July 28, 2009 by Terry.

Imagine if this was Financial IDentity Theft and they shut your accounts down till you resolved it.  Fraud - Financial IDentity Theft - Legal - it can all affect you.  According to a Fox News article, a New Hampshire man went out to purchase a pack of cigarettes at a gas station and ended up with a $23 quadrillion credit card bill. In a strikingly similar incident, a teenager was charged the same amount after making purchases at a national chain pharmacy. That’s not all. According to the article, two more instances of a $23 quadrillion charge have shown up on credit card statements for packs of cigarettes in Tennessee and Texas. The bank refers to the card issuer, the card issuer refers to the bank.  Sounds like businesses wants to put the burden on someone else.  Doesn’t it sound confusing.

Would you be concerned? NO-worries.  Someone has your back.  We recommend the services of a business who not only offers continuous monitoring in many areas [not just your credit bureaus], the world’s leading risk consulting company, and pre-paid legal plan to go with it.  Why?  That way you may still have access to help even if your financial accounts get shut off to you.  Learn more here

In the technical age that we live in, mistakes happen. How much peace of mind does the suite of services at that web site provide in light of such a mistake?  $23 Quadrillion worth?  I would venture to say closer than any other.

Terry Kohler
Certified IDentity Theft Risk Management Specialist

Posted in IDT - Financial | Print | No Comments »

May 25, 2009 by Terry.

Did you see this article on the New York Times back in January - or hear about it since then?

From that article the authors stated:

“Heartland, based in Princeton, N.J., works with about 175,000 small merchants and processes about 100 million transactions a month. It has created a Web site, 2008breach.com, to provide information about the incident. Cardholders are not responsible for unauthorized fraudulent charges.”

Not according to the Federal Trade Commission and legislation:

Page 19 of the free booklet IDTheft Victims receive when they file a complaint with the FTC “Take Charge: Fighting Back Against Identity Theft” [available at http://ftc.gov/idtheft] indicates you are responsible in this way - that can be very costly:

“…If an identity thief changed the address on your account and you didn’t receive the bill, your dispute letter still must reach the creditor within 60 days of when the creditor would have mailed the bill. This is one reason it’s essential to keep track of your billing statements, and follow up quickly if your bills don’t arrive on time.”

Terry Kohler
Certified IDentity Theft Risk Management Specialist
Talk Solutions Today

Posted in IDT - Businesses, IDT - SSAN, IDT - Financial, News Alerts, IDentity Theft Victims | Print | No Comments »