The Emerging Identity Theft Industry

- Mary Tyler Moore

Oh great. Another article about identity theft. How original.

I know what you're thinking. Those same old boring statistics and scare tactics to make you worry about someone ripping off your identity. We've heard that it's the fastest growing crime in America claiming over 10 million victims each year in the United States alone. We heard it all, but what can done to actually prevent it from happening in the first place. The services that I've seen are more reactive than proactive meaning that they react to a problem after it occurs as opposed to preventing the problem to begin with.

That is until now.

Services are now offering security measures that prevent anyone from opening credit accounts without your personal verification and typically range between $100 - $150 per year for this credit monitoring service. A small price to pay compared to the cost to repair damage done by the identity thieves, which can literally cost a consumer thousands of dollars, not to mention time and the affect it has on your credit score.

And a new market is born. Your credit, what was once a closely guarded secret now has become something that can be quite easy to steal. You NEED protection. You are 'at risk" of becoming a victim. We've heard all the marketing taglines and yes we agree that we need to do something. It has become a common occurrence to hear on the nightly news that our personal information is being compromised. Databases are being hacked into and computers are being stolen. Also, identity thieves are coming up with new ways to get your personal information all the time.

Yet a credit report carries so much power with the information it holds, but 90 percent of all credit reports that I have examined for consumers all contain errors. What a consumer pays in interest charges and credit worthiness is determined by such information. It resembles the dreaded "permanent record" threat that parents give children in school. The problem is that this document that holds such vital information, holds this information in a less than secure manner. Consumers and creditors alike take the information for granted.

Your social security number, when it was first developed in 1936 was never meant to be a source of identification. It was only meant for tax purposes, but we are always being asked for it for various reasons. Now there is an entrepreneur whose company developed a great deal of publicity by his advertising the owners social security number and offering a one million dollar guarantee that no one will ever open credit accounts without your knowledge.

With subscription costs ranging from $4.95 to $19.95 per month, even the credit bureaus themselves have been marketing their own monitoring service, basically selling a service that protects you from themselves. Does this make sense? Shouldn't an agency that holds information that is looked upon so vitally be held accountable for errors in their system without charging the consumer for it?

But we gladly pay for the protection and peace of mind that we will not get ripped off. But how are we to know if these companies themselves are not a scam? Have we become this jaded and mistrusting of our fellow man?

You betcha!