Be careful who you allow in your home, with free access to your personal information — even family and, in some cases, especially family.
The insider risk with identity theft is well-documented. Sadly, even parents have victimized their own children.
This Rapid City Journal story highlights one such case of identity theft where a young woman’s mother was the prime suspect for opening some accounts in her daughter’s name before she even turned 18 likely “because she could not get credit in her own name,” according to a letter seeking advice written by the young woman’s husband.
Bonnie Spain, the executive director of the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of the Black Hills, responded to the query with recommendations for how to handle the situation. Spain advised contacting each creditor’s fraud department to explain she wasn’t of legal age to open the accounts, and recommended she explain she believes her mom was responsible. The creditors would then likely advise her to file a police report, thereby turning her own mother in for fraud, which albeit sad, is necessary to close the accounts.
“It can be tempting to cover someone’s tracks because we love a person and want to protect them from difficult consequences, but I’d advise you to meet the problem head-on — and the sooner the better. Ignoring the problem won’t make it go away,” Spain writes.
Suzanne Ford, LibertyID’s lead recovery specialist, has also dealt with a few cases of familial identity theft. One notable case involved an older woman whose niece stole two boxes of checks from her home when she came to visit and started using them. The thief had a drug addiction and at the time, no one in the family had held her accountable for her behavior. The elderly woman pressed charges against her niece, who eventually went to jail for it. The courts let her out so she could take care of her five children but the woman turned around and used more of the stolen checks to pay court fees and was soon back in jail. “That’s how bold some of these criminals are,” Ford said. In light of this story, you might be wondering how you can keep your elderly loved ones safe. Read our blog post for some tips.
Here are some precautions you can take to prevent becoming a victim:
- Secure your home and personal information. Make sure you keep your checkbooks, birth certificates, passports etc. in a safe and secure spot in your home that’s not easily accessible for visitors. What about sensitive paperwork that contains all of your personal information? Consider using a locking file cabinet.
- Consider a credit freeze to prevent identity theft/fraud. While this might sound a bit over the top, really it’s not. It prevents identity thieves from being able to open up new credit accounts in your name. Here’s how you can freeze your credit.
- Sign up for a LibertyID Family Plan. The average identity theft victim spends many hours, stretching into days, months, and even years, trying to repair the damage. If you have an identity restoration membership, that time is significantly reduced because experts perform the work for you. Sign up for LibertyID and if your identity is stolen, we will fix it. The minute you suspect your identity has been compromised, you call us. Immediately, we’ll open a case and from then on, a certified restoration specialist will take the necessary steps to restore your identity. That same point of contact will handle all of the legwork — things like submitting disputes to lending institutions, utility companies, cell phone carriers, etc. and researching and documenting erroneous info on your credit file and having it removed. We will keep you informed with regular status updates. There’s really no better time than the present to become a LibertyID member. LibertyID provides expert, full service, fully managed identity theft restoration to individuals, couples, extended families* and businesses. LibertyID has a 100% success rate in resolving all forms of identity fraud on behalf of our subscribers.*Extended families – primary individual, their spouse/partner, both sets of parents (including those that have been deceased for up to a year), and all children under the age of 25
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