Tune in to The Lange Money Hour tonight to hear from legendary IRA expert, Seymour Goldberg. Sy is one of America’s top IRA experts and will be spending an hour with Jim talking retirment planning, investing, and whats to come.
The Lange Money Hour airs tonight at 7:05 EST on KQV 1410AM, or you can stream it live at KQV.com. If you miss the show, tune in the following Sunday at 9:05am for a repeat airing!
Step 7: Pay close attention to your bills.
Know your billing cycles. If your bills are even a couple days late, contact your creditor. Late or missing bills could mean that an identity thief has changed the mailing address on an account to avoid detection. Review your credit card bills and checking account statements as soon as they arrive, and look into any suspicious checks or charges right away.
Have any cards you don’t need or use? Consider canceling them. A thief could get access to that dormant account, and you would only find out about it once bills started arriving in your mailbox. For those of you worried about possibly hurting your credit score by closing dormant accounts, Liz Pulliam Weston from MSN Money suggests not closing your oldest account (as credit scores are based partly on length of credit history) and not closing several accounts at once. Credit scores are also partly based on your debt as a percentage of your available credit, so closing several accounts would greatly reduce your available credit without changing the size of your debt.
Source: MD Producer
Step 6: Protect your mail.
Your mail can hold a lot of information about you, enough even to steal your identity. IRA and Retirement & bank and credit card statements all have personal information inthem that is very valuable to thieves. Protect yourself by collect your mail promptly, and use a post office collection box for outgoing bills. Whenever you go on vacation, ask the post office to hold your mail or get a post office box.
Source: MD Producer
Step 5: Destroy personal documents before disposal.
Before throwing anything in the trash, shred or otherwise destroy documents such as credit card receipts, old credit cards, credit offers, or bank, medical or insurance statements. You don’t want these documents lying around on the curb waiting for trash collection.
Step 4: Don’t carry unnecessary personal information.
When you come in to see Jim Lange or any of our attorneys or CPAs, we may ask you to bring your IRA and Roth IRA statements, your previous years tax returns, and your current wills, trusts, and insurance or beneficiary based documents. We even ask you to fill out a form with important information about you to create our client profile and give yout he best advice possible.
But you shouldn’t carry these things around with you on a regular basis. We just discussed not carrying your social security card in your wallet, but there are other documents people sometimes carry with them that identity thieves would just love to get their hands on. Bank account numbers, PIN numbers, passports, birth certificates and blank checks can all provide a huge amount of information to a thief. Don’t carry them unless absolutely necessary.
MD Producer credited with some materials
Step 3: Don’t leave personal or financial
information out in the open.
The latest data in the FTC’s most recent Identity Theft Survey Report shows a shocking 16% of identity theft victims personally knew the thief—family members, friends, neighbors, in-home employees and coworkers were all implicated in these cases. With that in mind, it is always best to keep all personal or financial information in a safe place in your home. Don’t leave it lying around, especially if you are having work done on your home or hire outside help.
Material provided by MD Producer
Step 2: Protect your social security number.
Never have it printed on your checks or driver’s license, and never carry your card in your wallet. Only give out your number when necessary, such as applying for store credit, where it is used to perform a credit check. Even then, ask if you may give your number verbally without putting it in writing.
What can I do to protect myself from indentity theft?
We understand your concerns on this issue and we wanted you to know that there are things you can do to help protect yourself from identity theft. The following steps are very simple and could save you a huge headache down the road!
Step 1: Don’t give out personal information.
Don’t ever provide personal information over the phone, by mail or on the internet unless you have initiated the contact and know exactly how the information will be used and whether it will be shared with others. If someone contacts you and you think it might be legitimate, break the contact and use a listed phone number or web address that you know to be valid to reestablish contact. Never use a number or email link that they provide, as these may be traps set up to look or sound like the real website or automated phone system.
Stay tuned tomorrow for the next tip!
Some materials taken from MD Producer.
How bad is the problem of identity theft?
At Lange Financial Group, LLC we focus on helping our clients make and save money with Roth IRA conversions, Asset management services, and Tax planning here in Pittsburgh and across the country. But we are also concerned with helping our clients and friends protect and keep what they’ve worked so hard to save. Part of that is being aware of identity theft and giving them advice on how to protect themselves from it.
Identity theft remains the top category of fraud affecting consumers. In the Federal Trade Commission’s “Consumer Sentinel Network Complaint Data Book” report for 2009, it shows the number of identity theft remained high this year from 314,484 in 2008 to 278,078 in 2009. Identity theft represents 21% of all consumer fraud complaints, followed by third-party and creditor debt collection (9%), internet services and other forms of fraud (6%), and shop-at-home and catalog sales (6%). And while contemplating this enormous number, keep in mind that it doesn’t include those victims who chose not to file a claim, or filed under other categories, such as theft or mail or internet fraud.
With numbers on the rise again, it is even more important that you refresh your memory on the signs of identity theft and the simple precautions you can take to lessen your chance of becoming one of the statistics! Still don’t think it’s all that important? Read on.
The average cost to the consumer stayed in the thousands from $2,961 in 2009 to $2,267 in 2011. Luckily, a full 51% paid nothing at all, because in most cases, victims are not legally responsible for unauthorized charges or accounts. Looking only at victims who did have to pay out-of-pocket expenses, the median amount paid was $537
Age-wise, people under 40 bear the brunt of identity theft fraud. The graph below shows that nationwide, people are less likely to be victimized the older they get. Of all 2011 victims, 52% of victims were under 40, 18% were in their 40s, 15% were in their 50s and 15% were over 60.
Government documents or benefits fraud was the most common form of reported identity theft (24.1%). Credit card fraud was second (14%) followed by phone or utilities (13%) and bank fraud (9%). Other significant types of identity theft reported by victims were employment related (8%) and loan fraud (3%).
It’s no wonder so many people across the nation are becoming slightly paranoid about their personal information and who has access to it. Almost everyone has heard at least one person’s horror story of the long and difficult path to clearing their name (and credit rating!) after identity theft has occurred, and after hearing it, my guess is that everyone shared the same thought—“I hope that never happens to me!”
Modified from MD Producer
What is identity theft?
Identity theft occurs when a criminal takes your personal information (such as your social security number, address, birth date, bank account number, credit card number, etc.) and uses it to steal money or obtain services under your name. With every advance in technology, it seems there are those who will quickly find a way to put it to use for their own unlawful gain. For example, some thieves access your information by hacking into personal or business computer systems or stealing laptops that contain personal data. But even more often, they use good old-fashioned techniques like stealing your purse or wallet. Copies of bank, credit card, or Roth IRA or other retirement account statements, bills or other personal papers can be stolen out of your home, your trash, the trash of businesses you’ve patronized, or your incoming or outgoing mail. Some thieves simply talk people into giving them information by posing as someone who would have a right to know it or claiming they need you to verify your account information.
Once thieves have this information, they can wreck havoc with your good financial name. They can run up charges on your credit card, changing the billing address so it will be awhile before you realize what has happened. They can open new accounts in your name, including bank, phone and utility accounts; write counterfeit checks; drain your bank account or your retirement accounts; pay taxes or file for bankruptcy in your name; or get official ID issued in your name. It has even been known to happen that an identity thief will give the victim’s name if they get arrested, and when they don’t show up for court, the police come after you! In addition to the expense of resolving the problem, identity theft victims can also be harassed by collections agents, have their utilities cut off, or have trouble obtaining loans, credit or new bank accounts. They may also be unable to access their existing bank accounts or use their existing credit cards. The bottom line is identity theft can have a serious negative impact on the victim so you need to be informed.
Stay tuned tomorrow for more on identity theft!
Modified from MD Producer