We've all been warned about identity theft, which is what happens when criminals get hold of your personal information and use it to pretend that they're you. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), in 2005 (the latest year for which statistics are available), over 8 million American adults realized that they were victims of identity theft.
The costs of identity theft are stunning. Aside from the loss of revenue experienced by businesses, the victims also suffer financial loss. According to the FTC report, "Ten percent of all victims reported out-of-pocket expenses of $1,200 or more. For the New Accounts & Other Frauds category, the top 10 percent of the victims incurred expenses of at least $3,000, and the top 5 percent incurred expenses of at least $5,000." In addition, the survey found that the top 5 percent of victims spend at least 130 hours trying to get their identities back. If over 8 million adults were affected in a single year, the cumulative total of identity theft victims is staggering.
The FTC survey, however, was limited in scope to those who reported misuse of an existing credit card, misuse of a non-credit card account (like a checking account), or misuse of personal information to open a new account or another type of fraud. In other words, these identity theft statistics are only the tip of the iceberg.
Many Types of Identity Theft
Although we hear a lot about the crime, most people don't realize that there are several different kinds of identity theft. They include:
1. Character identity theft. Often the hardest type of ID theft to recover from, character identity theft occurs when someone impersonates you and then violates the law. You'll probably never see this when you check your credit reports, but if someone commits a crime in your name, you may be unable to find work when a potential employer checks criminal databases - or you may wind up in jail.
2. Theft of your Social Security number. When someone steals your Social Security number, it's as though they have taken over part of your life. They could, for example, use it to get a job. If that happens, you may lose unemployment benefits (because the state thinks that you're working), or be charged with tax fraud (for not paying taxes on all of "your" income).
3. Medical identity theft. With the ever-increasing cost of health care in the United States, medical identity theft is becoming commonplace. When someone else uses your name to obtain health benefits or prescriptions, you can lose your health coverage because of the false information in your medical record. This can haunt you for years, since medical databases are notoriously slow to update.
4. Driver's license theft. Similar to character identity theft, driver's license theft occurs when someone steals your driver's license number and then racks up driving offenses. When a bench warrant is issued, you could be picked up and thrown into jail. In the meantime, your insurance rates could skyrocket, or your license could be suspended.
5. Credit identity theft. This is the type of ID theft that most people hear about. In credit fraud, the thief uses your information to obtain credit cards, services, housing, and other products, and then doesn't pay the bills. Your credit - and your life - is ruined.
There are several other types of fraud that are becoming more prevalent. These include business identity theft, child identity theft, college identity theft, and eBay identity theft.
What can you do to protect yourself? The first step is to be proactive and learn more about the various forms of identity theft. There are informative online sources that will provide you with all of the information you need - whether online or through a free e-book. The next step is to take advantage of services that help provide you with identity theft protection that will not only help prevent fraud, but that will work to recover your identity should you become a victim. It's a small price to pay for peace of mind.
As John Roberts, the Chief Justice administered the oath of office, green slime began to ooze fron the eyes of President Rudy Giuliani. The crowd gasped in horror as horns sprung from the President’s head and children ran screaming for their lives. “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country", chuckled the Devil in Chief.
These latest Revelations of Rudy Giuliani secretly dipping into the money of the New York Office for the Disabled to pay for excursions to visit his mistress in the Hamptons in the weeks prior to 9/11 and then covering it up even to this day give the words “Rudy’s 9/11 Bull Horn" new meaning. New Yorker Woody Allen called politicians one step below child molesters. Rudy Giuliani has just lowered the bar. Stealing money from the budget of the disabled to commit adultery? What’s next, robbing old widows to pay for Bernie Kerick’s blow?
According to Russia’s newspaper Pravda, the United States of America has now become a police state. President Bush has put all the pieces in place to declare martial law in the land of the formerly free. Until this newest Revelation about Rudy Giuliani the ex mayor had a commanding lead in the Republican polls and a large lead over Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton. In a land of 300 million people this fool was just a hair away from having absolute power over the button and all of us.
Is it something about the water in New York? Did the same toxic air poison that Rudy Giuliani sent the New York firefighters, policemen and cleanup workers crawling around in caterpillars in the dead of night without masks which has now led to many of them now coming down with permanent respiratory ailments and cancer leach into the water? How can you expect a man like this to ever address the issue of global warming especially as he is a well known employee of Texaco? Would Rudy Giuliani, whose top foreign policy advisor recently published an article with the chorus, “Nuke Iran Immediately" even consider that the earth is a tiny ball and that the wind of this tiny ball will blow the radioactive poison from his own nuclear bombs right back onto the heads of his own people? We are talking about Rudy Giuliani, a man who just got caught stealing wheelchairs from the disabled to pay to have sex with his mistress.
Do the people of the United States not consider a person’s character before anointing him or her or him and her to the Oval Office? From among 300 million people can we not find one person who is honest and interested in peace? Can we not find one person who will not lie through his teeth and tell every group exactly what they want to hear even when the two sides are diametrically opposed?
The televangelist Rev. Pat Robertson ran for President in 1988 on a strictly pro family platform. Three weeks ago Rev. Pat Robertson jumped on the Rudy Giuliani bandwagon. Pat Robertson said that Jesus Christ sent Hurricane Katrina to New Orleans to punish the United States for legalizing abortion. Among religious fanatics you could put him right up there with Osama bin Laden.
Rudy Giuliani tells his liberal audiences that he is pro choice. Rudy Giuliani told Pat the Haz Mat and his conservative audiences that when he is elected President he will appoint judges to the Supreme Court who will overturn Roe v Wade, criminalize abortion and uphold martial law, including the illegal wiretapping of the disabled. What did Jesus Christ have to say about mass murderers, thieves, adulterers, fornicators, hypocrites and liars? Were they first in line for the Kingdom of Heaven, or did God carve in stone that he would punish them, their children, their grandchildren and great grandchildren? Perhaps Rudy Giuliani should consult with his spiritual advisor.
Last night a You Tuber asked the Republican candidates if they believed that the Holy Bible is the true Word of God? This is relevant because the United States is presently engaged in what President Bush publicly declared to be a Christian Crusade against Islam. How did the 1.3 billion Muslim people feel last night hearing Rudy Giuliani call Islam a “Great Religion" knowing that Rudy Giuliani has declared war on Islamofascism, the “Muslim Fascists", supported the Bush conquering of Muslim Afghanistan and Muslim Iraq, and has appointed a team of foreign policy advisors who have published articles calling for the nuclear annihilation of Muslim Iran, all in an attempt to steal the Muslim Middle East oil.
Do you feel comfortable sending this little creep up against Iran and its partners who just formed a military alliance and conducted war games together, Russia and China, the countries who helped tiny North Vietnam defeat the United States? Jesus Christ said, “Woe to you blind guides! How blind you are! Woe to you hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate but inside they are full of greed and self indulgence. Woe to you hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside look beautiful but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and all kinds of filth. So you also on the outside look righteous to others but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. You snakes, you brood of vipers, how can you escape being sentenced to Hell?" (Matt 23).
Last night, instead of the You Tuber asking, “Would Jesus Christ have endorsed the death penalty?", he should have asked, “Would the Jewish born Rabbi and Messiah of Christianity and Islam, (Koran Sura Chapter 3:40-43), Jesus Christ, (aka God of Mount Sinai, God the Father, The Holy Spirit, Allah, Elohim, Yehovah) have voted for Rudy Giuliani or brushed him off like a piece of lint?
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