Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. (PPLSI)
Your “Life Events” Legal Plan
Real justice shouldn't mean making a financial decision just to find out what your rights are. Pre-Paid Legal offers a wide variety of legal service plans, including the invaluable Identity Theft Shield.
The Federal Trade Commission reports that
"People whose identities have been stolen can spend months, or years - and thousands of dollars - cleaning up the mess thieves have made of their good name and credit record."
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Postmortem Identity Theft
Identity theft is very common in todays' world. It is very easy for almost anyone to get all kinds of information about you- either on the
Internet, by calling and tricking you into disclosing information, or even from mail you might leave in your vehicle or home. A different kind of identity theft has been going on for many, many decades.
This is postmortem identity theft. That's right, people can steal your identity even after you die. This can have disastrous consequences on your surviving family members when and if it is discovered.
How could something like this happen at all? Well, all it takes is an identity thief to read the obituaries and find someone who matches either what they look like or what their clients are looking for.
Once you have a name and birthday, all you have to do is go to city hall and get a death certificate. Social security numbers actually remain valid for a number of years after death due to paperwork pileup and overall population. This enables the use of that social security number for a long time with no worries.
The problems with postmortem identity theft arise when creditors notice this person is amassing a lot of debt. There will be a lot of confusion between family members and creditors as they try to sort this all out.
If there are inheritances, the creditors may try to get paid from that lump of money before any family members receive their share. This is very unfair but that's exactly what the identity thief wants.
By the time all this has happened, odds are the thief has moved on to another victim. To protect yourself, make sure to notify the Social Security Administration as well as all creditors and consumer reporting companies. If they know this person is deceased, they won't issue credit cards and notify you immediately if that social security number gets used.
Get your personal and legal life in order with our low cost, easy-to-use membership plan! Why wait until something happens and then scramble to try and get it taken care of? You don't have to be in trouble to need the advice and guidance of an attorney. Get a comprehensive will, legal power of attorney, and directive to physicians (living will) now, while you're alive, so that your family won't have to suffer more when you're not.
Call (510) 931-5805, or (888) 206-2978, toll-free, for more information.
0 Comment(s)Be on alert for identity theft
By DIANE WETZEL
Holiday season is also identity theft season.
"Statistics show that identity theft crime spikes this time of year," said Denise Richardson, author of "Give Me Back My Credit!" "It's a hectic time of year, and we are all out shopping, using our credit cards and less on guard."
In an interview from her home in Hollywood, Fla., Richardson said she became an identity theft expert the hard way, as a victim. She spent 15 years battling to restore her credit record.
A former real estate paralegal, Richardson believed if she paid her mortgage payments on time, just like all her other bills, her credit rating would paint a true and accurate picture of a "ordinary person who always paid her bills on time."
Richardson's problems began when she began paying extra principal payments on her mortgage every month.
It took two lawsuits for Richardson to clear her name and her credit.
"I thought my troubles were over," Richardson said. "Then I discovered bogus collection accounts on my credit report. That set off another five years of battling to restore my credit."
To prevent holiday identity theft and fraud, consumers should be on guard, whether shopping at the mall or online, Richardson said.
"Don't carry all your credit cards with you at the same time," she said. "Just take the one you intend to use."
Watch for "lurkers," Richardson warned, saying identity theft rings send people out that are trained to remember numbers.
"They will hover over you at ATM's, store counters, anywhere you might use your PIN number or credit card," Richardson said.
If shopping online, make sure the site you are using is secure. That includes looking to see if there is a telephone number and address so you can contact a human person if you have problems or questions.
"I urge people not to use debit cards for online shopping," Richardson said. "When you shop with a debit card, you open up to having account cleaned out, with no guarantee you will get that money back quickly or back at all."
After 15 years of fighting to clear her credit record, Richardson thought she was finally out of the woods.
"I thought everything was okay, then I got a call from my credit card company asking if I had been in Canada the day before. My heart just sunk. I thought, 'I can't go through this anymore.' "
Richardson signed up with Lifelock, a company that protects consumers from identity theft for a fee.
"I do support them and subscribe to them," Richardson said. " I support these companies that are trying to be part of the solution."
Lifelock is one of many identity theft prevention companies available. Next Advisor at nextadvisor.com compiled a list of 10 identity theft companies for comparison.
"There is only so much we can do," Richardson said. "The only way to prevent identity theft is to plan for it. I live in hurricane country, so every year I stock up on bottled water, flashlight batteries and other supplies just in case. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
"We don't have control over our information anymore," she said. "Now, if something happens, I have somewhere to turn for help."
Consumers at risk for identity theft around the holidays
By Stephen Gurr and Brandee Thomas Most people think that identity theft is just something that happens to other people, in other places, but sadly that is not the case. One Jefferson family knows just how close to home it can happen. "We received a phone call from a credit card company that someone was using my husband’s information to apply for a credit card," said Kay, who has asked that her husband’s name and their last name be withheld so as to not impede the investigation, which still is open. "The company was calling because the application was denied because the address on the credit card application didn’t match the one that was on his credit report. If they hadn’t called, we never would have known that someone had stolen his identity." That phone call was just the tip of the iceberg in the case involving her husband’s stolen identity. After obtaining her husband’s credit report, the Jefferson couple realized that more than 10 credit accounts had been opened by the person who stole Kay’s husband’s identity. "We don’t know where this person got my husband’s information from. The police are still investigating the case," Kay said. "And they applied for more than a dozen credit cards, all online." Anne Wallace, president of the Washington, D.C., Identity Theft Assistance Center, said the holidays "can be a risky time for consumers." "The basic problem is people are distracted, they’re in a hurry, they have too many things in their hands," said Wallace, whose nonprofit coalition has helped more than 45,000 consumers recover from Wallace said solicitations, either by phone, e-mail, or in person, can lead unwitting victims down the road of identity theft. Sometimes people who claim they are seeking donations to charitable causes can in fact be fishing for personal information. "Our human nature is to be trusting, and especially during the holidays we want to be trusting, and crooks take advantage of that trust," she said. In some cases, retailers haven’t set up the necessary safeguards to prevent the theft of credit card information by computer hackers. "The retail industry is trying very hard to get merchants to comply with better security standards, but there are still some smaller companies that may not have that level of security," Wallace said. Wallace said it’s difficult to name the most prevalent method of identity theft. "Identity theft takes many forms," she said. "It can be on the other side of the world and it can be in the same room with you. If you talk to law enforcement officials, they are concerned about organized crime and gangs dealing in (stolen) information. But on the other hand, based on the stories we hear, friends and family members can be a major risk as well." In August, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation set up the state’s first Identity Theft Unit, a seven-agent squad based in Conyers that focuses on large-scale, organized cases involving multiple victims. Gov. Sonny Perdue formed the unit in response to statewide statistics that show Georgians lost $25 million to identity theft in 2006. Georgia ranks seventh per capita in identity theft in the nation, with 34,000 reported cases since 2002, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC estimates that 65 percent of identity theft victims never report the crimes to law enforcement. "Once someone’s got your information, there’s a lot of potential there," said GBI Special Agent Terry Sosebee, who heads up the unit. "Imagination is the only limit." Bill Cloud, a spokesman for the Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs, said the proliferation of identity theft cases in recent years is "kind of like a bottomless pit; the numbers, the sophistication." Although no real damage has been done yet to her husband’s credit, Kay says that they still have a long road ahead of them to fix the problems that were created by the identity thief. "This can’t be fixed overnight. We have to write letters to the three credit reporting agencies and to all of the credit card companies where accounts were opened fraudulently," Kay said. "We’ve had to close out all of my husband’s actual credit accounts, put a fraud alert on his credit report and apply for a new debit card with our bank." Authorities warn that individuals can do a lot more to protect their identity and credit, like checking individual credit reports regularly to ensure that no new fraudulent accounts are being opened. "We really didn’t check our credit reports regularly before this. We just bought a house in March, so that was the last time that we checked them, but everything was fine then," she said. "But after all of this has happened, we will be checking our credit reports more regularly. We just want to take all precautions to keep this from happening again if we can." Don't wait for this to happen, be proactive! find out how you can protect yourself every day, all day by clicking here. AND don't think it's over, once you've been a victim of identity theft, statistically you're likely to become a victim again.
news@gainesvilletimes.com
identity theft. "They go to a mall with a wallet containing too much information, and if it’s stolen, you’re handing that criminal too much information."
Identity theft baffles victims
Two Rochester Hills residents reported separate incidents of identity theft Nov. 22. In both cases, they had no idea who had perpetrated the fraud or how their personal information had been obtained. A Grosse Pines Dr. resident learned that someone had opened a credit account using her Social Security number. She said she had received a letter about the account being opened, but ignored it since she hadn't applied for it. Then she was contacted by Dell about the account, and called police. A Glenbrooke Ct. resident found charges on his phone bill he didn't recognize. Upon questioning, he learned that someone set up an e-mail account, using his address and phone number for billing.
Larceny
Thieves Stole Identities to Tap Home Equity
By Brian Krebs
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Friday, November 28, 2008; Page E10
Federal authorities this week announced a series of arrests and convictions in connection with a global identity theft ring that stole millions of dollars by hijacking home-equity lines of credit issued to thousands of consumers.
On Monday, state and federal law enforcement officials arrested four men who were part of a group that allegedly combined high-tech equipment with old-fashioned con-artistry to drain home-equity lines.
According to charging documents unsealed this week in New Jersey's U.S. District Court, the men and four others arrested earlier this year tricked multiple banks and credit unions into wiring more than $2.5 million from home-equity lines to accounts controlled by members of a fraud ring in Canada, China, Japan, Vietnam and South Korea, among other countries.
Last Thursday, three people authorities say were connected to the New Jersey gang pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and related charges. Officials say they stole at least $10 million through home-equity scams.
The cases highlight what the FBI calls an "emerging scheme" afflicting the struggling real estate and mortgage market. In such crimes, thieves target people with good credit and large, untapped home-equity lines of credit, digging through public records -- such as property deeds and mortgages -- as well as publicly available Internet databases to obtain credit applications, credit reports and victim signatures.
"Home-equity lines of credit are an expanding front in the battle against mortgage fraud," said New Jersey U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie. "Homeowners should carefully review their statements to make sure their hard-earned equity is not disappearing from under their noses."
According to the criminal complaint, the defendants and alleged co-conspirators used fee-based Web databases to find documents that included names, birthdates and Social Security numbers of people with large balances in home-equity credit accounts.
The government alleges that the group also used other online database to locate answers to common security questions, such as the victim's mother's maiden name, and used the combined information to order credit reports in the victim's name to verify account balances.
Authorities say the defendants then would phone the victim's bank or credit union and ask it to wire a substantial portion of the line of credit to banks in Asia and Canada.
In the Virginia cases, the defendants acknowledged using caller-ID spoofing services, prepaid cellphones and PC wireless cards to hide their location and identity online. In many cases, the government alleges, the defendants transferred victims' home telephone numbers to alternate lines they controlled to stay one step ahead when the banks called to verify transfer requests.
Law enforcement officials say the New Jersey group operated in much the same way. Hakeem Olokodana, 41, one alleged ring member awaiting trial in New Jersey, is accused of asking a victim's bank to wire $675,000 to an account in Tokyo. Olokodana allegedly called Verizon posing as the victim, complaining of problems with his home phone line. He then persuaded Verizon to forward all incoming calls to a separate telephone number that he controlled, according to officials.
Verizon spokesman Eric Rabe said the company's customer support technicians employ a number of methods for verifying such requests, from asking about information on the customer's last phone bill, to the amount of the last payment.
"We are a frequent target of these kinds of attacks." Rabe said. "And while we may not be 100 percent successful at stopping them, we certainly have lots of measures in place to prevent this sort of thing."
The government alleges that Olokodana and other conspirators also traded personal and financial data of their victims using free Web mail accounts. Investigators say the men took care to mask their location by variously accessing the e-mail accounts via public wireless networks and through wireless PC cards acquired using billing information of other victims.
Arrested Monday were Derrick Polk, 45, of Los Angeles; Oludola Akinmola, 37, and Oladeji Craig, 39, of Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Oluwajide Ogunbiyi, 32, of Springfield, Ill. They appeared Monday in federal courts in Newark, Buffalo, Los Angeles and Springfield. All four face charges of wire fraud, which carries a penalty of five to 50 years.
Between August and October 2008, charges were brought against Olokodana, and Yomi Jagunna, 44, both of Queens, N.Y.; Abayomi Lawal, 45, of Brooklyn; and Daniel Yummi, 40, of New York. They also face wire fraud charges.
Yummi's court-appointed attorney Marc Leibman said his client is married and has a family in California, despite having been deported from the United States previously. Leibman said "the government's evidence against my client appears to be insurmountable."
"Mr. Yummi is presumed innocent until he pleads guilty," Leibman said. "But we will strive for the most just result."
An attorney for Olokodana said he had just been retained and was not able to speak about his client or the case. Calls to attorneys for the others charged were not returned.
Last week, Precious Matthews, 27, of Miami, and Ezenwa Onyedebelu, 20, and Brandy Anderson, 30, both of Dallas, pleaded guilty in Virginia to conspiring to possess personal identification information with intent to commit wire fraud, conspiring to commit wire fraud and conspiring to gain unauthorized access to computers.
Matthews and Onyedebelu face a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, a fine of up to $1 million and up to five years of supervised release, according to prosecutors. Anderson faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and up to three years of supervised release.
In a report released last summer, the Credit Union Information Security Professionals Association said a number of credit unions have beefed up security in response to an increase in home-equity fraud, but those precautions have come with their own costs: "Customer service call times have increased one minute on average due to increased security verifications, and some legitimate members are failing increased security questions," the report noted.
Anne Wallace, president of the Identity Theft Assistance Center, a nonprofit industry group, said properly training bank employees to detect fraud is critical.
"It's a challenging problem for companies across the board," Wallace said, "how to train your employees to balance customer service and protecting critical assets."
Wallace said consumers can help combat this growing form of fraud by keeping a close eye on bank statements and by taking full advantage of a federal law that guarantees consumers a free copy of their credit report from each of the three major credit reporting bureaus. Consumers can request credit reports three times a year for free at each credit bureau.
Contact us to arrange a free identity theft orientation for your employees. (888) 206-2978 toll-free, or (510) 931-5805 direct. E-mail JB@Get-AroundToIt.com or visit Get-Around-To-It for more information.
