Identity Theft

Identity theft occurs when a thief obtains – and illegally uses – your identifying information, such as your Social Security Number (SSN), your credit card, or checking account numbers to open new credit accounts and apply for loans in your name.

Traditionally, ID thieves have struck by redirecting mail, stealing sales receipts, and shoulder surfing – peeking over people's shoulders while they're at the ATM (Automated Teller Machine). Technology expands these opportunities.

Spammers send unsolicited e-mail indiscriminately to multiple mailing lists, individuals, or newsgroups. These e-mails include advertisements, viruses, and hoaxes. Report spam by sending an e-mail to the FTC at uce@ftc.gov.

Phishers create and use e-mails and Web sites – designed to look like e-mails and Web sites of well-known legitimate businesses, financial institutions, and government agencies – to deceive users into disclosing financial institutions and account information or other personal data such as usernames and passwords.

Preventing Identity Theft

• Before revealing personal financial information, find out whom you're dealing with, how the information will be used, and if it will be shared with others.
• Only give your SSN when it's absolutely necessary. Ask if you can use another identifier such as a driver's license, instead. And don't carry your Social Security in your wallet unless you need it that day.
• Keep items with personal information in a safe place and either shred them or tear them up when you don't need them anymore. Dispose of checking/share draft copies and statements, receipts with a credit card imprint, insurance forms, expired credit cards, savings and investment account statements, and credit card offers the same way.
• Order a copy of your credit report from each credit reporting agency every year. The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act) of 2003, effective by the end of 2004, requires credit bureaus to provide a free report annually to consumers who request a copy.

• Verify that your credit report is accurate and that it includes only activities you've authorized.
• Look over your credit card and credit union statements each month for unauthorized charges or suspicious activity.
• Photocopy financial cards and insurance cards you carry in your wallet (front and back) and keep copies in a safe place; if your wallet is lost or stolen, you can promptly and accurately report the loss.
• Consider the information you're supplying on entries to win a car, shopping spree, and so on. To win, information such as your age or income range usually is not necessary.
• Contact the U.S. Postal Service if you don't receive mail for a few days. You want to confirm your mail – with, say all those credit card offers – hasn't been diverted by a thief filling out a change of address form in your name.

Recovering from Identity Theft

The FACT Act helps ensure that all citizens are treated fairly when they apply for credit. It provides new national ID theft protections as well.

Before, identity theft victims had to call all their credit card issuers and the three major credit bureaus to alert them to crime. Now, credit bureaus will share identity theft complaints, and consumers only will need to make one call to receive advice, set off a nationwide fraud alert, and protect their credit standing.

The Act also allows active duty military personnel to place special alerts on their files when they are deployed overseas.

Useful Resources

• FTC brochure: ID Theft: (example: When Bad Things Happen to Your Good Name) http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft2012/
• Identify Theft Resource Center www.idtheftcenter.org

For more information on preventing identity theft, or if you have had an issue with your Keystone Credit Union account and suspect your identity may have been stolen, contact our Tyler, Texas office today at (903) 882-4343.

For fraud, lost or stolen Credit Card:  1-800-599-7889

For fraud, lost or stolen ATM/Debit Card: 1-833-337-6075