Identity Theft is America’s fastest growing crime – There were more than 10 million victims last year in the US alone. Ten million Americans had their sense of security taken away from them!

Think you’re not at risk for Identity Theft? Unfortunately, you are.

• Do you hand your credit card to servers at restaurants?
• Do you sign the back of your credit cards?
• Do you supply personal information over the internet?
• Do you keep your Social Security number in your wallet or purse?
• Do you always give your Social Security number when asked for it?
• Do you leave mail at your home or business for the mailman to pick up?
• Do you throw away unwanted mail with personal information?

What if Identity Theft happened to you? Would you know where to start?

• Call your bank and/or credit card company
• Contact the three major credit repositories
• Go through the helpful but extensive steps
  recommended by the Federal Trade Commission in its 30-page consumer support publication
• Fill out and submit the affidavit form supplied by the FTC to dispute new, unauthorized accounts
• Spend on average $1,500 in out-of-pocket expenses and an average of 175 hours in your efforts to resolve the many problems caused by identity thieves

Whew! See how exhausting this is to try to re-claim your identity? Be smart and prevent this from ever happening to you by becoming a PrePaid Legal member.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 at 3:40 pm and is filed under PrePaid Legal Help. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.