Comments on: Synthetic Identity Theft

By: Greg E

Greg E — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 23:34:17 +0000

Yeah, but this would likely qualify the thief for the dumbest criminal of the year award.
Seriously, the identity theft criminals of today are far more careful and creative to do this so it is unlikely except in a rare incident that this would be possible. Identity theft is going high tech and will become more sophisticated as the years go by. The opportunity is there and most consumers will be easy targets because of simple and basic behavior traits that are not considered even the slightest bit risky.

By: Greg E

Greg E — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 23:08:32 +0000

Credit Report monitoring is important but unfortunately this is only a small factor in true protection against identity theft. Using proper safeguards such as obtaining current credit reports regularly, shredding all mail or documents with personal identification information such as drivers license, social security number, date of birth, or account numbers. Please be sure to be aware of the fact that many companies use the SSN for account numbers and this is a major concern and should be stopped as this is not the intended purpose for the SSN.
Identity restoration is needed also in the event that you become a victim of identity theft. Some services for identity theft protection include this protection feature. You will need to be careful in selecting the proper coverage plan for you.

By: over the hill

over the hill — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 17:59:49 +0000

If an identity thief puts a phone bill (for a landline at least) on your credit report, wouldn’t that leave a trail back to them?

By: Miranda

Miranda — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 13:32:47 +0000

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. It is clear that even more vigilance is needed. In this digital age, it is very easy to have information stolen, since everything is recorded, multiple times, and it only takes seconds to open a new account.

By: Eric N.

Eric N. — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 22:33:16 +0000

It just gets scarier every day. Vigilant!

By: tom

tom — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 19:53:05 +0000

Thanks for this article, I was recently resetting my passwords and now i will be focusing a bit more on securing my identity in terms of private documents and online activities.

I will book mark this article. thanks

By: jim

jim — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:54:29 +0000

That’s true, but they had my social security number (though off by one digit), so it couldn’t have been by accident.

By: mapgirl

mapgirl — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:49:54 +0000

I’m not sure if it’s synthetic identity theft or just having a common Asian name and getting your information glommed together by the bureaus because they are not as smart as they think they are.

Apparently there’s a University of Oregon graduate driving a VW who took some federal loans who might have my name. I had to clean her off my record before applying for a mortgage.

By: Shahid

Shahid — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:36:37 +0000

I agree about checking your SSA statements every year. I learned from my father regarding that. It turns out that many many years ago, his employer was not fully reporting the year income to Social Security. We all found that out when he applied for disability benefits. He did eventually win….but his monthly benefit amount would have amounted to much more if he had checked those statements.