Identity Theft Can Be Messy

First the good news: Stolen checks and credit cards may be the easiest to deal with because most banks charge victims nothing for stolen checks, and may only charge only $50 for credit cards, regardless of the amount of fraudulent charges. Some charge nothing at all. (Because of this, the identity theft protection packages that they offer aren’t worth the money.)

Now for the rough stuff. Debit cards can be damaging because of the ease of cash withdrawals. The sooner you report it the cheaper it is for you – between $50 and $500, but if you don’t notice for more than 60 days, you may be held liable for the full amount withdrawn. Ouch.

Then there’s the hassle of clearing it all up. According to Identity Theft Facts:

• Victims of identity theft lose an average of $2,000 to $15,000 in wages trying to repair the financial damage caused by identity thieves, and some even spend up to a year trying to deal with their cases.

• On average, victims spend between $850 to $1400 in expenses related to their cases, which includes paperwork and any other legal fees.

• As a result of identity theft, nearly half of all identity theft victims have difficulties obtaining credit and loans, and roughly 1/5 of victims have higher credit interest rates. Over 2/3 of victims have difficulties removing negative information from their credit scores.

This is where it may be well worth having a the help of a trained credit counselor.

Here are some tips to protect yourself:

• Shred documents with financial information

• Erase all personal information from old hard drives, memory sticks, PDA’s, cell phones etc., before getting rid of them

• Cover the keypad when you enter account numbers in public

• Don’t respond to e-mails that ask for your account number and password.

• Don’t give financial information to telemarketers who call you. Call the company’s published main number instead.

• Create strong passwords with a combo of letters and numbers that would be impossible for anyone to guess if they had basic information about you.

• Be sure your computer’s operating software is up to date and that you have antivirus software that protects you from malware and other threats.