ID Theft Victims Lose More Then Money

People may not think identity theft is such a big deal because in many cases victims can get fraudulent charges forgiven and they don’t end up out any money. However, they fail to think about an even bigger cost: the amount of time that victims have to spend cleaning up their credit. This could be two hours; it could be 200 hours, it could be 1000 hours or more.

Last June blogger Tyra Damm ruminated on this topic when she thought about a recent time that she was victimized. An unidentified woman created a driver’s license with her own picture and signature but Damm’s license number, birth date, name and address. She also made an employee badge with the same information. She proceeded to use these IDs to take out loans.

Damm quickly became aware of the crimes, but it was too late to stop some of the new accounts from being processed, which made it necessary for her to spend several hours at the bank, to start, with visits to the police station, calls to the credit card companies, and a lot more research ahead of her. She estimates that she has already spent three hours and that she has only just begun all of the work she will have to do.

While time does not cost money, per se, it does cost precious minutes you could be spending playing with your kids, working, shopping for groceries, or even sleeping. Economists call this the opportunity cost, which means the sacrifice you are making to do one thing over another. Face it; no one likes spending time on the phone with credit card companies, even if it is just to make a regular inquiry. It’s even worse when you’re trying to prove you’re you and get the company to realize it has made a mistake.

Don’t want to deal with this kind of situation? There’s another type of company you can talk to instead, before the dreaded identity theft happens: a company that offers identity theft protection such as LifeLock or TrustedID. And, you can follow the advice that Damm offers at the end of her blog. Tell representatives at any financial institutions you do business with that you would like to initiate a password plan, meaning no one will be able to take action on your account, no matter how much they look or sound like you, unless they know a secret code word you choose.

If you decide to go the code word route, don’t pick your dog’s name, your maiden name or anything else completely obvious. Also, test the bank’s employees a few times to make sure they follow the rules. If they don’t even check when it is you, chances are they won’t when it isn’t. With nearly 10 million Americans victimized last year this is one instance in which you do not want to take chances.

Damm didn’t have her wallet stolen or see a thief digging through her trash. In fact, she is completely unsure about how her personal information got leaked out. All she can do is speculate. So basically she did nothing wrong but the thieves still found a way in, so to speak. Don’t get a false sense of security. That’s the easiest way to open the door. Find a credit protection service today.