Ten Reasons to Worry About Identity Theft

Ever since I became fully aware of the tremendous scope and scale of the identity theft issue, it has become an obsession. I want everyone to pitch in and help eliminate this crime. The best way to do that is to protect yourself so that you can alert law enforcement as early as possible when your personal information is compromised. If we all did that, we would wipe this thing right out. You can lead a horse to water…

Anyway, here are ten reasons to worry about identity theft:

1. Ten million new victims a year — is that clear? I did not make that number up. I got it from the FTC.
2. If your child’s identity is compromised — a growing trend since most people don’t monitor their children’s identity information and it is proliferated every time time they get a toothache or enroll in school — it can cause serious problems that you will not find out about until years later.
3. Felons use stolen identities to get jobs… and guns.
4. Pedophiles use stolen identities to blend right in.
5. Illegal immigrants use stolen identities to get work — and it looks awfully funny on your tax return if somebody has been earning under your SSN but you’re not claiming the income.
6. The Department of Homeland Security believes that terrorists steal identitites and operate under them to stay under the radar.
7. Identity theft is incredibly easy to commit. Anyone with access to your information can steal your identity, from the guy going through your trash at 1:00 a.m. to the receptionist in your doctor’s office, to a rogue employee at the DMV.
8. If your identity is stolen, you probably won’t find out about it until months or years later unless you are using a tool to actively monitor your identity. Again, I’m not making this up. It comes straight from the FTC’s latest report on the subject.
9. You are guilty until proven innocent if your identity is stolen. Sure, lenders are ultimately responsible for financial losses, but you still might have an uphill battle proving that it wasn’t you who bought that $3,000 Gucci handbag in Aruba.
10. Do you really want to go through the rest of your life paranoid and distrustful? That is exactly what happens to a lot of identity theft victims. How would you like it if you gained a reputation as a pedophile, even temporarily? It’s quite a sense of violation, let me tell you.

No, I am not pulling punches, and neither will identity thieves when they decide to ruin your life. If you are smart, and I think you are if you have read this far, you will take every measure you can to ensure your family’s security.