This warning found on the ICFE site is worth noting -and I agree with their stance! The advice is good for all consumers, not just the Military, though this is directed to our brave service members and their families .

ICFE Cautions Veterans and Active Duty Service Members

Veterans and active duty service members whose personal information may have been stolen are being offered a salve – credit monitoring - which is a feel good response, but provides a false sense of security. When it comes to identity theft prevention measures, relying on credit monitoring is similar to placing only one smoke detector in a three story home.

The San Diego based Institute of Consumer Financial Education (ICFE), which certifies credit report reviewers and identity theft risk management specialists, cautions potential victims to carefully review and understand the limitations of credit monitoring. Credit monitoring will not alert the consumer if someone has obtained a driver’s license, birth certificate, Social Security card, or used their name during interactions with law enforcement, resulting in arrest warrants or erroneous criminal records.

Most credit monitoring services only monitor one bureau. Some provide an initial three-bureau report on the first order, and then revert to monitoring only one. Many creditors report to the bureaus only once a-month or quarterly. In cases involving utility accounts, it may never be reported until after it has been sent to collections. With very rare exceptions, credit monitoring does not monitor specialty-reporting companies or check verification companies.

Credit monitoring will not report to the victim in a timely fashion, if at all, when an identity thief has taken a job using the victim's name and Social Security number -- in some States, this type of employment fraud approaches one-third of all identity theft cases -- and causes significant financial cost, unexpected tax consequences, and embarrassment to the victim. See more at ICFE
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My thoughts...

It is especially disturbing to me to realize that our service men and women, and their families, are all too often the target of predatory lenders, identity thieves and fraudsters of all sorts. These families have sacrificed so much of their lives, often their very life, for those of us who couldn't fathom being in their position. I would like to take this opportunity to offer my support and sincere thanks! If you have been victimized, have questions relating to identity theft or credit matters, or simply just want to vent...I want to hear from you. You can leave your comments here, or contribute your story to the story board here or go to Creditboards. They have set up a special thread for Military families CreditBoards Forum

Tell us your story. We want to help shed light on the plight of our Military families. Help us -help you!
Additionally, if you know of available resources that you want to share -post them too!

A warning to our Military families:

BEWARE: A new identity theft scam, purporting to be from the American Red Cross calling about an injured soldier, is targeting military families.

The Red Cross issued an alert warning people that its representatives generally don't contact military members or their families directly, and almost always go through other channels such as a commander or first sergeant.

Military family members are being urged not to give out any personal information over the phone if contacted by anyone who is unknown to them. for more see

Posted by Denise Richardson at 03:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A recent New York Times article points out the importance of being diligent when guarding our children's identities from being stolen and used for employment, credit (or even medical services) for years before being detected. It's important to realize that criminals are always looking for new and innovative ways to steal "us". And even though our children (and elderly parents) may not be using their SSN's to obtain credit or employment; someone else might be...

By BARBARA WHITAKER
Published: July 21, 2007

For almost half of his life, Gabriel Jimenez, 25, has been sharing his identity with another person.

His mother, Jeri Marks, first discovered the problem when he was 11, after filing taxes for work he did as a child model. Someone had already filed taxes, she was told by the Internal Revenue Service. Although she notified the police, the I.R.S. and the Social Security Administration, the problem continued, she recalled in an interview.

After a few years, she requested her son’s file with the Internal Revenue Service and found an illegal immigrant who was working using the number.

“He said he would give me his refund if I let him continue to use the number,” said Ms. Marks, who lives in Chicago, adding that she asked him to stop using it.

But the problem did not stop there and as Gabriel reached adulthood, his problems have only become worse.

See entire article here

Remember -if you are not going to take the time to proactively protect your identity hire someone who will. You can place your own fraud alerts and monitor your own credit reports but you need to do so on a regular basis. There are simply too many ways your data can be compromised.

Posted by Denise Richardson at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

SSNBreach.org went live on July 18, 2007, precipitated by a breach of almost 200,000 social security numbers by the Louisiana State Board of Regents. However, as more breaches occur, SSNBreach.org will continue to grow, and be a resource for victims of Personal Information Breach.

Using a Google Search, the Liberty Coalition announces the discovery of approximately 163,000 social security numbers, and contact information for nearly 200,000 Louisianans, scattered among nearly 200 online documents.

These documents place hundreds of thousands of people at severe risk of identity theft. The Liberty Coalition has calculated the street value of these files at more than $4 million, and they represent almost a billion dollars in potentially stolen credit.

Data breaches happen daily. We have all heard the news reports about thousands of people at a time loosing control of their identities. Who are these people?

Are you one of them?

A growing number of states have "Breach Notification Laws." These laws require an entity which has placed personal information at risk, to notify the affected individuals. Often press releases announcing breaches are confusing, and vaguely reassuring. They uniformly place the burden on the victim to take action. When identity theft does occur, it is often difficult to hold the breaching organization liable for harm, even if the breach was grossly negligent or reckless.

SSNBreach.org was several years in the making, and is designed to give victims of Personal Information Breach a clear, complete, and correct Information Exposure Report (IXR).

The goals of SSNBreach.org are:
1. Notify and Empower Victims of Personal Information Breach
2. Give Victims Tools to Mitigate Risk
3. Catalyze Change in State Legislatures and Public Attitudes
4. Uphold the Highest Standards of Privacy and Trust

Of course, the very first priority is to empower victims without empowering bad guys. SSNBreach.org has implemented several security precautions to make sure that doesn't happen. The first and most important feature is that SSNBreach.org does NOT store sensitive information in its database: Period. So, even if someone got into the database, there's nothing to see.

Because ssnbreach.org does not contain full Social Security Numbers, addresses, phone numbers, or other sensitive data, users are not able to search by any of these criteria; but we think that's a small price to pay for the security. Instead, the website gives users a Yes/No report on whether their identity may have been compromised, and details about the incident. This "Information Exposure Report" (IXR) also includes links to resources to help individuals take preventative action.

Another major goal of ssnbreach.org is to catalyze change by putting faces on the numbers.
• To call upon Consumers to demand privacy, and question entities which collect personal information.
• To call upon Industry to market real consumer privacy as any other valuable customer benefit.
• To call upon the Legal Community to develop a Model Privacy Code.
• To call upon State Legislatures to pass laws that shift the burdens away from victims, in cases of negligence or recklessness.

About the Founders of SSNBreach.org

About Aaron Titus

Aaron is a Washington, DC-based privacy advocate. When he's not working full-time as a Program Manager for a non-profit in Alexandria, VA, he attends law school at George Washington University, specializing in Information Privacy Law. Aaron is also the host of The Privacy Podcast, Free Space, and several Construction Industry Podcasts. He also writes and blogs about privacy at Because I am Here, and has had privacy articles published by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and PogoWasRight.org.

About the Liberty Coalition

The Coalition is dedicated to upholding and protecting our basic rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In order to accomplish our task, we seek to protect those freedoms as articulated in the Bill of Rights. We base our concerns on the fundamental values and principles of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, particularly the separation of powers and federalism, and Bill of Rights.

The Liberty CoalitionThe Liberty Coalition works to help organize, support, and coordinate transpartisan public policy activities related to civil liberties and basic human rights. We work in conjunction with groups of partner organizations that are interested in preserving the Bill of Rights, personal autonomy and individual privacy.

Posted by Denise Richardson at 08:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

You may have never heard of Mandatory Binding Arbitration, but that wouldn’t prevent this unfair practice, visited on unsuspecting consumers, from destroying your life. Buried in the fine print of many consumer contracts for credit cards, new homes and cars are clauses that stack the deck against American consumers, forcing you to give up your rights to seek justice through the courts. And these contracts force you to surrender your rights before a dispute even occurs.

Tell Congress to support the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2007

Why is Binding Mandatory Arbitration bad for American consumers?

Making us waive our right to sue is just another way corporations place themselves above the laws that are created and intended to protect us. By taking away our right to gain access to the courts, corporations no longer have to worry about their wrongdoings being exposed. As a result, if they don’t adhere to governmental regulations, who will know about it? Access to the courts is our most effective means of holding companies accountable for their actions

Ask Jordan Fogal, who was defrauded by the builder of her “dream home” and, thanks to a Mandatory Binding Arbitration clause, lost everything in her fight for justice.

Read Jordan's story

Or ask Cheryl Sanford, whose mother Dortha died from two falls and a urinary tract infection as a result of inadequate care, just 21 days after moving into the nursing home.

Read Cheryl's story

Or ask Fonza Luke, who was fired for “insubordination” after almost 30 years at her job where she had received only the highest performance ratings. Forced into arbitration, Fonza wound up with no relief whatsoever.

Read Fonza's story

Mandatory Binding Arbitration prevents defrauded or wronged consumers from taking their cases to court. Instead, their cases are decided by arbitrators who are not bound by the rules that ensure consumers get a fair shake in the civil justice system. Their cases are never heard by a judge or jury and the arbitrator’s decision is usually impossible to appeal.

Currently, most Americans are bound by at least one Binding Mandatory Arbitration clause – often without their knowledge. Each day more home buyers, credit card users, insurance holders, and car buyers are forced to give up their constitutional right to have their case heard by a jury of their peers. So when powerful business interests take advantage of them, they are left with no recourse or remedy to recover their losses.
Tell Congress to support the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2007

Mandatory Binding Arbitration is Often Biased:

Because businesses are the only repeat customers of the arbitration companies, they are inclined to rule in favor of the businesses – but it is difficult to document this bias because it is almost impossible to appeal arbitrators’ rulings and confidentiality is often strictly enforced.

Mandatory Binding Arbitration is Prohibitively Costly:

When consumers try to hold businesses accountable through arbitration, they must pay costly filing fees– often more than $750 just to initiate a case. Even worse, these fees do not cover the arbitrator’s hourly charges, generally in the range of $200 to $300 per hour. The fees must be paid in advance, and often add up to tens of thousands of dollars.

Mandatory Binding Arbitration Can Force Travel to Inconvenient Locations:

Arbitration clauses often require that hearings be held in locations inconvenient to injured consumers, requiring them to bear the cost of long-distance travel. For example, the Internet auction site e-Bay requires customers to travel to its home turf in California to arbitrate any dispute.

Mandatory Binding Arbitration Allows Only Limited Remedies:

Courts can provide a range of remedies not available to a claimant in arbitration. For example, a court order can compel the offending party to change their practices, preventing future harm to consumers. As well, arbitration results are not open to public scrutiny. As a result, arbitration awards to consumers and employees are substantially lower than court awards and do not result in changes to unfair and dangerous practices.
Mandatory Binding Arbitration Prohibits Class Actions:

Nearly every arbitration clause prohibits participation in class action lawsuits, the only effective remedy for wide-scale scams that defraud individual consumers. Individuals do not have the time or resources to recognize, investigate, and prove the existence of such fraudulent practices.

Don’t get stuck the next time you apply for a credit card, buy a car or sign a contract for a new home. Don’t let big corporations push you around.

It’s costly. It’s time consuming. It’s unfair. It’s time to eliminate pre-dispute Binding Mandatory Arbitration from all consumer contracts!

Read More Stories about Binding Mandatory Arbitration

Source: People Over Profits Newsletter

More Resources:

GiveMeBackMyRights.org

Paul Bland's Testimony on mandatory arbitration effects

National Association of Consumer Advocates
The Arbitration Fairness Act of 2007, introduced in the Senate by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) and in the House by Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA), reflects the FAA's original intent by requiring that agreements to arbitrate employment, consumer, franchise, or civil rights disputes be made after the dispute has arisen. It will ensure that citizens have a true choice between arbitration and the traditional civil court system.

Tell Congress to support the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2007

Posted by Denise Richardson at 09:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It is more than evident that we all need to protect ourselves from identity theft and fraud. A slew of credit monitoring and protection products promise to notify us when there has been a change to our credit report or when there appears to be suspicious activity in one of our accounts -but that doesn't mean we can let our guard down-nor does it mean these services will help to fix the mess once we find there are credit reporting errors and/or fraud contained in our credit reports.

The credit bureaus sell our information to creditors (and of course, to us too) and they also profit handsomely by selling us their credit monitoring services. Ultimately -WE are their product -yet we are required to purchase our own information in order to review it -and if we listen to them, we should purchase another product from them in order to ensure our credit reports (their product) aren't defective -unless that is, we are one of the lucky ones flagged to get their "VIP" service -for free.

Somehow, over the years, it's become our responsibility to inspect the quality of their for-profit product. And, if we discover their product is defective, and harmful to us, we are required to notify them in writing (best -via certified mail) and request that they repair their product. Apparently due to continued problems with ensuring their "product" is up to par -for a price...they now offer us credit monitoring services..

Shouldn't "credit monitoring" be viewed as a service they should be responsible for to begin with? Shouldn't these services be a freebie -and be considered as part of their cost for doing business? We aren't normally expected to be "quality control experts" for any other corporation or product; not our vehicles, food, computers, medicines or any of the countless products or services we buy. Why then, should the burden to ensure their product is of good quality, on our shoulders?

In any other industry -we have the right to stop doing business with any company we are dissatisfied with -especially if we believe they are selling substandard goods or services. However, we don't have that choice when it comes to dealing with the credit bureaus. No matter what we say -or what they don't say, there is no opting out allowed.

The film, Maxed Out delves into the heart of the information business. David Szwak a prominent consumer attorney who appeared in the movie, reveals a little known but very troubling fact: "the credit bureaus keep a special "V.I.P." list of prominent citizens whose reports are specially cleaned up. This protects the industry from legislative or judicial action and keeps those in power from knowing how flawed the credit system really is."

They monitor and secure credit reports for better accuracy on a selective basis? Isn't that somehow discriminatory? Why should legislators, celebrities and even certain plaintiffs in lawsuits seeking justice (accuracy) have their accounts flagged to be handled differently...with a VIP status and given better care? If the cra's have a system or procedures available to them that would better ensure the safety and accuracy of our credit reports -shouldn't they be required to utilize those same procedures for all of us?

After all, if a product is defective, normally it is pulled from the market until the product is scrutinized and deemed safe to be returned to the market. Why aren't the credit reporting agencies, and their products, held to the same degree of scrutiny for product safety requirements, and product standards, that all other corporations are held to?

Remember, credit monitoring services are more of a reactive product -than a proactive product. And unfortunately the cra's do nothing to help repair the damage when caused by identity theft or erroneous credit reporting. Other identity theft services such as hourly based restoration services can be expensive and they too are reactive -they go into effect after an individual’s identity has already been compromised. When it comes to identity theft, being proactive is the only way to avoid it in the first place.

Take the time to place fraud alerts on your credit reports, opt out of pre-approved offers of credit and review your credit reports on a regular basis. The legitimate place to go to get your free annualcreditreport.com or call their toll free automated number at 877-322-8228. If you are not going to take the time to do so yourself, turn to professionals who will. Just know what you are purchasing.

Here are a few statistics to think about…

• How likely is it that you will be a victim of ID theft?

26 times more likely than being a victim of a violent crime
21 times more likely than having your home burglarized
2 times more likely than being in an auto accident
13 times more likely than being divorced
10 million Americans will be victims of identity theft this year
19 percent of consumers report that their financial information, including a bank or credit card number, has been misused
14 percent say they've had personal information such as a Social Security number or birth certificate taken

The prime targets of identity theft are college graduates, those with annual household incomes of $75,000 or more, people residing in the West, and Americans between the age of 30 and 49

Identity theft hits 1 in 4 U.S. households

Loss to businesses in the U.S. exceeds $50 billion annually due to identity theft

a few more...

• On average, identity theft victims spend 175 hours of their personal time and $800 to clear their names
• On average, it takes victims 14-16 months to clear their names
• Three in four consumers (75 percent) agree that they would take more steps to avoid being a victim of identity theft if they knew what to do
• Four in ten consumers (43 percent) think it is unlikely they will be victims of identity theft
• One in three consumers (33 percent) think there is nothing they can really do to prevent identity theft

Source: Federal Trade Commission, The Gallop Organization poll, Consumer Sentinel and Identity Theft Data Clearinghouse

Posted by Denise Richardson at 09:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)