It is a common practice for the VA to contract out certain jobs such as software support and insurance billing and claims resolution to a subcontractor. According to a statement issued by the Veterans Administration this is done in order to provide better customer service. But what happens when this “customer service puts the customer at risk of identity theft and false claims for benefits?

In this the most recent incident, of a contractor, the contracting company, Unisys Corporation offered free credit reports to those affected. However, free annual credit reports are already available through the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The Veteran’s Administration also claimed that it works closely with contractors in developing the “highest standards” of protection and security. However, it does not designate what systems are in place to protect a veteran’s information. The federal employee who took home veterans information on a laptop computer was required to undergo computer security and regulations training.

Thousands of people were or may have been affected by this lack of stringent rules regarding the protection of their information. And the options available to them after the information may have been released were not comforting. They were advised to obtain their free credit report, monitor it (at an additional charge to the veteran) and then to report to local law enforcement authorities any problems with their credit or instances of identity theft.

Veteran’s circumstances and the effects of identity theft are unique. Many veterans are recipients of additional benefits such as education and medical that most people are not. Their children may also be eligible for specific benefits, either monetary, educational, home buying or medical. This makes identity theft, an already serious problem, even more complicated.

Veteran’s whether they feel their information is at risk or not should be extra vigilant. In addition to taking many of the steps to protect their personal, financial, and medical information they should go many steps further to protect their information, their benefits and the benefits for their family. Be sure to install virus and anti spyware to protect information contained on your computer. Do not conduct personal or financial business at work, as it puts you at risk of being overheard. You may not be as protected by the business computer security system as you think you are. Consider placing a “credit freeze” on your credit information. This requires the three major credit agencies to contact you to “lift” the freeze before making any changes to or issuing any new credit in your name. You may take steps yourself to perform the credit freeze or you may use a service such as Trusted ID.

In the event your credit, personal, financial or benefits information appears to be at risk or “stolen” you should do the following: dispute the information on your credit report and ask the three major credit reporting agencies of TransUnion, Experian and Equifax to place a fraud flag on your credit file. Contact the credit lenders and advise them of the situation as stated on your credit report. Placing a fraud alert insures that additional steps are taken before new accounts or changes to existing account in your name can occur.

Although everyone should review their Social Security Benefit information to determine if their benefits have been illegally used, veterans in particular should review both the Social Security Benefits statement as well as their Veterans Benefits eligibility. To order a Social Security Benefits report, contact the Social Security Administration office.

The first step for protecting veteran’s information is for government agencies and contractors to take those efforts necessary to protect this information. The next step is for veteran’s to do all that they can to keep their information private. However, in the event these efforts are not effective veterans much report and dispute false or incorrect information on their credit report or other service reports. It is necessary after reporting to the local law enforcement to contact the Veteran’s Administration office as well as your State’s Attorney General’s office and The Federal Trade Commission by calling 1-877-IDTHEFT (1-877-438-4338).

The effects of identity theft are much greater than most people suspect. Victims can spend years trying to re-establish their credit and their good names. The cost of this process, both financially and emotionally, is often quite high. But there are options (see below).

Identity theft is a serious crime. The Federal Trade Commission reports identity theft as its number one source of complaints by consumers. The average victim pays more than $1,000 repairing the damage and loses an average of $6,767. A recent study by CBS News claims that a thief steals someone’s identity “every 79 seconds.”2 An estimated 750,000 people are victimized each year.3

How can you tell if you are a victim of identity theft? There are some clues. First, it’s important to always monitor the balances on your checking, savings, or other financial accounts. Keep an eye out for unexplained charges or withdrawals made without your permission. Carefully reading your monthly bank and credit card statements, then checking the amounts against your check register or other record-keeping method could catch a thief in the act of assuming your identity and spending your hard-earned money.

Identity thieves may change the address on one or more of your bills, so make sure you know when you usually receive specific notices. For instance, if you receive your credit card statement at the beginning of the month and it doesn’t arrive in the mail, this could signal an address change by an identity thief. Another clue that comes in the mail is a credit card for which you didn’t apply or a statement for a credit card that you have never used. Someone may have used your information to apply for a line of credit.

Also take note if you are getting phone calls from debt collection agencies, credit departments, or other companies regarding merchandise or services that you did not purchase. Someone may be acquiring goods and services in your name.

And finally, when applying for a line of credit, be aware of your credit standing. If you know you have a good credit rating and get turned down by a credit card company, this is a red flag that someone else may be sullying your rating. Even if you don’t know your credit score, always ask why you were declined and verify the reason against your credit report.

Once your identity has been stolen and your credit has been damaged, the long process of regaining your name and good standing could cost you more than inconvenience. Victims are unable to qualify for loans, to purchase houses and cars, and to pay for higher education. They may be refused job opportunities and even be arrested for crimes committed by the identity thief.

In the meantime, the criminal with your personal information may:

• Go on a shopping spree with your credit or debit card account numbers. Thieves may also create counterfeit debit cards or checks. Merchandise can be sold and the criminals walk away with cash.

• Open credit or checking accounts in your name with your SSN and date of birth. As the bills pile up, your credit report reflects the delinquent account.

• Have your credit card statements sent to a phony address. Without the bills as a reference, it may take you a while to realize your account is being used.

• Take out loans in your name for big purchases, such as a new car.

• Set up telephone or internet service in your name.

• Avoid the responsibilities of debt or an impending eviction by filing bankruptcy using your SSN.

• Give your name to police when being arrested. If the criminal is released on bond but fails to appear for the court date, police may issue an arrest warrant for you.

• If you have need to contact the three main credit bureaus, go to www.apscreen.com to find out more.

Protecting yourself against identity theft takes a little extra time, but in comparison to the time, effort, and money it takes to reclaim your name once it has been stolen, the vigilance is well worth it.

Many individuals in need of medical care, have received it at the expense of someone else by providing a false identity. This results in high medical bills being created and ultimately the responsibility of the victim. Medical files have been changed to reflect the medical conditions of the identity thief rather than the real person, which is very dangerous when it comes to treating serious illnesses or diseases. It doesn’t hurt to carry with you some sort of medical card to alert medical personnel of your medical history in the case of an emergency. Keep photo id with you as well and be sure that your doctor gets to know who you are are keeps your medical file up to date.

Being proactive in preventing identity theft is important.

Identity theft is by no means limited to online transactions. Reports and studies indicate that it is just as rampant for offline activities. How about those offers for pre-approved credit cards or reduced rate mortgages that you get much more often than necessary delivered via US mail? What do you do with them? Of course, you have purchased an inexpensive paper shredder from your local office supply store like Best Buy of Office Depot and shred them, right? Please don’t tell me that you just throw them in the trash, because that is a prime place for identity theft robbers to get the information that they need to make YOU a victim of their antics.

From an offline perspective, you are encouraged to look over your credit card bills when they arrive in the mail. This includes bank statements and your mortgage statements every month. If someone were to steal the mail out of your mailbox while you were at work, is there enough information on any of those statements to enable an identity thief to open new accounts using your identity? If so, you may wish to have your statements sent to a PO box that is much more secure than your mailbox standing out by the road all day long where someone could steal your mail, or even check with your lender to see if they could send statements electronically via a secure connection to your secure emailbox.

You should place a fraud alert on your credit report, even if you are not a victim of identity theft. There are different names for this service, but it will require you to be contacted if anyone (including yourself) applies for credit using your name. This needs to be done with each of the three major national credit bureaus – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. If they give you any trouble with this, you are encouraged to report them to your state’s division of financial regulation. You are trying to protect yourself, they are providing a service, and if they are uncooperative, you do not need to put up with it.

One point to be taken very seriously is that if you have become a victim of identity theft, do NOT make any payments on any of the bills opened by the thief. If you do, this action could be used by the creditor to claim that it really is your account since you made at least one payment on it. As ludicrous as that sounds, you need to understand that the creditor realizes that if identity theft can be proven, they will most likely not even be able to collect as much as a penny on the dollar for the balance owed. So the creditor will make every attempt possible to claim that the fraudulent account really is yours, and if you make any payments on it, that will only service to substantiate their claims.

Be vigilant! You have rights and you need to be aware of what they are. You should also be aware that identity theft protection is available if you wish to utilize that route to protect yourself against identity theft.

Identity theft is an ever increasing problem in our modern society. So much information is readily available and only too easy for unscroupulous people to obtain. Identity theft sometimes be a relatively minor hassel, like some opening a cell phone account in your name and running up a bill until the collection agency starts calling you about it. But it can also be a completely devastating, life altering event. Costing thousands of dollars to repair the damage not to mention the stress and emotional suffering caused by someone wiping out your bank account and racking up thousands upon thousands of dollars in debt that happens to be in your name.

The best way to stop identity theft is to prevent it from happening in the first place. But what can you do if you’ve already been the victim of identity theft? The first thing to do is to file a police report. By filing a police report you’re starting a paper trail of your efforts to fix the problem and that is important because when you’re trying to apply for new credit or loans etc. you will want proof that all of the overdue bills and accounts in collection do not belong to you and that you are doing everything you can to fix the problem.

If your credit cards or card numbers have been stolen or misused you can call your credit card company to notify them of the fraudulent activity and they will reverse the charges and send you an affidavit of fraud that you must fill out, sign, and return. This also becomes part of the paper trail or proof that you’re not responsible for the fraudulent activity and shows your identity theft repair efforts.

For some of the more serious cases of identity theft, like someone draining your bank account or taking out huge loans in your name, you will definitely want to get the police involved immediately and I would reccommend that you find an attourney with experience in whatever issue you happen to be dealing with. There are a lot of things that you can handle on your own but for some of the more serious cases you will certainly require the help of qualified professionals.

More and more people are being victimized by these devious criminals. Prevention is the best way to stop these unsavory characters from stealing from you so I urge you to do some more research on prevention. Like most everything in nature, a thief will generally choose the path of least resistance. So if you can make yourself difficult to steal from, thieves will usually move on to easier prey.

I hate to be the bearer of this bad news. But, someone had to tell you.

I know for the past five years the media has used the term ‘prevent’ when covering Identity Theft. That is to no fault of their own, they don’t understand the true nature and scope of this crime.

Prevention is a myth. Maybe someday it will be preventable. So, for now we need to understand this crime a bit better in order to mitigate the damage that can be done. Stated simpler, we can take measures to lessen our exposure to the thieves.

I know there are people that will read this and say, “My company can prevent this crime” or “I have a service that says they prevent Identity Theft”. Sorry, that is just called marketing. I actually work with a product called the Identity Theft Shield. Guess what, I am not going to tell you that the service I work with can prevent Identity Theft, because it can’t. What a quality Identity Theft product should do for you is act as your early warning system for trouble on the horizon. Next step would be to do the restoration for you, and provide top-notch lawyers to defend and guide you throughout the crisis. I’ll cover more on products within the market in another article.

Back to the business at hand.

My reasoning for making the bold statement of prevention is a myth, is because: Your information is already out there in the public domain! If you were ever born, obviously you were; you are reading this article, your personal information is out there. It is in the realm of 0’s and 1’s. Everything is digitized, and placed in databases. Databases for which, you have no control over. Databases are hacked on a daily basis. Back-up tapes are ‘lost’ and stolen. As of this writing there has been more than 246 Million US residents personal (Non-Public Information) exposed to potential Identity Theft*.

Let’s look at an example of information in the public domain. Arizona: This state has the highest occurrence of Identity Theft in The United States.

Would you like to know one of the reasons why?

Several years ago, about the same time Identity Theft appeared on most peoples radar screens, the state decided to put all court records online (that would be the World Wide Web). Court records are gold mines of information for thieves, like Social Security Numbers, Dates of Birth, and Mother’s Maiden Name. You get the picture?

Oh, you don’t live in Arizona. That’s ok, most states and counties have followed suite with this practice. Congratulations, you are included in the mess.

I’m pretty sure you don’t have that warm and fuzzy feeling right now.

So, what do you do from here?

First, stay tuned for future articles from me on this topic. There will be plenty more.

Secondly, I’m not going to put you on edge without offering some hope. I like to use metaphors to make a point. I find this to help most everybody. Interpret it as you see fit:

If I were to feed you a fish, you would receive nourishment for the day. If you venture out to sea on your own, you will learn to survive.

To be continued…
*Privacy Rights Clearinghouse

Privacy is the number one reason for buying a paper shredder. According to the 2008 Javelin Strategy and Research Identity Fraud Survey Report, identity theft cost Americans $48 billion in that year alone. Also, 80% of that survey’s respondents said that their company had experienced at least one data breach in the previous year. These breaches happened when documents weren’t properly destroyed. The good news is that identity theft is totally preventable and a paper shredder can help prevent your business and customers from becoming identity theft victims.

Another vital reason to get a shredder is legal compliance. Federal privacy laws such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA), Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA), and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLB) require businesses to properly dispose of confidential customer, patient, and employee information. Not complying with these types of laws can lead to stiff fines, as well as potential lawsuits and prosecution, so if the thought of identity theft doesn’t sway you, perhaps the idea of jail will.

There’s an impressive selection of shredders available and it’s good to know what your shredding needs are before purchasing a machine. There are small deskside shredders that are good for occasional use by one or two people, and there are larger shredders including commercial-sized ones that run continuously and can be used by many different people. Some shredders can only shred paper, but the better models can shred CD’s, DVD’s, and credit cards, so you’ll have total control over what happens to all of your private data. Some shredders are jam-proof, so you won’t have to spend precious time undoing paper jams, and some machines are self-oiling, virtually eliminating the need for routine maintenance. And if you like to keep your office quiet, there are shredders that don’t make a lot of noise. Really, there’s a shredder for everybody.

Whether you choose a quiet shredder or a machine that can shred electronic media, you’ll need to choose a machine with the highest level of security. There are six levels of shredder security and the higher the number, the more security you get. Security is determined by how small the machine’s shreds are. The smaller the cut, the more security you get because your documents can’t be reassembled. A cross-cut shredder will produce smaller shreds than a strip-cut machine, so if you need a high level of security, be sure to buy a cross-cut shredder.

There are many paper shredder manufacturers out there. Some brand names you should look for are Fellowes, Intimus, Dahle, and MBM. All of these companies make great machines that can protect your privacy and your reputation.

Paper shredders should be in every office because they’re powerful weapons in the fight against identity theft. There’s a shredder out there for you, whether you need a small unit for your home office or a larger machine to process your company’s private data. Buy a shredder today and enjoy increased privacy and peace of mind!

One of the top MLM companies these days when it comes to growth is Prepaid Legal. Prepaid Legal has been around for almost 40 years and has secured a top spot in the multilevel marketing industry. Recently, PPL has teamed up with a multinational company named Kroll International to provide Identity Theft Services in addition to it’s existing legal services. There are many other ID theft services in existence these days, but the service that Kroll Int. provides stands head and shoulders above the rest. The joining of these two well established companies should prove to be extremely profitable for both Kroll and PPL, as well as the people that represent them. It should also secure PPL a top position among other MLM companies for years to come.

So why is the Identity Theft Protection provided by Kroll any better than it’s competitors?

The ID Theft protection provided by Kroll Int. has many unique features such as:

1. Unlimited access to your credit report.

2. Your choice of unlimited access to either one credit agency or all three.

3. Access to your credit score.

4. Automatic email notification of any credit activity the same day that it occurs.

5. A team of specialist that will take the burden of ID restoration in the case your Identity is stolen.

This service is a perfect compliment to Prepaid Legal because it doubles the security that it provides it’s customers. PPL customers own the legal insurance because they feel they have something to lose. And the people that are in this category have something to lose because they have been responsible and in turn have great credit and a good name. Why not pay an extra ten dollars a month to protect such great assets?

So will this partnership translate into more success for the people that market PPL?

It’s a sad fact that many that enter the MLM industry never reach even a small bit of success with ANY company. Most enter into MLM with absolutely no clue and no real strategy to succeed. They are attracted to the promise of a quick road to easy street. The energy of the company leaders and the crowd of willing followers sucks them in and WHAM… their hooked. But the REAL story behind the stories of quick success are far different from each other.

The real story behind the stories of overnight success is that of years of hard work, struggle, and failure. The supposed overnight successes spent years developing skills that a great majority of people just don’t have, and that most are not willing to pay the price to develop. And regardless of the fact that some do have a tremendous amount of “quick success”, 90+ % of people representing MLM companies wont ever get to leader status in MLM. If you don’t want to be part of the 90+% of mediocre performers and flat out failures, it’s a MUST that you gain the skill necessary to gain financial and time freedom. And remember, if it was easy it wouldn’t be success.