What Are Identity Theft and Identity Fraud?
Identity theft is a crime. Identity theft and identity fraud are terms used to refer to all types of crime in which someone wrongfully obtains and uses another person's personal data in some way that involves fraud or deception, typically for economic gain. Your personal data especially your Social Security number, your bank account or credit card number, your telephone calling card number, and other valuable identifying data can be used, if they fall into the wrong hands, to personally profit at your expense.
In the United States and Canada, for example, many people have reported that unauthorized persons have taken funds out of their bank or financial accounts, or, in the worst cases, taken over their identities altogether, running up vast debts and committing crimes while using the victims's names. In many cases, a victim's losses may include not only out-of-pocket financial losses, but substantial additional financial costs associated with trying to restore his reputation in the community and correcting erroneous information for which the criminal is responsible.
What Can I Do About Identity Theft And Fraud?
To victims of identity theft and fraud, the task of correcting incorrect information about their financial or personal status, and trying to restore their good names and reputations, may seem as daunting as trying to solve a puzzle in which some of the pieces are missing and other pieces no longer fit as they once did. Unfortunately, the damage that criminals do in stealing another person's identity and using it to commit fraud often takes far longer to undo than it took the criminal to commit the crimes. Don’t give personal information over the phone, shred documents with account information on them, and know your credit report.
Cascade Farmers Mutual Insurance Company offers an Identity Theft Endorsement that can be added to your policy to help offset some of the expenses you may incur if you find you have become a victim of Identity Theft/Fraud. Certain terms and conditions apply. Please contact your agent for more details.
For more information: http://www.doj.mt.gov/consumer/consumer/identitytheft.asp
To report a case of identity theft visit: http://spokane.bbb.org/
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