime entities around the globe. In 2005 the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported that the revenue generated by trafficking in stolen information surpassed the revenue generated by trafficking in illegal drugs. In 2007 the US Secret Service agreed with the FBI.
How are these criminal organizations making so much off of your information? Like I said they know what you know. They know that there will be a heightened awareness by people right after a breach. They know that your information may be watched for as long as two years. There is no expiration date on your information! They just sit it on a shelf and let that information 'age'. When a couple of years pass they take it off the shelf and put it into circulation.
Now two years later, you have forgotten all about those records your doctors off threw into a dumpster that triggered the security breach. Nothing happened in the two years since then so you think nothing of it. Then on the 15th month, fraudulent charges appear on your credit card. Or you get pulled over for speeding and the next thing you know your are under arrest for passing hot checks. Or maybe you get a bill from a medical provider demanding payment for surgery you did not have. And you are now wondering how you became an identity theft victim. It's simple they just sat on your information until it was 'safe' to use.
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Comments (2)
Cheryl Baumgartner12
Medical Billing/Coding/Insurance
Thank you Janet. Identity theft is a complicated issue and most people are unaware of the dangers
Janet Legere10
Internet Marketing Training Expert
Great reminder to protect ourselves! Well done