ID Theft, Protection, And Restoration

Who is to blame if your identity is misused? Do you have any recourse against where or how the thief obtained your identity in the first place? Yes, you do!

When an organization who you have given your PII (personal identifying information; such as social security number, birth date, mother’s maiden name, account numbers, and the list goes on…) to is liable if they have not taken "reasonable steps" to protect your information by the Federal Trade Commission.

This posting is the first in a series that will pertain to laws that any and all organizations must comply with for protecting personal identifying information. If you happen to be responsible for an organization, this series will be important information on what you must do to address Federal Trade Commission compliance issues.

If you are an individual, this series will inform you as to what you can expect from an organization you have entrusted to maintain your Personal Identifying Information in order for you to do business with them. You may be an employee, customer, sub-contractor, or vendor. We will cover how an individual can minimize their liability for fraudulent transactions and how the organization can do the same. Your questions are welcomed as we address these responsibilities on each side of an identity theft incident. So let’s get started…

The law states that if an individual brings notice to an organization that a fraudulent transaction occurred within two business days, the maximum liability they can be held for is $50.00 If the fraudulent transaction is reported to the organization after two days but before 60 days, their maximum liability is $500. If the fraudulent transaction is reported to the organization after 60 days, the organization has full right to expect payment in full from the victim as their statutory limit has expired.

Lesson for the individual: When you receive a statement in the mail from any organization, you must review it immediately for any fraudulent transactions. Failing to do so may mean you will have to honor the transaction in full after 60 days. For more information on how to file an identity theft affidavit see our website for the procedure you must file to make a claim if identity theft.

Lesson for the organization: You must report transactions to your customer on a regular basis or the statutory clock will not start. For more information on how to handle a fraudulent identity theft claim made by an individual see our website for the procedure you must follow to process such a claim. (You will find how to assist victims about half-way down the page.)

In the next part of this series I will cover some examples that victims have reported. If you have any questions in the meantime or examples of your own, please post a reply and I will be sure to address your contribution.

Bob Listerman, CPA, CITRMS
(Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist)

Picture this. You’re driving down the road and you get a text message on your cell phone. You read it and see a message that your bank account has been closed due to suspicious activity.

You panic. This can’t be. The message says to call a certain phone number immediately to reactivate your account. When you call the number, you receive an automated voice mail box that prompts you to enter your credit card number, expiration date and PIN to verify your information.

So you got a two for one, phishing and vishing on your cell phone through text messaging. Honestly, cyber criminals are getting more sophisticated every single day and no wonder Identity Theft is on the move.

So be on your guard, and Do Not Reply. Call your banking institution directly regarding the message or better yet, stop by and see them. You’ll be glad you did.

TheIdentityDoc,

Nancy Dewitz is co-founder of BTR-Security with personal Identity Theft solutions tailored to consumers’ specific needs. She and her partner Robert Listerman are authors of the ebook “The Many Faces of Identity Theft.” They are consumer advocates and creators of individualized Identity Protection programs that give you and your family the options needed to keep your life intact.

If you have an Identity Theft story or experience that you’d like to share and become part of our upcoming book, please let us know. We’d love to hear all about it.

Here’s the deal. You get an email from your bank or your credit card company. It tells you “Do Not Reply” to this address. Do we listen? Do we even see what the reply address is?

Well, according to a story I just read, there are lots of people who do not understand nor do they read the entire email that says, “Don’t hit the Reply key, and go head and compose their email. They don’t understand they should not be giving out their account number, or any other confidential information at all in any email at any time. However, some people still do.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch in Seattle where a gentlemen owns the domain name, DoNotReply.com, he gets all sorts of email sent to him from people hitting the Reply key on their email. He receives way too many emails with personal information. Fortunately, he’s a person of integrity.

However, not everyone you email to is an upstanding person who will just delete your email and not want your information. So if you get a communication from any financial institution, insurance company, bank, credit card company, know that you will have a secure place to log in and send emails on the company’s web site. Do not send them a “regular email.”

The Identity Doc,

Nancy Dewitz is co-founder of BTR-Security with personal Identity Theft solutions tailored to consumers’ specific needs. She and her partner Robert Listerman are authors of the ebook “The Many Faces of Identity Theft.” They are consumer advocates and creators of individualized Identity Protection programs that give you and your family the options needed to keep your life intact.

If you have an Identity Theft story or experience that you’d like to share and become part of our upcoming book, please let us know. We’d love to hear all about it.

You’ve having a late brunch with your best friend at Sardi’s, heading out later for an afternoon matinee on Broadway. Just as you take your first mouthwatering bite, she says, “I got turned down for my promotion.”

Full of compassion and surprise, you ask, Why?”

The tears begin to flow like Niagara Falls. “My company ran a background check and found my driver’s license was suspended for a DUI.

“You don’t have a driver’s license.”

“I know I don’t have a driver’s license,” she wailed. “In any event, there’s a warrant out for my arrest. That gurgling sound you hear is my life going down the crapper.”

You’re stunned. How sad and how devastating for your friend. You remember agreeing with her just a few weeks ago about getting identity theft monitoring services pronto. But she just hasn’t gotten around to it. At this point, your friend is in jeopardy of losing her career, plus she has a legal nightmare to deal with, all because some nut job got a driver’s license in her name and used it when the clone got arrest.

What do you tell your friend? You could say, “I told you this could happen,” but chances are, she’ll never talk to her again. So, you say, “Look, this identity monitoring company helps people whether or not you’re in the middle of an identity theft crisis. Give them a call and they’ll get a lawyer in touch with you right away. You don’t have to handle the nightmare yourself, lose a huge chunk of time from work, and do all the paperwork.”

You’ll think of your friend often as you board the plane for your three-week vacation in London, free to do as you please. She’ll be in good hands if she just calls your company.

With complete identity theft monitoring, restoration, and legal services, your friend would have learned about someone cloning her identity long before this situation got so out of control.

As you see in our video, Identity Theft can come at you from many different angles regardless of who you are, where you live or how much money you do or do not have. Unfortunately, credit monitoring only covers credit fraud versus non-credit related Identity Theft Monitoring, which covers your entire Identity.

So you hand your friend the phone number to call, finish your lunch and still make the matinee in time for the show. You know your friend will be in good hands and you will enjoy your vacation. Don’t you just love a happy ending? Your Identity Defender,

Nancy Dewitz is co-founder of BTR-Security with personal Identity Theft solutions tailored to consumers’ specific needs. She and her partner Robert Listerman are authors of the ebook “The Many Faces of Identity Theft.” They are consumer advocates and creators of individualized Identity Protection programs that give you and your family the options needed to keep your life intact.If you have an Identity Theft story or experience that you’d like to share and become part of our upcoming book, please let us know. We’d love to hear all about it.

Nothing gets my dander up more than reading about the lobbyists for AT&T, Verizon, Microsoft, and LexisNexis dis-emboweling the latest attempt by the Indiana legislature to protect their residents from Identity Theft. Whoever heard of a bill passing any state or federal legislature with only 17 lines of text? This should be in the Guiness World Book of Records not only for its brevity, but for the absolute assinine thinking that went with it.

“The requirement that companies notify the state attorney general whenever a data breach is discovered were stripped. A section of the bill that created incentives for companies to follow encryption and key management practices “in a manner consistent with the best practices common in the industry” was also removed. ”

Why would two public utilities, a huge software company broken up by anti-trust legislation and another company “committed to safeguarding personal information” not want tougher ID Theft laws?

My theory is that the big boys don’t want to part with their big money by assuming any financial responsibility for data breaches from their companies. They don’t want to see class action lawsuits happen to them, like what’s happening with TJMaxx.

Where does that leave you? You have to take care of yourself, period, end of discussion. Identity Theft cannot be prevented, but it can be detected in the very early stages so you can keep the damage down to a minimum and not become so overwhelming that it takes over your life.

Here’s a nightmare for one gentleman who never lived in Indiana, but magically had a suspended driver’s license there. The Governor’s Chief Counsel wrote Paul Jones a letter stating: “There appear to be as many as two other persons impersonating you using Indiana identification cards, and we remain committed to detecting and arresting them.”

What’s really laughable is the Governor’s office felt that Mr. Jones was threatening the state’s public employees so Chief Counsel for the Governor’s office told Mr. Jones in writing that if his future communication attempts with them were construed as harassing or threatening, he would be prosecuted. Just leave it to an attorney to turn the tables on the victim.

Unfortunately, it may only be a matter of time before it happens to this gentleman again. The criminal most times will go “dark” and start all over again in 6 months to a year. Identity Theft is spreading like the bubonic plague of yesteryear. It is touching so many lives in a very negative way undermining every U. S. citizen’s right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It’s maddening, frustrating, and takes a whole lot of time to resolve.

So, residents of Indiana, or people who have ID Theft issues in Indiana, if you’re willing to go to the mat like Paul Jones, go for it. However, if you’d like someone else to take care of detecting when your identity is being misused, if you’d like for someone else to handle the cleanup of an identity theft situation for you, then fight back, and listen to this.

My heart goes out to all residents as well as Identity Theft victims caught up in the State of Indiana ID Theft debacle. Obviously Indiana legislators just don’t care about you. They’re too busy schmoozing with the lobbyists and big business to even think about the repercussions of their lack of an ID Theft bill with real teeth in it and a willingness to help the victims.

Your Identity Protector,
Nancy Dewitz

Nancy Dewitz is co-founder of BTR Security with personal Identity Theft solutions tailored to consumers’ specific needs. She and her partner Robert Listerman are authors of the ebook “The Many Faces of Identity Theft.” They are consumer advocates and creators of individualized Identity Protection programs that give you and your family the options needed to keep your life intact.

If you have an Identity Theft story or experience that you’d like to share and become part of our upcoming book, please let us know. We’d love to hear all about it.

Play Now:

 How To Choose ID Theft Services: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Waiting for Identity Theft to slap you upside the head? 

If you’re an ID Theft victim without protection, detection, and restoration of your identity, you probably feel like the penguin who got slapped. If you use Credit Monitoring and are relying on that type of company, you’ll most likely have the same result as the penguin.

However, choosing a service to be there for you from the time your identity is detected and determined stolen through the time your identity has been restored, your entire world can go upside down. It’s all about choices.

Read the fine print of the terms and conditions, services, and guarantee.  It will be  enough to make your head spin and leave you cross-eyed, but it’s unfortunately a necessary evil to prevent a disaster later. 

When you listen to our podcast, you’ll know exactly what to look for and why.   Feel free to print out the pdf so you’ll know what questions to have answered before you make this important decision. 

Your Identity Defender

Nancy Dewitz is co-founder of BTR-Security with personal Identity Theft solutions tailored to consumers’ specific needs.  She and her partner Robert Listerman are authors of the ebook “The Many Faces of Identity Theft.” They are consumer advocates and creators of individualized Identity Protection programs that give you and your family the options needed to keep your life intact.

If you have an Identity Theft story or experience that you’d like to share and become part of our upcoming book, please let us know.  We’d love to hear all about it.

You find out that you’re a victim of identity theft. You knew something was wrong because things just didn’t add up like the strange phone calls, bill collectors wanting money for accounts you didn’t know you had, a police officer arrests you during a routine traffic stop, or you find out your medical information has the wrong blood type reflected for you.

What is the first thing you should do when you discover you are a victim of Identity Theft? The most logical first step, besides running in circles, cursing, screaming and shouting, is to file a police report. Well, what if the police won’t take a report?

As astounding and inane as that may sound, some law enforcement personnel don’t get excited about writing up a report. It’s their position that the creditor is the one who suffered the financial loss; hence, they think you’re not the victim. Clue: Don’t expect law enforcement to be up-to-date on banking and credit card company policies as to the amount of your liability. Some officers, from new rookies to the soon-to-be-retired, may tell you to have your bank or credit card company file the complaint.

Now, here is the next step to insanity. Your credit card company, bank, whoever, may decide not to do this cooperate and file a police report. Companies figure that it’s not cost-effect