Become a victim of identity theft, and you could be in for the nightmare of a lifetime.
We have known several identity theft victims. One family lost their home because of it–and another even fears for his safety. It is a vicious crime that can take years to resolve and the damages can last far longer than that. And all too often, identity thieves are never caught or punished.
Almost 10 million Americans are victimized by identity theft each year, and it is one of the fastest growing financial crimes.
The best solution is prevention and freezing your credit may be one of the simplest steps you can take to help stop this crime. A security freeze will prevent thieves from obtaining credit in your name by locking, freezing and blocking access to your credit report and credit score.
The cost to do this is fairly minimal ($10 in California), and is a solution available to residents of:
Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
What happens if you want to obtain new credit? The consumer is given a PIN to grant access to the credit file. Again, a nominal fee may be charged to do so.
How does the credit freeze work? Simple. If a business or lender cannot obtain credit information, new credit will not be issued to the thief. Unfortunately, though, you will have to unfreeze your credit if applying for a new loan or mortgage.
For additional reading about this subject, click here.
This is great, thanks so much for sharing it, Roberta. We all know identity theft is a crime but we’ve never really had any ability to prevent it. This is a proactive solution.
Neece:
Thanks! It is also a precaution that one should take when leaving a relationship where private personal identification information is known.
Freezing credit is a pretty simple and sensible solution.
Oh, that’s brilliant! Yes, of course! I’m going to look into this today.
Neece: Go for it! We are doing the same.
i think this is so true
btw do u know david lachlan or clark ?