Identity theft: The crime of the century

For the sixth straight year, identity theft ranked number one nationally in consumer complaints, according to a report just released by the Federal Trade Commission’s Northeast Region.
The numbers are staggering.
Nationally, in the reporting year of 2005, the FTC received more than 686,000 complaints, and 37 percent dealt with identity theft. New York State numbers are equally alarming. The FTC received nearly 21,000 fraud complaints and more than 17,000 identity theft complaints making it eighth in the nation in identity theft complaints per 100,000 people.
“This is being dubbed as the crime of the century,” said Cheryl Miller, Executive Director/National Recruiter for Prepaid Legal Inc., and Identity Solutions, a company that designs and markets legal expense plans. “This is something no one can stop,” she said.
Identity theft can happen to individuals, or on a larger scale, entire businesses and companies can feel its effects. The major forms of identity theft are stealing social security and credit card numbers. Many times this is done through Internet auctions, phone scams and credit card information provided over the Internet through non-reputable Websites.
“We tell our seniors, if anybody asks for personal information on the phone not to give it to them and not give a social security number,” said Senator Serphin Maltese, who has been working hard to inform his constituents about the dangers of identity theft before it happens to them. Maltese has put together a brochure that his office makes available to the public with tips to prevent identity theft.
However, if a person becomes a victim of identity theft, they should immediately put a fraud alert on all of their credit cards and review their recent credit reports in order to determine how much damage has already been done. After reviewing the accounts, victims should close any accounts with charges that they did not make. Finally, the victim should file a report with the local police and register a complaint with the FTC.
“By providing the FTC and its partners with information about their experiences, consumers help us fight fraud and educate the public about the types of scams that target them,” said Barbara Anthony, Director of the FTC’s Northeast Regional Office.
Here is a list of a few things people can do in order to make sure they are not the next identity theft victim: