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Identity theft occurs when someone uses your name, Social Security number, date of birth or other identifying information without your permission to commit fraud.
 According to a report put together by AARP for 2008, New Mexico ranks ninth in the number of complaints of identity theft per 100,000 people. The Federal Trade Commission estimates that as many as 9 million Americans have their identities stolen every year.
The victims might not find out about a theft until they review their credit reports or a credit card statement.
“We don’t have data on the ways that identities are most often stolen,” says Claudia Farrell, acting director of the FTC’s office of public affairs.
“We have done two statistical studies that show that the rate of identity theft is not increasing, however I will say that people are reporting identity theft to us more and more. During times of economic difficulties, opportunistic crimes and fraud do increase.”
Jim Toedtman, editor of the AARP bulletin, says one of the reasons older people are vulnerable to identity theft is that they still do many transactions on paper.
“One of the ways that thieves steal identities is by Dumpster diving. They rummage through trash looking for bills and other papers with your personal information on them, he says.”
That doesn’t mean online transactions are safer. Rather, it is important for people to make a thief’s job as difficult as possible and “limit the thief’s opportunities to piece together bits of information needed to create a new identity,” according to AARP’s Web site, aarp.com, which has a five-part series on preventing identity theft.
Thieves also steal identities by pretending to be financial institutions or companies and sending spam or pop-up messages to your computer to get you to reveal personal information; by diverting billing statements to another location; and by stealing wallets, purses and mail.
Toedtman also says employment fraud leads to identity theft. People who are out of work and looking for jobs need to be careful about the businesses and people with whom they share personal information such as Social Security numbers.
One way to avoid identity theft is to be cautious when relating to solicitors asking for personal information.
Checking your credit rating frequently is an important way to make sure you aren’t a victim of identity theft. Every citizen is entitled to one free credit report annually from each of the three credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. The reports can be viewed online, obtained through a phone call or sent by mail. The Web site www. annualcreditreport.com provides information on how to obtain a free credit report.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act gives citizens specific rights when they are, or believe they are, victims of identity theft. These rights include asking Equifax, Experian and TransUnion to place a fraud alert in an individual’s file. Doing that requires a call to one of the credit reporting agencies, which notifies the other two. That way all agencies are on the same page regarding past and potential problems.
If your identity is stolen, the FTC suggests filing a police report, notifying creditors and disputing any unauthorized transactions. A police report details the identity theft and entitles a person to certain legal rights when it is sent to the credit reporting agencies or to the companies where the thief misused your information.
The report also prevents a company from continuing to collect debts resulting from identity theft or selling them to others for collection. The FTC Web site, www.ftc.gov, has information about what to do if your identity is stolen.
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