What an Identity Thief Can Do With Your Identity
An identity thief can do lots of things after he gets your personal information. All he needs is your name, date of birth and social security number.
He could:
- - Open a checking account
- - Open a credit card account
- - Get a job
- - Get a cell phone and cell phone service
- - Get medical benefits
- - Get a car loan
- - Rent an apartment or house
- - Turn on utilities at that apartment including electric, cable, water, phone
- - Get arrested on criminal charges and jump bail
When you become a victim, you'll probably never even realize a thief has used your identity to do any of this until bills get turned over to a collections agency or the police come knocking on your door to arrest you.
After this damage has been done, it's now up to you to undo it and prove it isn't really you who opened the accounts or owes back rent or medical bills.
To minimize the damage, you could monitor your credit report every few months to see if any new accounts have been opened that you don't know about. You could possibly catch an identity thief in the act. Or he could be long gone by then. You'll be left with the lingering effects of bad credit and possibly a criminal record popping up when you least expect it.
The other thing you can do to protect yourself is to get a subscription from LifeLock. LifeLock is a company that offers Identity Theft Protection. The CEO, Todd Davis, advertises his social security number – 457-55-5462. They guarantee your identity will be protected and back it with a million dollar pledge.
Normally, LifeLock is $10 per month, but if you use this discount code – 9 – you'll the $9 per month special pricing. If you decide to take their annual plan, the price drops to $8.25 per month. You'll also get your first 30 days for free to try it out. Get LifeLock now.
Remember, it's easier to prevent identity theft than it is to fix it.
