Eleven states including Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Oregon, South Carolina and Virginia still don’t have credit-freeze laws. A credit-freeze is no more than the ability for you to put a temporary freeze on your credit report, locking out the criminals, and putting you in charge. Businesses don’t like it, but you should. Here’s why…

Identity Theft is No Joke

So much talk happens surrounding online Identity Theft, that people often forget about how Identity Theft can take place in the real (physical) world.

If I am a real-world identity thief, and I don’t want to use real methods (instead of virtual methods like hacking) one of the tools I have in my arsenal of ways to get your information is to use the United States Postal Service.

Now you might think this is as simple as just locking your mailbox, but that won’t help you in this situation. One thing that identity thieves can do is actually go to the post office and have your mail put on hold and pick it up themselves.

Identity and other information about you is held in a variety places, most of which you will not be able to control, and many of which are publicly available. An identity thief can find out a great deal about you, simply by accessing publicly available information.

- Your telephone number and address can easily found, simply by using the telephone book. Additionally, reverse look-up services can be used to find out about you, starting from your phone number.

I never thought it would happen to me, but it did.

In July 2003 my identity was stolen. Why would someone steal my identity? I had bad credit, a poor credit rating and no money. Apparently, all identity thieves want is your information because the thieves were able to get credit from companies that had refused me credit just weeks earlier. So, no one is immune from these vultures.

But, I was lucky. I monitor my checking account almost daily.

Identity theft is a horrible crime and it occurs more often than you know. But the real tragedy is that no one cares. The credit card companies, the stores and the collection people could care less. All they want is the money and they don’t care where it comes from. As a matter of fact they hope you will pay it because if you prove that it was a theft they get nothing.

So, the collector’s will pressure you to pay to save your credit rating or protect your good name. If that doesn’t work they will accuse you of filing a false report to avoid paying for all the stuff you bought. They have one goal and that is to collect the money.

There are a variety of methods that thieves use to steal identity details:

- Physical theft, especially of your purse or wallet, or of your mail, is a common means of identity theft. A break-in to your home or a “stair dancer” intruding into your office workplace, are other opportunities. Going through your trash can for identity information is another.

- A variation on stealing your mail that some thieves use, is simply to divert it. They can do this by arranging with the post office for your mail to be redirected, or by simply writing to banks, credit card companies or other financial institutions, and telling them that you have moved.