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| Identity theft can affect anyone
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| Vicky Lu |
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4/3/2009 - It was the day of the month that the credit card bill was supposed to come. It didn’t arrive in Melanie Krumsick’s mail box. Another week later, still nothing. Three weeks later, Krumsick finally called her bank to check out what was going on. To her astonishment, her bank said that her mailing address was changed a couple weeks ago, so mails were delivered to the “new” address that Krumsick had no idea of.
"I immediately realized something was not right," Krumsick said. "Somebody had stolen my identity."
Identity theft refers to all types of crime in which someone wrongfully obtains, and uses another person’s personal data in some way that involves fraud or deception, typically for economic gain. Unlike your fingerprints, which are unique to you, and cannot be created identically, your personal information — especially your Social Security number, your bank account, your credit card number, your driver’s license number, your telephone number, and other valuable identifying information — can be easy to find. If they fall into the wrong hands, the result—if you are as lucky as Krumsick, who had found the problem early enough to stop anything costly from happening — could be devastating.
“We’re not only identified by our names,” Charles Branson, Douglas County district attorney, said. ”But unfortunately, we are identified by a lot of numbers.”
Branson created the Consumer Protection Unit (CPU) in October 2006, to address consumer needs, and protect consumer rights. In the past two years, the CPU has expanded its outreach, and has affected the community like Branson hoped. CPU has received more than 100 cases since the beginning of 2009, and 25 percent of them was identity theft.
There are many ways of obtaining people’s identity. The easiest and the most low-tech way to obtain someone’s personal data is through dumpster diving. Some criminals would go through community dumpsters to look for your bank statement, copies of your information which might contain your name, your date of birth, your Social Security number and your driver’s license number. For example, if you receive any “preapproved” credit cards in the mail, but throw them any without tearing up the enclosed materials, criminals may retrieve them and try to activate the cards for their use without your knowledge.
Branson said the most effective and easy way to deal with the dumpster diving is simply shred. He recommended investing in a cheap shredder, and shred your unwanted documents.
“It’s a small time commitment compares to the months and months it’ll take you to repair the damage after somebody steals your identity,” Branson said.
Not having a shredder is not the excuse to throw your entire bank statement with your trash. Jayhawk File Express is a company that provides secure shredding services for free. It has just sponsored a "Shred-a-thon," an event that people can bring their unwanted documents, and get them securely destroyed. This year’s Shred-a-thon has been a huge success. According to Sonya Johnson, director of Education & Outreach Division of Kansas Attorney General Consumer Protection Division, people have being bringing in documents for only one hour, but they have already filled up one truck.
The documents they collected would be locked in a trash bin, and then taken to the processing plant, where a powerful shredder would shred the paper files into powder. Then the paper powders would be shipped to Wisconsin, where they were recycled, and manufactured into paper again.
Other precautions you can take to prevent identity theft is to check your credit report, and question anything on the report that you don’t recognize. Those questions might be some of your first clue to anybody using your credit. Also if your mail gets delayed, somebody changed the mail address. If you get statement and phone calls form companies you don’t know.
Krumsick has definitely learnt her lesson as she brought a truck load of documents to the "Shre-a-thon."
“I’m just extra vigilant, because I know those people are out there,” Krumsick said.
Because once your information is in the wrong hand, it could be really time consuming and costly.
“Our ability to function in our normal modern life is we do so on credits, and use our check cards. You’ll be amazed how many difficult and problems you’ll encounter without your credit card” Branson said.
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