Identity Theft
It seems to happen way too frequently, companies announce that they’ve had a breach and information has been stolen. You’ve probably experienced this yourself as Target, Home Depot, Facebook and Microsoft are just some of the companies that have dealt with this in the last few years. A typical solution seems to be to provide free credit monitoring for a period of time, such as twelve months. In reality, we probably all have more information floating around on the internet and computer servers than we are aware of. In many cases, no obvious incidents come directly from those security breaches, but we really don’t know how that information may be used. I want to share a few recent stories I’m aware of to give you an idea of what identity theft can look like.
The first experience happened to me personally. A couple of months ago we received a bill for a canceled application fee from an apartment complex in downtown San Diego, which I had never applied for. I reviewed the document carefully as I thought it might be a phishing scam. I researched online and found that the phone number listed on the bill matched the phone number for the actual apartment complex, so I gave them a call. They said that someone had indeed applied for an apartment using my information. When I assured them that it wasn’t me and asked them to provide further information and cancel the bill, they requested that I go to www.identitytheft.gov and report the incident and then send them that report, which I did and they canceled the bill. This was concerning as someone did have enough information to apply, so I also set a fraud alert with a credit reporting bureau (the three credit reporting bureaus are Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian, and if you set an alert with one they will submit your request to the other two).
The next experience happened to a client of mine. They found out that someone had filed fraudulent taxes on their behalf, and were able to have refund checks issued, one of those being 6 figures. Thankfully, the checks were received at my client’s home, and they knew something wasn’t right and contacted their CPA and the IRS. This is still being resolved and their 2022 taxes have yet to be finalized.
The last and most disruptive experience happened recently to a family friend and is still ongoing. Someone was able to steal their identity and get access to just about all of their online accounts. In the process, the thieves were able to transfer money from bank accounts, open new bank accounts, change contact information, make purchases at Walmart and Target online, steal airline and concert tickets, and more. As you can imagine, this has been a huge stress and inconvenience. In the end, it looks like they won’t be held responsible for fraudulent purchases or lost money that was stolen, but the tickets are still up in the air. This affected us personally as one of those concert tickets was for a show my daughter was planning to go to with this family, which my daughter used her own money to pay for. Tracking all of this down and fixing the problem has been what feels like a full-time job with a lot of stress ever since the incident was discovered.
There is nothing you can do to completely eliminate identity theft from occurring, but below are some tips (some of which were shared by those mentioned above and have been through it) and helpful links to ways to help protect from identity theft and what to do if you become a victim.
- Be careful with what you share and click on online (such as junk phishing emails)
- Use anti-virus and anti-spyware on your electronic devices
- Set up two-factor authentication whenever possible, and use an authenticator whenever possible
- Don’t use the same username and password for all accounts
- Shred any personal documents you throw away
- Monitor your account activity
- If you discover any fraudulent activity:
If you discover any fraudulent activity:
- Stay calm
- Immediately contact the company that you discovered the fraudulent activity for
- Place fraud alerts with a credit bureau and consider freezing your credit
- Repeatedly monitor your credit report for new inquiries (daily at first)
- Report the theft on www.identitytheft.gov
- Consider filing a police report
https://oag.ca.gov/idtheft/facts/victim-checklist
