| Identity theft, using your signiture, in becoming
more common. When it comes to identity theft, it's easy to think, "It
doesn’t affect me." But identity theft is everywhere today.
Congressional testimony in 2005 tells us that an estimated "500,000 to
750,000 consumers were victims of Identity Fraud in 2001. Some law
enforcement officials estimate the number at closer to 1 million."
Most use a forged signiture.
Identity fraud, stolen and forged signitures, can happen to anyone
from age three to death and beyond. The signiture identity thief, as
seen on TV, does not even have to know the person or even need to have
heard of the person. They get a Social Security number (SSN) and name
and you are fighting with your creditors and trying to clean up a mess
forever. Signiture identity theft is expensive. A study concluded that
businesses lose an average of $17,000 per identity theft victim. The
Office of Consumer Affairs of the US Government estimates that
American consumers loose $100 billion annually. Check fraud is $20
billion per year. An estimated 9.9 million Americans have been victims
on check, signiture, fraud costing $815 million per year. This costs
the victim 175 man-hours and over $1000.00 on average.
Identity theft, and theft of your signature, depends on the
carelessness from its victims.
| 1. When entering a PIN
number or a credit card number, or at a phone booth, or a
computer at work, be aware of who is nearby and make sure nobody
is peeking.
2. Destroy digital data. When you get rid
of any computer system, hard drive, or data CD, DVD, destroy the
data is completely as well as anything with your signiture on
it.
3. Do not sign the backs of your credit
cards. Write “See Photo ID”. Most store clerks don’t even look
at the signiture block on the credit card, and a thief could
just as easily use your credit card to make online purchases
which don’t require a signiture.
4. Shred everything with your signiture or
numbers on it.
5. Pay your bills at the U. S. Post
Office. Never leave paid bills in your mailbox to be sent.
Thieves open unattended mailboxes to get information and
signatures.
5. Carefully process your checking account
statements. Make sure that the charges, purchases and other
entries on the statement are legitimate and match your records.
|
There is a need to educate the public about
their rights and responsibilities regarding signing petitions or other
public documents. There is a need for research into potential fraud
and forgery or "signature theft" committed by signature gatherers.
By following a few simple steps, safeguards for
your signiture from identity theft, shows reasonable care to protect
against liability. We must stop the would-be identity and signiture
thief. |
