Personal Finance Blog by Debit versus Credit

Common Identity Theft Scams And How To Avoid Them

November 27, 2008 | Filed in: Personal Finance | 3 comments

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Yesterday in the post Identity Theft is No Laughing Matter I shared some basic information with you about identity theft. Today I’d like to take this one step further and educate you on some specific scams used to obtain your personal information. My hope is that by educating you on these scams you’ll be less likely to become a victim.

The Jury Duty Scam

You’re sitting at home enjoying your Thanksgiving dinner when the phone rings. You answer it and the person on the other end of the line is claiming to be a court worker and is telling you that you failed to report for jury duty and a warrant has been issued for your arrest. Naturally you’re skeptical and you tell the person on the other line that you never received a jury duty notification. The scammer then asks for confidential information in order to verify that you are who you say you are (how ironic is this?). This information usually includes your social security number, your birthdate and can often include credit card numbers as well, which is exactly what a criminal needs in order to commit identity theft.

Phishing

According to the dictionary, Phishing is “the activity of defrauding an online account holder of financial information by posing as a legitimate company.” Phishing is widely used to try to gain account information for banks and other financial institutions. I personally get phishing e-mails from banks that I’ve never even held an account at. A great rule of thumb to avoid being phished is that a legitimate company will NEVER ask you to verify your account information through an e-mail (and likewise over the phone).

If It Sounds Too Good To Be True… It Is

There’s a simple rule to remember when it comes to protecting your identity and, by extension, your financial well-being. If it sounds too good to be true then it definitely is. No legitimate company will send you an e-mail asking for you to verify your identity. No entrepreneur in Nigeria wants to send you money.

Let’s wrap this up with a few links to some documented scams: e-mail scammers, Gmail phishing attempt, PayPal phishing guide.

This post was written in response to the Spend on Life Credit Blogging Scholarship. If you’re a student with a blog and would like the chance to win a $2,000 dollar scholarship check out the Spend on Life Blogging Scholarship!

Tags: Identity Theft, Phishing Scams

Identity Theft is No Laughing Matter

November 26, 2008 | Filed in: Personal Finance | 1 comment

While watching The Office the other day I saw an episode where Jim, the office prankster, comes in dressed like Dwight, an annoying paper salesman. At first Dwight doesn’t realize that Jim is making fun of him, but after Jim starts to argue with Dwight about bears (Dwight’s favorite animal), he becomes enraged and shouts, “Identity theft is not a joke, Jim!”

While I hate to admit that Dwight may be right about something, he brings up an important point. Identity theft is not a joke - in fact it is a very serious problem that can have significant ramifications for those who have had their identities stolen.

What is identity theft?

Identity theft can be defined as a type of fraud where the criminal pretends to be someone other than himself with the intent of personal gain. One of the most common types of identity theft is financial identity theft, which is the act of using another’s identity to obtain goods and services.

A classic example of financial identity theft is bank fraud, where the criminal uses a fraudulently obtained social security number, address and other forms of identification to apply for a loan under the victim’s name. Once the criminal has received the proceeds from the loan he disappears, leaving behind a fraudulent loan on his victim’s credit and a serious headache.

Preventing identity theft

The easiest way to prevent identity theft is to never share your personal information with anyone that you don’t trust. While there have been many cases where personal information has been sold by a corporation’s disgruntled employee, most often criminals come into contact with sensitive materials through other means, such as:

• Stealing mail
• Retrieving information from old discarded computers
• Pickpocketing
• Hacking
• Digging through rubbish bins

Identity theft is a growing problem in today’s increasingly electronic world. It’s important that you learn how to protect your identity so you don’t end up paying thousands of dollars out of your own pocket trying to restore your (once good) name. Now that you know a little bit more about identity theft it’s time to take a look at a few common identity theft scams.

This post was written in response to the Spend on Life Credit Blogging Scholarship. If you’re a student with a blog and would like the chance to win a $2,000 dollar scholarship check out the Spend on Life Blogging Scholarship!

Tags: Identity Theft, The Office

Are You Still Actively Investing?

November 24, 2008 | Filed in: Personal Finance | 1 comment

The market has been more than crazy over the past several months. It’s a bit depressing to look at all of the losses that I’ve had, at least on paper, but I know that eventually it’ll all come back. Nonetheless it’s definitely scary out there for a lot of people.

I’m interested to know how all of you are responding to the current market conditions. What are you doing with it being so crazy out there?

I’m still throwing just as much into my 401(k) but I’ve not done any individual investing in stocks or any mutual funds for about a month now. The reason for that is mostly because I’m saving cash for certain upcoming expenses. I’m definitely curious what you’re doing and I would love to hear your comments as well!

Good luck out there!

Tags: 401(k), funds, Investing, saving, stocks

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