Identity Theft

Identity theft is kind of a funny thing; a few years ago no one cared about it and now it is all the rage. My dad had a small brush it a year or two ago; he was one of the lucky ones though. He got a call out of the middle of nowhere from his bank, saying his credit card was "compromised". The bank said they'd cancel that account (credit card number), and they would issue him a new card immediately. To this day, he doesn't know how/where the card was compromised. He is assuming that it was from some place on-line, but he doesn't know.

I had an odd brush with identity theft also. About 4-5 years ago I got a call one night. THe person on the other end says something about a credit card I applied for. Right away she is trying to get my SSN to "verify" it. All I did was ask a second question of "What credit card company are you from?" and the girl got all mad and hung up on me. It just showed up with a random 800 number on the caller ID. I still have no idea if it was a legitimate call from a credit card company, with the girl on the other end just having a bad day. Or it may have been someone phishing.

But identity theft has become big industry. THose who steal the identities are making big money. On the other side, companies are making big money "protecting" you. There are companies like LifeLock who are charging customers a monthly fee (I believe 10-20 dollars) to provide services that people can do for themselves. It mostly revolves around setting up flags on your accounts with the credit companies. This can all be done for free, they just go through the process of organizing it for you. My wife is signed up with a service that sends her credit report every couple months. It is a big industry.