Originally published March 21 2005
Identity theft gumshoes will fix the problem, for a fee
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
As identity theft becomes a larger problem for millions of consumers, new high-tech private eyes are working to restore credit, notify credit card companies, and coordinate with government bureaucracies. Last year 10 million Americans were victimized by identity thieves, losing an average of $500 and spending about 30 hours apiece trying to fix the mess.
If these scenarios sound familiar, it's a good possibility that your computer or your personal financial information has become the personal playground of a computer hacker or identity thief.
At the top end are companies such as Gavin de Becker & Associates, a California consulting firm that among other things advises celebrities and other high-risk individuals on how to "hide your identity from people who'd like to steal it," says Beth Givens, director of the nonprofit Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego.
Her website, www.privacyrights.org, offers 40 fact sheets on how to do it.
Last year, Allstate Corp. began offering identity-theft insurance in Texas and a few other states as a $30 rider on its homeowner and renter policies.
"We take a lot of the work of identity restoration off the shoulders of victims," says Troy Allen, vice president for fraud solutions at Kroll.
The Allstate plan includes filing paperwork for the victim, such as notifying credit-reporting agencies, credit-card companies, and the Social Security Administration.
Kroll will also help victims understand their legal rights and work with police and collection agencies to sort out claims - basically, everything except those tasks that victims must do themselves, such as report the crime and appear in court.
One of the biggest misconceptions about identity theft, Mr. Allen says, is that most of it occurs on the Internet.
Next to that, computer hackers might seem like small potatoes.
And some of them only send users annoying ads, says Curt Brooks, a technician at Tech Rescue, a computer installation and repair firm in suburban Boston.
"Phishing" scams are the most potent online hazard.
"There are some [phishing scams] that are so slick that law enforcement officers fall for them," says Jay Foley, co-executive director of the Identity Theft Resource Center (www.idtheftcenter.org) in San Diego, a nonprofit group.
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