The Integrity News
Vol. X No. 29 ISSN 1081-2717 December 3, 2001
The Integrity Center, Inc.
Identity Theft warnings are now appearing daily in many major
media reports.
You should make sure that your employees
understand the gravity of identity theft. It
has taken many victims years to reclaim
their identities. An employee who has had
their identity stolen becomes the target of
collection calls, lawsuits, and other
harassing actions. The employee then has
to take the time to fight those intrusions
that were all caused by some illegal acts.
From the employer's perspective, the
employee loses most of their productivity
on the job because their mind is always on
trying to right this very destructive wrong.
The Mercury News Sacramento bureau
warns that the State of California has
sold 24 million birth records to a genealogy
website that now provides identity thieves
with a source for mother's maiden name
and other personal birth information.
The AARP Bulletin points out that all
19 of the 9/11 terrorists had SSN numbers,
many of them stolen, which enabled the
terrorists to open bank accounts, transfer
money, get driver's licenses, and complete
other acts.
The Seattle Times outlines the major
provisions of a new law sponsored by
Sen. Maria Cantwell. The law would
reform existing laws so that they could
be used to better fight identity theft. One
of the strongest provisions would extend
the starting time for the statute of limitations
from when a fraud occurred, to the time
when the consumer discovers the fraud.
The credit bureaus are fighting that
provision.
The Dallas Morning News tells one to
shred all credit card offers, keep control
of all charge slips, guard your cancelled
checks, avoid giving out personal
information over the phone, memorize
your PIN numbers, and make sure that
your monthly bank and credit card
statements arrive on time --- they may
have been stolen.
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