Financial Identity Theft

Most people when they hear the words “identity theft” usually think of credit reports and bank accounts. It’s not all about that as we mentioned above, but we will say that it is the highest form of identity theft at around 28% of all IDT. We hear about data breaches on the news all the time , but have you ever thought about how that data breach may impact you?

TJX Co., the parent company of T.J. Maxx and other retailers, dropped a bombshell announcing in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that more than 45 million credit and debit card numbers have been stolen from its IT systems. We are all loosing faith to some degree in our government and our financial institutions.

Our beliefs are getting more and more shaky and some people are thinking about stuffing their money in their mattresses again, but you have to remember that our government and financial institutions can’t stop this from happening to you.

FDLE Special Agent Falls Victim To ID Theft – Watch this video as the woman in charge of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Orlando office has her identity stolen.

Victim’s of identity theft will attest that recovering from this crime is often an expensive, time consuming process. Before a crime is detected, a thief is capable of running up hundreds to thousands of dollars worth of debt in someone else’s name. While the innocent consumer may not be found liable for one hundred percent of the debt, the consequences are still very damaging. Financial identity theft frequently destroys a victims credit. This is an issue that can take weeks, months or even years to repair. In the beginning of the act, a victim may be denied loans for mortgages, the opportunity to open a bank account and even turned down for employment.

When technology moves along and impostors become more advanced, financial identity theft will continue to pose a great threat to many individuals. Because of this, the Federal Trade Commission has become an entity that is dedicated to developing ways to prevent the crime and aid victims of all types of identity theft.