Identity Theft - Just A Stroll Through The Trash

It's that time of the month again...

Some handle it better then others but in one way, shape or form, we all must face it.

Time to pay the bills.

We sort through them. Pay this one online, send that one a check, this one can wait. But when all is said and done we toss the statements in the trash and stick the bills in the mail. While stealing from a mail box is a federal crime, do you think the identity thieves care?

What about dumpster diving? Yes it is illegal in the States, but hardly enforced. Maybe a ticket or a warning. Besides, bums are the only people low enough to go digging through dumpsters. But if some one were to come across that little plastic bag that sat in your waist basket under the desk it is GOLD in the right hands.

While doing a little research on Identity Theft, I was quite overwhelmed by the amount of information there is on alley surfing. ( Seems to be an number of social groups, forums and 'how to' sites on the topic. Yuck ) At the time of this posting ... Late April, 2008... doing a simple search on 'identity theft ring' on Google news came up with over 30 original stories from all corners of the US, Canada and Russia. That's more then one a day! The most recent one was about Lending Tree leaking passwords for customer accounts. That does not pertain to curbing directly, but consider this... How many sticky notes, forms, and applications get tossed in the trash every day? Ones with your user name and passwords on them.

I don't want it to look like I'm jumping around here, but I should introduce Gartner, Inc. They are the world's leading information technology research and advisory company. A think tank deserving the global respect it has. One of the countless organizations they work with is the Identity Theft Resource Center ( Itrc ). Together they have come up with a few stats...

According to the Gartner study the 2006 victim population was at 15 million victims. That means every minute about 28 ½ people become a new victim of this crime, or a new victim in just over 2 seconds.

The incidence of victimization increased 11-20% between 2001 and 2002 and 80% between 2002 and 2003 (Harris Interactive). This same study found that 91% of respondents do not see an "end to the tunnel" and expect a heavy increase in victimization. 49% also stated that they do not feel they know how to adequately protect themselves from this crime.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice Statistics, identity theft is now passing up drug trafficking as the number one crime in the nation.

Scams play a role in identity theft. According to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, they found a total of 23,670 phishing websites in July 2006 compared to just 4,564 in July 2005.

To read more 'make you sick to your stomach' facts you can click here.

Now lets get back to the topic at hand and put on out thinking caps.

Think about the Gangster movies from the 1920's... organized crime, the family, the Boss. The Boss never got his hands dirty. He delegated jobs to his Big Earners, who in turn passed it down to the various minions who found a local paper boy to deliver 'the package'.... See it?

Now fast forward to today. To a global world. To a world where the Boss can live thousands of miles away in a country that does not have strict identity theft laws. He picks up the phone and calls his Big Earner that works for the airline or a shipping company. The Boss has some buyers wanting to make a new life for themselves in New York. The Big Earner calls a few of his minions in Long Island to place an order. Our local minion finds a few fellas down on there luck and in the street. He rounds up a couple of the unfortunates and offers them room and board with a bottle of Ripple in exchange for a small stack of paid bills, bank statements, even calenders with names, dates, and phone numbers on it.

( Told ya we would get back to dumpster diving )

It's just social engineering... Like HubPages, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, StumpleUpon, etc. Yes, the bad guys have there own social network and now have the whole world to hide in.

I said all that to say this...

No one can protect you but yourself! Your bank can't protect you, your government can't protect you, your firewalls and virus software can't protect you. It's kind of like cancer. A lot of people get hit by it. Some people don't recover - more and more do though. But for those that do, it takes a long time and it's an up hill battle.

Point is that you need to take steps now to help prevent from happening to you what is happening to people all over the world at the rate of one every 2 seconds. Do something... shred your documents, seek free credit report monitoring, or get professional protection. Nothing is 100%, but sticking your head in the sand won't make it go away either. It's just another way of protecting what you have and investing in your future.