Identity Theft Victims: Guilty until Proven Innocent

You'd think as a victim of identity theft, you'd have people bending over backwards to help you in your crisis. Just the opposite it seems, at least when it comes to creditors. The thieves can be idiots, even misspelling your name when signing as you, but you however have to be faultless, proving your innocence via your perfection. Because if not, those creditors will continue to harass, assuming you’re a lazy deadbeat and unwilling to pay your bills. Obviously the best scenario is to prevent such a situation: Take all the steps to protect your identity such as not carrying your social security card in your wallet, having a lock on your mailbox, using caution when using credit cards (ie. Stay with the card when paying at a restaurant), travel with limited credit cards -- even prepaid cards -- and be guarded when giving out personal information. Another crucial precaution is to routinely check your credit score and even better; be enrolled in an identity theft protection program. In this way, you'll be alerted when suspicious purchases are made on your credit card and if your credit score changes drastically and even if you've opened up new accounts. Being enrolled in such a program is the best prevention and also provides current information on identity theft resources. We need to be continually updated on the new scams as identity thieves are getting sneakier and more creative. There's even a recent trend of stealing children's identity, demonstrating that these crooks will stoop to any level.

Just before Christmas, a story came out in Spartanburg, South Carolina where a mother learned that someone was using the social security number of her deceased son. Imagine a Christmas present that consisted of the IRS sending you a letter informing you that someone had filed a tax return under your dead child's name. Ricki Escalante's son died at ten months from SIDS. Now it's up to Ricki to send as much information about her son to the IRS(Read the full story).

Social security numbers of children are valuable resources for thieves. Why? It is assumed parents don't check the credit reports of their children. Once again the best defense is to have your children's credit reports monitored and even place a freeze on their credit files. So with any newfound scam, monitoring is always the best way to secure your name and credit.