Adam's Apple
Senior Member
- Apr 25, 2004
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Blame Lenders, Not Thieves, for Identity Theft
By Liz Pulliam Weston for msn.com
Identity theft is now Americas leading consumer complaint, according to the Federal Trade Commission, with an estimated 10 million new victims each year. The thefts range from opportunistic one-time events to huge, organized crime rings racking up millions of dollars in fraudulent charges each year.
In the two recent cases, thieves posed as legitimate customers to gain access to databases compiled by ChoicePoint and by its rival, LexisNexis. LexisNexis' corporate parent said personal information on as many as 32,000 consumers was compromised; in the ChoicePoint raid, as many as 145,000 people had their information stolen. At least 750 so far have become the victims of fraud.
Consumers are basically helpless. They have no choice about being part of these massive databases, since the companies can legally collect and sell the information without consumers' permission.
And once their information is compromised, there's not a lot they can do to prevent the thieves from opening up accounts. But the thieves wouldn't be able to take over consumers' credit accounts, or get new credit in a victim's name, without plenty of help from careless banks, credit-card issuers and other lenders.
Topics discussed: Sloppy credit-granting practices, ignoring fraud alerts,
continuing to report disputed accounts, refusing to cooperate with police
for full article:
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Banking/FinancialPrivacy/P48173.asp?GT1=6239
By Liz Pulliam Weston for msn.com
Identity theft is now Americas leading consumer complaint, according to the Federal Trade Commission, with an estimated 10 million new victims each year. The thefts range from opportunistic one-time events to huge, organized crime rings racking up millions of dollars in fraudulent charges each year.
In the two recent cases, thieves posed as legitimate customers to gain access to databases compiled by ChoicePoint and by its rival, LexisNexis. LexisNexis' corporate parent said personal information on as many as 32,000 consumers was compromised; in the ChoicePoint raid, as many as 145,000 people had their information stolen. At least 750 so far have become the victims of fraud.
Consumers are basically helpless. They have no choice about being part of these massive databases, since the companies can legally collect and sell the information without consumers' permission.
And once their information is compromised, there's not a lot they can do to prevent the thieves from opening up accounts. But the thieves wouldn't be able to take over consumers' credit accounts, or get new credit in a victim's name, without plenty of help from careless banks, credit-card issuers and other lenders.
Topics discussed: Sloppy credit-granting practices, ignoring fraud alerts,
continuing to report disputed accounts, refusing to cooperate with police
for full article:
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Banking/FinancialPrivacy/P48173.asp?GT1=6239
