Stealing Your Life: The Ultimate Identity Theft Prevention Plan Book Review

With identity theft being such a prevalent problem, I decided to read "Stealing Your Life: The Ultimate Identity Theft Prevention Plan". This book brings to light the many ways that identity theft happens, who the criminals are, and how to combat or prevent identity theft from happening to you.

This book was written by Frank Abagnale, author of "Catch Me If You Can" and "The Art of the Steal". He has worked closely with the FBI and various other law enforcement agencies that deal with the problems caused by counterfeiting and identity theft. His career as a fraud fighting consultant surprisingly has its beginning as a check counterfeiter and forger. As early as the 1980's, when identity theft wasn't a household name, Frank Abagnale was writing about it.

"Stealing Your Life: The Ultimate Identity Theft Prevention Plan" is entertaining as well as enlightening. The book has many true stories of how the identity thieves have caused chaos in the lives of others. There is also quite a few hilarious accounts of dumb criminals that got caught.

However, it is the how to protect yourself that makes this book so important. While there is countless ways mentioned throughout the book, there is a list of 20 most important ways to keep your identity away from identity thieves. While twenty ways might seem to be more than enough, Abagnale knows that each and every one is important. Also, while you might feel safe and secure in the knowledge that you are doing ten of the advised actions, an identity thief feels safe and secure knowing that ten is not good enough.

After reading "Stealing Your Life: The Ultimate Identity Theft Prevention Plan", consumers are more prepared to fight back against identity theft by preventing an attack in the first place. However, he also shares with us accounts of victims who are fighting to regain their life after identity thieves stole them. Some of the true life stories are funny to say the least. Others are so ridiculous that there is little or no humor in them. For instance, one man lay dying while thieves in the medical profession stole his name and his credit. So while he is bedridden and dying, and the identity thieves are living high on the hog, he has to become an investigator and get his credit back because the police couldn't or wouldn't help. Fortunately, the man was able to locate the responsible party and bring them to justice.

There is many reasons that identity theft is so prevalent. Partially, because many victims are embarrassed to go to the police and admit that it happened. Also, there is so many cases of identity theft that the law enforcement officials are buried. Identity theft is not a 'victimless crime', although it seems that the criminals are invisible. For instance, Abagnale claims that it takes about six days for law enforcement to catch an internet advertising scam and stop it. The criminals knows this and shuts down the operation on the fifth day, "just as they hear the footsteps coming".

If you are concerned with becoming an identity theft victim, then you should definitely read this book. It is amazing that there is countless ways for thieves to get your information. So use his twenty steps to protect yourself.