1. Thieves are 1 step ahead.
Id Thieves are getting smarter, and the are more technologically save than ever before. Whats even more scary is that the risk is worth the reward for these guys and girls. Fewer than 1 out of every 700 identity theft crimes leads to an arrest. The technology and tactics these guys use changes so fast that it is very hard for police to stay up to date with the latest techniques. Credit monitoring is your best line of defense against these crimes.
2. Cases of ID theft are increasing daily.
A scary new partnership is arising in the world of ID thieves. Hackers are now breaching large databases to steal the private information and then turning around and selling this to ID thieves. This is a scary trend as it now makes data that used to be only a select group of hackers could have access to is now transferring hands in to would be thieves. These hackers are constantly setting larger and larger targets for themselves, and in turn much more of our personal data could be sold to hundreds or thousands of would be identity thieves. This is very scary to us in the credit monitoring world as before you only had elite groups who used to hack into these systems, and generally the hackers were more after the company and not your information. Now that they are selling the data it opens the door to lower tier thieves who will try anything to make a dollar.
3. New Account Fraud is at an all time high.
With the data now being so easy account fraud is increasing at an exponential rate. Account fraud is when you have someone take your good credit and open up accounts in your name. Most of these types of fraud occur to consumers who have high credit scores. This is so that a thief can get instant approval and start using the account instantly. Our credit monitoring is the best way to fight off this type of fraud. You would be notified within 24 hours if anyone has created an account using your personal information, and then you would be able to stop the thieves before they were able to do any damage to your reports or scores.
4. It takes a long time to clean up.
Victims of ID theft on average will spend 40-50 hours trying to clean up a single case of ID theft. And on average they will spend $500-$1000 dollars out of pocket to fight these crimes. And the longer it takes to detect the theft the longer it will take to restore your credit, and make you edible to get credit at your pre-theft rates. To be honest, its a pain in the ass, and we should not have to go through it, unfortunately the likely hood that you or someone you know will have to go through this is very great. If you are a member of our service we have a team ready to help you out and make it as painless as possible.
More tips to prevent ID theft coming soon!
The elderly and children, they should be victimless and carefree. That just is not the case, there are so many people who choose to pick on these demographics and its just sick and wrong. According to the FTC ID theft among the elderly account for over 10% off all ID thefts. It is very important to all of us who have elderly parents, or care for the elderly to help to monitor there credit. This is especially important if they live alone.
This is a silent epidemic as many are to proud to come forward and admit they are the victims of a crime. Knowing this and knowing that the elderly control over 70% of the nations household wealth make them an idle victim to prey on.
Elderly are especially vulnerable to new high tech theft such as phishing, or other methods of ID theft. Elderly people in general seem to be more trusting than us young whipper snappers. Through a little technology in and you have a recipe that is ripe to exploit for thieves. An example I recently helped out with was a elderly woman received a text message from her “bank” I put bank in quotes because it literally said your bank. The message was something in regard to you missed your last payment you need to call us immediately or we will foreclose on your home. They seem to always have a since of urgency and over the top dire consequences if you do not respond to them quickly.
When she called the number they then in a very rapid fire way asked her to verify account information, checking numbers, and routing numbers. They had the balls to say they think that someone many be using her account and needed that information so they could track it down and verify all things that went out. Luckily for this innocent woman a family happened to be visiting and overheard the conversation and immediately called her actually bank and had them protect her account and then filled a police report. These types of scams happen all the time. We need to protect our elders.
So what can we do? Well the most important thing we can do is to make sure we check in as often as we can, and do not be afraid to pry a bit into personal questions. Questions such as, “Has you bank called you?” Or “Any phone calls this week?” You can also look on their caller ID and ask about any suspicious numbers you do not recognize. Elderly people are extremely sharp and proud, and like I said before many will not want to admit to the fact they may have been scammed. You need to push a bit.
You could put a freeze on their credit reports. This will protect them from anyone trying to open an account with there information. And if they did need to get credit, it is very simple to remove it.
If you can get them to allow you, you should get in the habit of looking over their bank, and credit card statements. Keep a look out for any suspicious transactions. Many times these will be small amounts and easy to overlook, that is part of the scam, just keep leeching small amounts that most likely will be over looked.
If you can it is also very important to have them sign up for our credit monitoring services you can then have the alerts sent to you so you will know if there are any issues you need to look at.
Credit monitoring will not protect them from scams that go straight for their bank accounts, but it will protect them from becoming a victim of ID theft.
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In our last post we mentioned phishing and with that came some questions asking if our credit monitoring can protect you from phishing. The short answer is no it can not. What it can do is help you to know if you have become a victim of phishing if they have stolen your id, or opened accounts with your information.
Let me explain what phishing is and then how you can use some simple tips to prevent it from happening to you! Phishing refers to the fraudulent act of sending emails that look like they are coming from a legitimate source, they do this in order to gain personal information such as your bank accounts, routing numbers, credit card numbers, or any other person information. This is not just limited to email, although email is the most common, it can happen over the phone or through text messages.
Phishing is becoming more and more common, and the phishers are getting much better at their craft, here are some tips to help you stay safe.
Unfortunately phishing is on the rise and it shows no signs of stopping. Follow the tips above, check your bank balances, and credit card statements often and look for any anomaly’s that may show your accounts have been compromised. If anything looks suspicious do not hesitate to call your financial institution to have them check into it for you.
ShareOnline shoe retailer Zappos.com was recently a victim of a cyber attack which lead to 24 million accounts being hacked. You can read more about it here. We want to inform our customers on how this can effect them, and what they should be worried about.
First off the breach could have been much worse, and Zappos has been diligent in their efforts to minimize the impact this will cause to its customers. The breach contained, names, email address, physical address, and the last 4 digits of your credit card numbers. Most of this information is easy to obtain, and most likely will present it self as any type of threat to your credit. What we are concerned with here for our customers is where this information went and how it will be used. Our security experts warn you to be very careful in the upcoming months about phishing scams. The thieves could use the information stolen to then send out emails that look official asking for you to verify your account, and to give up personal information. This could come from email or even a phone call. Know that you should never give away your password or private data over the telephone or email. A company will never ask for this information.
The next threat we potentially see is that if you have used your same account information in multiple places. For example if you use the login you have at Zappos for any, and I can not stress this enough, any other site, you need to change them as soon as you can. It is very important to not use the same login and passwords on multiple sites on the web for this very reason. If one system gets hacked, then the hackers could then have access to all of your accounts.
Zappos has sent out instructions on the steps you need to take to secure your account with them, they can be found here.
We will keep you up to date on if anything changes in this case, but for now we do not see this as a major threat to your online identity. For those of your enrolled in our credit monitoring service you will receive updates if there are any changes to your account. If you are not in our program and you have other accounts that use the same login and password as your Zappos account, I would highly recommend signing up for credit monitoring for the next few months to ensure that no damage is being done, and so you can catch it early!
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Q. Why are there 3 credit scores? What gives?
A. Experian, Transunion, and Equifax all use there own scoring system. So that is where the three scores come from. While ll three scores should be somewhat close, they all used different data and algorithms to come up with there own scores. And everyone will argue that theirs is the best and most accurate. Regardless of whose is best, you have 3 scores, and they are all different, and you need to know all three. Most creditors when you are applying for credit will take an average of all three, but some may choose to only use the lowest score.
And as I said they should be fairly close to each other sometimes that just is not the case. Since all three bureaus collect their own data and compute the scores from the data they have on hand, its normal to have a slight variation in the scores. What can happen is that one report may have some information that is wrong, or for some reason has not been reported to the the other bureaus and that score could take a huge hit. This is why it is so important to monitor all three credit scores.
A common myth is that all 3 bureaus work together and share data, and unfortunately that is not true. You also have to remember that these are private companies, and that offer a separate credit score is a way for them to generate revenue. The place you are looking to get credit, or even credit monitoring services like ours have to pay for the reports, and the scores, so I would not expect the 3 scores to change anytime soon!
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Q. Can having bad credit hurt my chances of getting a job? Since I have been unemployed for almost a year now, I have had to max out my credit in order to stay afloat. I am pretty sure my credit is shot, what can I do?
A. First off I am sorry to hear about your current situation, and while yes it can hinder you job search it may not be as large as a factor as it once was. Good news is that if you are being asked if they can pull your credit reports than you know you are a top tier candidate. Pulling reports is time consuming and costs the company money, they generally will not do this unless you are in the top tier for the job you are trying to get. So that’s good news! Also since you did not say what field you are going into that it may never get pulled. In most cases the only time they will pull your reports is if you are working int he financial field or a similar field. So if you are not, then I think this will should be much less of a concern for you.
If you are in a position that you will be required to have your reports pulled then you should be prepared going in. The best way to get prepared is to view your credit reports, and as always if you just want to view a single report then head over to Annual Credit Report to get your free credit report once per year. This will not tell your score, but will let you read what is on your reports. Personally in your situation that you are living on credit I think this would be the best place to start. If things pick up, then I would highly recommend signing up for our credit monitoring service. Credit reports are not static, and they can change on a daily basis, a monitoring service will be the best way to stay up to date on exactly what is on your report so you have no surprises when it comes to job hunting time.
Now that you have a copy of your report you will want to check it for any errors. Anything from your name misspelled to accounts or inquiry that are not yours. (Read all about inquiry’s) If you find anything out of place, then take the time to dispute it to have it removed.
This is where the concern comes in for job hunters, what if I do have bad credit, or it shows that I am late on my payments. This is what your potential employes will be looking at. Your reports show a file of how you have handled yourself financially over the years. And what they will be looking for is are you a stable person? Have you the track record to back that up. I would not be concerned about from the time you lost employment until now. Everyone out there knows we are in a deep rescission and that we are doing what we need to do in order to get by. Its the overall picture they will be looking at, if you do happen to have a history of late payments stretching out for years, then yes you do have reason to worry about being passed up on a job. The best thing you can do is to lay it on the line, and explain exactly what your side of the story is.
If you are turned down for a position for reason of credit, you have the right to ask for a copy of the credit report and a detailed explanation of why this decision was made. So for the majority of us out there whose credit is in a bit of a down turn because of unemployment or underemployment then I would not let this keep you up at night worrying. We are not living in a perfect world right now, and potential employers know this and should make a decision based on your long term credit history.
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There is no doubt about it, credit monitoring is an expense and only you can decide if it is worth the cost or not. It seems only a few years ago many of us were unaware of what our credit scores were, or if we even needed to watch out for ID theft. It used be extremely easy to get credit and loans, but the times are changing and keeping a good credit score is more important than ever.
Many people will say you will not need a credit monitoring program because you can now get your credit report free once per year as a result of the FACT act. I think there is one flaw with that thinking, when you view your credit report once per year, and everyone should do this! That is all you are getting a snap shot of where you are on that day. Your file is constantly changing and if you only take a snap shot of it once per year, you could be in danger of missing some critical items that get reported to your reports.
This is where a monitoring service comes into play, you are alerted on a daily basis to any change on your reports, and so you are far more protected in the event of fraudulent activity on your reports. Unfortunately no matter how diligently you try to protect your credit there is no way you can stay on top if it 24/7. Also the best way to handle a potential error, or ID theft is to take care of it before it gets started, and that is also where a monitoring service shines, as you will be alerted within 24 hours to any changes made to your report. I think these are the best reasons to enroll in a credit monitoring service.
I can also see the other side of the argument, that this is an expense per month, and for some it just may not be worth it. The is ultimately for you to decide. My guess though that if you are reading this, than you are trying to become more financially sound, or you feel you are in need of a service.
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2012 is here and along with all the other new years resolutions you have made, lets add increase our credit scores to the list. This will be a quick start guide to get you on your way to a great credit score early into 2012
First find out what your score is. You can enroll in our credit monitoring service and get your score today, and then track it over keeping a tab on your score. OK great, now that we have our scores its time to dig in and get to work.
Second. Get a credit card if you do not already have one. I know much of what we talk about on this blog is managing your credit, and not using a card unless you absolutely have to, but this is all about raising your scores, so we need some tools. There is evidence that carrying a small balance, 20-30% will increase your score faster than not having a balance. If you feel you do not want to carry a balance and pay any interest that is perfectly fine, you just want to make sure that you are using the card, and that you are paying the bill on time1
Third. Get an installment loan. These are loans you pay a set amount month after month until the balance is gone, like a car or a mortgage. These types of loans show that you are responsible with both major kinds of credit, the revolving, your credit card, and the installment loan. I know many of you will have no need or want of a car, or mortgage, so what else can you do? You can go to a bank or credit union and apply for a personal loan. You can choose the amount you are comfortable with, and then pay it off over the length of the loan. I have to make this clear one more time, these tips are for increasing your credit scores, and getting you into a position for the best rates possible. You need these tools in order to increase your score to the maximum. You do not need to go further in debt if you already have these types of loans, or you want to build up your credit more slowly.
Fourth. If you have credit cards pay them down! If you can pay them down to below 30%, and even better down below 10%. There are a lot of false claims out there that paying off your credit cards can hurt your score in fact this can have the opposite effect. One of your scores factors is your available credit. So if you have maxed out cards your available credit is low, and this can hurt your scores. Pay down those cards!
Fifth. This goes hand and hand with number 4, just your cards lightly. Even if you are followed tip number 2 and got a card for the first time, do not go crazy with it! Keeping your balances low, and your available credit high will help raise your credit scores. I know its a viscous circle, you have to get/use a credit card, but you must not use to much of it. Its not a perfect system by any means, but its what we have to work with.
Sixth. Dispute any old items on your credit reports. If five years ago you had a cell phone bill go into collections, it is still not to late to try to have that removed. The easiest way is to simply mail the credit bureaus saying that this is not yours, and you want it removed. The older account the more likely it will be removed without an investigation. Even so many companies do not have the time or resources to track down old accounts and will more times than not just remove the item.
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