The Federal Trade Commission released an annual report "Consumer Fraud and Identity Theft Complaint Data". Not surprising, ID theft tops the list of complaints by a long shot.
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2007/02/topcomplaints.htm
At the day job, quite a few of individuals that call in are disputing their debt due to identity theft. Unfortunately for the majority of the people that call in to my day job because we're calling/writing about a debt owed, the company I work for is a back end collection agency. The time to fight ID theft is right away, not five years later.
I think most of these people ignored the issue until they were in collections because the person defrauding them is a friend or family member. I read the press release for that report above, and I got to wondering what the true number would be if the people who are being defrauded by a known person used the FTC's complaint process.
I have seen a few happy endings when the individual was able to find resolution. One man, Senior, I recall talked with was settling a huge credit card debt that his Junior applied for with the father's SSN. Sounds like the were estranged for awhile and the whole situation was out-of-hand. But, no authorities were ever alerted. I remember him because I think it would be very difficult to deal with.
In my childhood I used to weed dandelions for a penny each off my grandfather's lawn. One afternoon I was quite the worker bee. There'd only been about 10 dandelions on my grandfather's lawn. I went to him with my problem and explained that I knew dandelion seeds flew on the wind, and shouldn't I be picking them off the neighbor's lawns too? He agreed, so I was off to the races. By the end of the day I had 3 shiny quarters. I had plans for it, Bazooka Joe gum probably, and I hid the money in this tiny little cup in my grandmother's hutch where I was sure it would be safe.
It wasn't.
I'll never know who the culprit was. They never fessed up.
You know, if I had nickle for every time someone stole a nickle from me, I'd probably be able to fly to Europe for a two-week luxury stay in downtown Paris. I tend to get suckered by those that are fond of the old oh-gee-I-didn't-realize-I-didn't-have-any-change-can-I-borrow-$$$ technique. They seldom give it back, and I always forget. Yet, I remember my dandelion money disappearing.
Would I be able to look the other way if it was $50,000? Should I? Am I thankful this has never been an issue? Definitely because it would really, really be tough.
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2007/02/topcomplaints.htm
At the day job, quite a few of individuals that call in are disputing their debt due to identity theft. Unfortunately for the majority of the people that call in to my day job because we're calling/writing about a debt owed, the company I work for is a back end collection agency. The time to fight ID theft is right away, not five years later.
I think most of these people ignored the issue until they were in collections because the person defrauding them is a friend or family member. I read the press release for that report above, and I got to wondering what the true number would be if the people who are being defrauded by a known person used the FTC's complaint process.
I have seen a few happy endings when the individual was able to find resolution. One man, Senior, I recall talked with was settling a huge credit card debt that his Junior applied for with the father's SSN. Sounds like the were estranged for awhile and the whole situation was out-of-hand. But, no authorities were ever alerted. I remember him because I think it would be very difficult to deal with.
In my childhood I used to weed dandelions for a penny each off my grandfather's lawn. One afternoon I was quite the worker bee. There'd only been about 10 dandelions on my grandfather's lawn. I went to him with my problem and explained that I knew dandelion seeds flew on the wind, and shouldn't I be picking them off the neighbor's lawns too? He agreed, so I was off to the races. By the end of the day I had 3 shiny quarters. I had plans for it, Bazooka Joe gum probably, and I hid the money in this tiny little cup in my grandmother's hutch where I was sure it would be safe.
It wasn't.
I'll never know who the culprit was. They never fessed up.
You know, if I had nickle for every time someone stole a nickle from me, I'd probably be able to fly to Europe for a two-week luxury stay in downtown Paris. I tend to get suckered by those that are fond of the old oh-gee-I-didn't-realize-I-didn't-have-any-change-can-I-borrow-$$$ technique. They seldom give it back, and I always forget. Yet, I remember my dandelion money disappearing.
Would I be able to look the other way if it was $50,000? Should I? Am I thankful this has never been an issue? Definitely because it would really, really be tough.
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