Identityfraudresources.com

Credit Theft. How serious is it?

Credit Theft on the internet has been propelled into the limelight although, using someone’s credit ratings instead of your own, is actually nothing new. It is almost mandated by some current financial situations.

For example, a single mother on a fixed income, may at some point use her child’s social security number to sign up for local utilities, rather than go without. A tough choice indeed. This is still considered credit identity theft however.

Here, we are referencing credit fraud being committed with the sole purpose of realizing financial gain at another person’s expense and detriment.

Recent identity theft statistics show that of 635,000 complainants reporting identity theft with the FTC, 61% involved fraud, including credit report theft and computer identity theft, and 39% were identity theft complaints. This study also revealed the following:

• Card Credit Theft was the most common form of identity theft, accounting for 28% of thefts reported.
• Phone or utilities fraud was next, accounting for 19 % of identity thefts reported.
• Bank fraud followed, accounting for 18% of identity thefts reported.
• The FTC also presented some figures about online credit report identity theft committed over the Internet. Of 205,568 Internet-related complaints, 90 % of the victims reported they had suffered a financial loss to their credit wallet. The average loss was $1,440.

As noted, a full 90% of the credit theft victims reported a financial loss, averaging approximately $1440 each! Not a small sum by any means, yet the financial loss was only the tip of the iceberg, signaling much larger hazards to come.

The available resources in many instances will determine how an ID crime victim approaches his/her misfortune. Sadly, many victims cannot take the necessary actions to restore their good name, choosing instead to “leave it up to the authorities”, the exact action the thief was hoping for.

Victims of credit theft endure all sorts of embarrassments and get blacklisted in many ways, simply because it is so difficult and time consuming to restore their identity. This is occurring simply because there is no law to stop the creditors from doing so! We all know that it is morally wrong to do so but what do morals have to do with profits?

Some victims never recover from the crime due to the expense of restoring their good name, choosing to live their lives as best as they can. Worst yet, a few victims never even report credit theft as it occurs. A lifetime of “messed up” credit woes usually follow.

They endure phone calls from debt collectors all day long, bite their lip when turned down for loans and employment, and just pay the higher rates and fees insurance companies and others charge them.

Credit theft and credit fraud always at the back of their minds, at the end of the year, they file their tax returns with their fingers crossed, praying their return doesn’t get audited.

Unfortunately, there always come a point when someone invariable asks them, “What are you going to do about these outstanding debts?”

Maybe, if they had taken the time to investigate and invest in some form of identity protection beforehand, that question may have never been asked.

Credit theft could be a first sign of a “stolen Identity”.

We discuss elsewhere on our web site, the fact that it is impossible to “Steal an Identity”. Put simply, by cloning an individual, you are not replacing them, you are just duplicating them. This applies to their identity as well.

So then, when we say an identity “is stolen” , what exactly do we mean? We are saying that someone is pretending to be the victim, using their good credit ratings to further the thief’s own financial desires. The burden and risk of loss lies solely on the victim in this case.

This crime is usually classified as credit theft and may be exposed through a thorough examination of the credit report easily obtained from agencies like The Transunion Credit Bureau. Once you identify the theft, it is imperative that you report it immediately! It’s the only way to mitigate the losses to follow.