17 Year Identity Theft by Estranged Father Results in Son's Bankruptcy

In this sad, but true story, a father that left behind
an infant son used his social security number from 1982
to 1999 to obtain credit from merchants and lenders.

During that time, the father generated tens of thousands
of dollars in debts in his son's name. The father then
declared bankruptcy using his son's name and social
security number resulting in default judgements
(public court records) against the son.

The son, now 24, has worked tirelessly for eight
years to straighten out his credit record.

Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America
and identity thieves are increasingly targeting children
for their clean credit and lack of criminal records.
Not to mention, the ability to go un-noticed for
years that the identity theft has even been
committed against the innocent and unsuspecting.

Far more alarming, though, is the fast growth rate of
identity theft being committed against children.

At least 400,000 children had their identities stolen
in 2005, more than double the number in 2003 according
to the ITRC. The ITRC estimates that two-thirds of child
identity thefts are perpetrated by family members.

Want to protect your children from identity theft?

Our tip for today, is to order copies of your children's
credit & public records profiles to verify there is NO
open or delinquent credit accounts as well as court
judgements against them.

Additionally, to keep your children's credit identity
away from thieves, refuse to provide social security
numbers on forms when it is requested for non-crucial
activities such as sporting teams our recreational
events.

And always, remember you (and your children) have
rights protected under various federal and state
level laws which protect your credit information
and provide you the opportunity to verify the
accuracy and sharing of your personal information.

Dad Steals Son's Identity to Buy A Cadillac

In another sad incident of a father committing
identity theft against his own son, a New York
state man has been arrested after attempting
to secure an auto loan with the son's social
security number (ssn).

According to the UPI story:

"The father, Christopher Hendrickson of East
Islip, N.Y., was arrested and charged with
first-degree identity theft, police said.

Investigators told Newsday Hendrickson used
his own name, but lifted his son's Social
Security number and used an altered date of
birth to apply for a loan for the 2004
Cadillac CTS he bought in March."

Proving that identity theft criminals
typically do not limit themselves to
only a single act, the story further
points out how shameless this father
turned out to be:

"Hendrickson was being investigated in an
unrelated identity theft case when law
enforcement officials uncovered the new
incident involving his son, police said."

So, our tip for today is for anyone who
has "shady" family members or associates.
Guard well your personal identity and
credit information.

Lock up your confidential information
and shred any bank or credit card
statements immediately after
inspecting for incorrect balances
or fraudulent transactions.

Finally, since most identity theft criminals
are habitual thieves, get your own silent
defense system by enrolling for credit
monitoring and periodic background
self checks of your public information
profile (pip).

Finally, as an added bit of preventative
identity theft protection - tell your friends
and shady relatives about your identity
theft secrets you are actively using so they
too will think twice about identity theft.

Dad, I Stole Your Identity and Ruined Your Credit

Here's one gift you don't want for Father's Day!

A son fraudulently obtained more than $122,000
in credit as part of his identity theft crime spree
for over 1 year against his very own father.

The Rhode Island youth, a former participant on the "Wife Swap"
reality TV show, himself got a dose of real world justice when
he was arrested for identity theft and obtaining money under
false pretenses.

Unbelievably, the father only discovered the identity theft fraud
against his name when a credit card company contacted
him for payment on overdue balances.

The "real" tragedy in this story, is that a son would even commit
identity theft against his own father. Surprisingly, there's a
significant amount of identity theft which takes place whereby
the thief knows the victim.

In the case of the son, he took advantage of the fact he was a
"Jr." who shared the same first and last name as his
father.

Unfortunately, though, "Jr." now has a felony arrest on his record
and will most likely find it extremely difficult to ever get
credit or a decent job.

So, our tip for today, is to make sure your kids fully understand
identity theft is a serious crime. For parents, to further
protect yourself from the youthful indiscretion as Jr., it's
wise to take advantage of automatic credit monitoring as well
as opting out from pre-approved credit solicitations printed
in your name.

Finally, check out your driving record as well
to insure Jr. hasn't set you up for arrest warrants, too.

Identity Theft of 1 Yr Old Infant Leads to Bank Fraud

We've recently reported on priests, an ex-cop, & even
father/son identity theft.

But today's story, hit's an all time record low for
identity theft.

It seems an 18 month old baby has become the
youngest identity theft victim of record in
Massachusetts. The infant's social security
number was stolen by an identity thief who
subsequently used it to open not one but
two bank accounts.

The bank accounts opened were then used
to deposit fraudulent checks totalling
$19,000 causing the bank to freeze it.

Evidently, the identity thief who's wanted in
this case also attempted to secure a
driver's license in the infant's name
but was refused.

Identity theft against minors is a growing problem
which the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) estimates
400,000 children annually become victims of
identity theft. It's a big problem that takes longer
to discover than against adults.

Case in point, the infant's mother didn't discover
the crime until a year later as she attempted to
open a savings account for her son at her bank.

So, our tip for today, is it's never too early to start
the monitoring process for your loved ones. Since most
identity theft victims rarely know how the identity thief
gets their information or when, it's best to simply set
up a credit "burgular alarm" to alert you when
suspicious activity occurs.

Plus, because the identity theft against minor aged children
can also go un-noticed for years within public and criminal
records, it's prudent to check your infant's personal profile
for the non-credit items potentially lurking under their
name which will ruin their financial livelihood as adults.

Identity Theft from Teen's Free Music

Just after Christmas, her cell phone was
suddenly shut off from receiving any
incoming calls. Then came purchases and
credit cards from all across the country.

At one point, the Seattle area woman even
discovered there was an order in her name
for a $500 phone to be shipped to Florida.

At this point she and her husband were
well on their way to suffering the
financial ravages of identity theft
and credit fraud.

According to the story, investigators
determined a free music file sharing
program called "Limewire"
downloaded by the woman's
15 year old son was the
genesis of her identity theft
problems.

Evidently, hacker identity thieves had
planted the "Limewire" file within the
shareable music files for unsuspecting victims
to mistakenly download which subsequently
shared her banking, billing, & private
document folders.

So, instead of her son just getting free
music - the family got a pile of fraudulent
bills and credit headaches for many months.

With the stolen information, not only did
the identity thieves order cell phones, but
they also ordered at least two computers and
conducted money transfers in at least 2 states
each.

The identity thieves even set up gambling
accounts in the United Kingdom and Costa
Rica before they were caught by authorities.

Police arrested two teenagers in Florida
who admitted being the identity thieves
that committed the $10k+ fraud against
the Washington state woman. But, authorities
indicated they were not sure if others
could also be involved as identity thieves
often trade stolen credit and personal
information with other would be thieves.

So, our tip for today is to advise your
children to only download music from
your chosen on-line music store - like
iTunes - and avoid altogether the free
file swapping web sites. Additionally,
since teenagers are often tempted by
free offers from identity thieves, it's
best to reinforce your parental direction
by installing a firewall, anti-virus,
and anti-spyware software to catch would
be identity theft files in real time before
they can do their damage.

We run not 1, not 2, but 5 overlapping
tools (constantly updated) to protect
our servers from malicious attacks by
identity thieves.

Finally, be aware that no amount of software
protection can ever out perform common sense
and frequent scrutiny of your financial accounts.

We'll supply the anonymous tips to keep you on the
look out for the new schemes, scams, & identity
theft tricks designed to steal your family's hard
earned income and financial well being.

5 Year Old with Bad Debt from Father's Identity Theft

Can you imagine how it must be for a kindergarten aged kid to be
in debt with collections agents harassing him for his milk money
just because his not so dear old dad stole his identity?

Well, a California dad was arrested recently after police found identity
theft associated items at the man's home which also revealed drugs.

Proving again the strong causal connection between identity
theft and meth addiction, the father was booked for identity
theft and possession of a controlled substance.

Evidently, the drugs were a more powerful motivating force in his
life than any decency to not impact his young son's financial future
by committing identity theft against him before he was 5 year's old.

So, our tip for today is to be on guard against identity theft attempts
against your children by unsavory relatives. Investigate your options,
such as Lifelock, which offers limited identity theft protection for
kids under the age of 16 (provided an adult family member is already
a paid member).

Lifelock is one of the only services we know of which specifically
will provide identity theft prevention services for under age minors.

Special End Note:

Not many people know about how to prevent their children's
identity theft. Tell a friend about this podcast or article.
It's anonymous, free, and safe for you to share our tips.

Identity Theft Leads to Credit Bureau Damages

In what may yet become an opening salvo
of consumer litigation in the continuing war
against identity theft, one of the three major
credit bureaus has been ordered by a federal
judge to pay over $350,000 in damages to a
Virginia woman.

The woman's lawsuit was originally filed against all three
major credit bureaus: Equifax, TransUnion, & Experian as
well as her creditor, CitiFinancial for the total of $45
million.

This whole sad episode, for all parties involved, started
in June, 2003 with the birth of the Virginia woman's son
at a local area hospital. That hospital stay resulted in
her social security number (ssn) becoming stolen
by an identity thief masquerading as an temporary worker
within the billing department.

The identity thief used the woman's stolen social security
number to open several credit accounts generating
"thousands of dollars" in fraudulent debt
responsible for the victim to pay.

The appalling part of the hospital's hiring was the staffing
agency who supplied the temporary billing person evidently
did not conduct a thorough background check. The temporary
worker was later exposed to have had prior convictions for
identity theft and was on probabition at the time she was
placed within the hospital's billing department.

Although the identity thief was arrested and sentenced to
two years in prison, the identity theft victim was left
with several more years of harassment by debt
collection companies as her credit reports continued
to show non-payment.

Note, this was after the identity theft victim attempted to
clear her credit record for over a year. This was even
after she initially reported the crime to all three credit bureaus.

Although all three credit bureaus filed written denials
against the lawsuit's allegations, the federal court saw things
differently with the judgement against Equifax.

More importantly, though, the lawsuit claimed the credit bureaus
lack a mechanism to repair the damage identity theft
does to a person's credit report.

In other words, you are on your own to clean up the
financial wreakage caused by identity theft based credit fraud.

So, our tip for today is to learn wisely from this identity theft
victim's tragic painful story. The credit bureaus, while mostly
diligent in their data protection and accuracy efforts, are reliant
upon the quality of the data reported to them. The fact
in this case that you've learned was a proven identity thief was
actually hired in a highly sensitive personal data rich information
was a mistake you can never control against.

However, there is a better way to seek a solution to the control
you deserve for your financial safety and well being.

Your best option to avoid this problem is to institute your very
own burgular alarm to warn you when you have fallen victim
to identity theft. By adopting a quality account and credit monitoring
system, you can avoid the severity and lengthy amount of harassment
you will face from debt collectors like this Virginia woman.

$1.5 Million Proves Identity Theft Does Pay

Priests, an ex-cop, fathers against sons, son against fathers
medical office billing clerks, laptops containing social security
numbers, and more.

We've shared with you stories recently involving all of these
type of individuals who have committed identity theft to
illustrate how pervasive this crime has become.

Why?

Identity theft has become a crime of convenience and opportunity
for many would be criminals. What we mean by convenience is that
it's been suggested by law enforcement officials that identity thieves
now believe it's easier to steal and traffic stolen personal information
than to peddle drugs - especially by organized gangs. With the
reduced potential to getting caught and receiving long
prison sentences, identity theft presents a more attractive
opportunity for criminals to make a easy living.

Case in point, a New York man recently was indicted for his role in
an identity theft scam that defrauded several high profile financial
institutions out of more than $1,5000,000 involving home
equity loans and lines of credit. The New York identity thief
was able to secure these loans using the stolen personal information
of innocent victims living in the area. This identity thief also
fraudently purchased at least $180,000 in various goods and
services using the victim's credit information.

But, how could he have acquired the identity theft victim's
personal & credit information?

Here's one possible answer as evidenced by the recent arrest of a
postal carrier. Apparently, this lady identity thief had stolen
credit cards, checkbooks and bank statements from at
least five (as many as 12) people to whom she delivered mail to
in her area. She was arrested by police after attempting to use
one of the stolen credit cards at a local area shopping mall.

As in these two cases, we've seen an emerging pattern used by
identity thieves with the use of "data collectors". Data
collectors are individuals who typically would not raise
suspicion by lingering or even just regularly transiting a
residential area - but they also serve a double live as
friend to a identity thief. Going about their seemingly
normal daily activities, they also secretly steal
consumer's personal information for either
subsequently selling to other identity thieves
that actually use this information
to purchase goods illegally. Or, these id theft "collectors"
may selectively, but most often quickly, use their victim's
stolen credit cards (and pre-approved applications) to go
on a shopping spree for electronics or other goods they
can re-sell for a profit.

In either case, identity theft does pay for those criminals
waiting for the opportunity to steal your personal information
to commit credit fraud against your good name.

So, our tip for today is straight forward. You can
not stop identity thieves from wanting and
even attempting to steal your personal
information from every place it resides or
where it's being transported to amongst
data sharing partners.

You can, however, practice denial and detection methods as
your way to prevent identity theft from happening to you.
By denial, we mean opt out from pre-approved credit and
junk mail marketing lists. Plus, switch to on-line billing
statement delivery from your financial institutions as well
to limit the amount of your personal information from freely
circulating through the USPS mail system. Make sure to also
request from your financial institutions your right to privacy
by opting out of them sharing your personal data amongst their
marketing partners.

Finally, institute the practice of "detection" by enrolling in
credit and account monitoring as your identity theft burglar
alarm to guard against suspicious transactions or intrusion
by would be identity thieves.

Lastly, don't forget that identity theft just doesn't involve credit
data. You can also leave yourself vastly exposed to large scale
identity theft, as in the case of real estate property purchased
by identity thieves, if you haven't checked out your public records
lately as well.

Identity Theft Turns to Child Porn Bust

A New Mexico man gets unfairly labeled as a child
pornagrapher after he himself was the victim of
identity theft.

It seems an identity thief stole the man's name
and credit card number which were subsequently
used in the purchase of a website which posted
child porno.

The true victim, the New Mexico man, began noticing
strange charges on his debit card last March but
never reported them to police.

But he was surprised 3 weeks ago to learn a search
warrant being served to him by the Internet Crimes
Against Children unit while a local television
station conducted a "live" broadcast of the raid
on his home.

It gets worse, though, as this New Mexico man
is a humanities teacher - was put on administrative
leave.

Imagine the humiliation before his community, his
co-workers, his wife, and even his 6 year old son.

The good news to this story, however, is the investigation
uncovered the New Mexico man was actually the victim of
identity theft and was not the child pornagrapher.

He's now, according to the source, is back in school
resuming his teaching career of 8 years.

The only clue the New Mexico man could publicly shed on how he
may have contributed to becoming an identity theft victim was
if some retail sales clerk may have written his account
number down when he passed his debit card over during a
purchase transaction.

Want to avoid becoming this type of double victim?

Our tip for today, is avoid using your ATM card as a credit card.
Secondly, since identity thieves don't always utilize your stolen
information immediately, having automatic credit monitoring with
exception alerts is highly recommended to catch suspicious
transactions when they occur.

Finally, check your criminal and public records profiles
for any instances where an identity thief has used your name.

Special endnote:

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