Identity Theft: LifeLock
A Growing Monster
With the United States population rising to just over 300 million this past year, the risk of identity theft is going to be rising steadily. For the 4th year in a row the Federal Trade Commission reported that identity theft was the number one consumer complaint. Over 10 million people reported fraudulent activity with their personal information. The methods were ranging from bank accounts, credit cards and even utility accounts. If you have been the victim of new account fraud then you are 1 of 3.23 million others who experienced new accounts being opened fraudulently. The cost of identity theft was 53 billion dollars. These baffling dollar amounts created over 300 million hours spent trying to resolve the problem. Startling enough, 70% of cases were an “inside” job….meaning that 70% of the time a co-worker or an employee was responsible for the the
Have You Seen Your Credit Report Lately?
Now you are probably wondering why I would spend so much time researching these random statistics? I think it would be fairly accurate to say that most people have no idea what their credit report looks like. Most people probably have no idea that they are a victim from identity theft. Ten million reported they were victims, but I wonder what the statistic would be if everybody had an idea. Exactly what are you doing to prevent somebody from stealing your identity? I talk to people every week that go to the auto dealership, find a “dream” car and when the the salesman pulls their credit and denies them they are baffled. Poor credit changes your life.
Its very similar to building muscle. You can spend weeks and weeks on building the perfect physique, but if you stop maintaining the physique it does not take long to lose everything you built up. When your credit report is damaged by something as serious as identity theft it doesn’t get back to where it was or over night. It takes time, time you do not have to spend rebuilding it on your own. Time that could have been avoided if the proper precautions are taken. Again I would ask… what are you doing to prevent identity theft?