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| Take ID theft seriously
How bad is it? Somethieves are grave robbers
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| www.goerie.com |
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1/7/2009 - Although it pales beside the loss of a loved one, today's complex financial system has created a new headache for grieving relatives to cope with: identity theft.
Risk of this disturbing crime, in which a thief poses as someone else to obtain credit or commit some other fraud, doesn't necessarily end when a person dies.
In 2008, identity theft drew more than 258,000 complaints to the Federal Trade Commission, a third of all complaints. It led the list for the eighth consecutive year, eclipsing complaints about catalog sales, Internet auctions and sweepstakes.
The government is slowly pushing the credit industry to address what consumer advocates have long argued is a key cause of identity theft: the overly easy granting of "instant credit" both to consumers themselves and to thieves armed with their victims' personal data.
New FTC rules are designed to highlight "red flags" that might signal identity theft.
One of the new requirements, in effect since Nov. 1, requires creditors to take extra steps to verify applications when an address differs from the one in the applicant's main credit file.
But most of the changes, such as watching for activity on long-dormant accounts, were delayed until May, thanks to pressure from the business community.
"The fact of the matter is, there's a lot of identity theft that's in the pipeline that hasn't been discovered yet," said Paul Stephens, policy director of Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a California nonprofit that monitors credit-reporting issues.
-- wire reports
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