Credit Freeze to Help Prevent Identity Theft

The credit freeze is one of the best tools you can use to help prevent identity theft. A credit freeze allows you to lock the data in your credit report at the credit reporting agency until you give them permission to release it. Without access to your credit report, an identity thief will have a lot of trouble gaining credit in your name.

Until recently, a credit freeze could only be made possible by state law, and you could not block your credit report if you did not live in a state that allowed it. However, starting in October, two of the big three credit reporting agencies will allow you to freeze your credit report no matter what state you live in. TransUnion and Equifax will let you obtain a credit freeze, and you don't have to be an identity theft victim to do so. But you will have to pay for it.

This is definitely a great way to help prevent identity theft, but it will only be effective if Experian offers a similar credit freeze service. In the mean time, if you live in one of the states that allows a credit freeze, you can have a credit freeze if you are a victim of identity theft or if your information has been compromised. This will give you control over who can access your credit report at all three agencies and will help you prevent identity theft if it hasn't already happened.

Ameritrade Data Breach: Identity Theft Possible

Online brokerage TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation announced Friday that one of its databases containing customer contact information was hacked. The company has since discovered how the information was stolen and changed their computer code.

Ameritrade insists only contact information was stolen and that even though information such as Social Security numbers, account numbers, and dates of birth were in this database, they found no evidence of it being accessed or taken. Ameritrade says there is no evidence that identity theft has resulted from this data breach.

While the fact that only contact information appears to have been taken from this Ameritrade database doesn't seem to be such a big deal. Identity theft is still possible. Ameritrade customers should be aware of scams that could result from this including callers claiming to be a credit card or bank representative or phishing scams they can receive through email.

Murderer Also Guilty of Identity Theft

This blog normally focuses on the financial issues identity theft causes because those are the most common. However, identity theft is by no means limited to financial issues like credit card fraud. An identity thief can also affect your criminal record as you'll see in this news report.

Toussaint Davis, who faces three hundred years in prison for killing a police officer after a jewelry store robbery, was convicted of illegally using a Pennsylvania man's identity when he was being prosecuted for the killing. He was convicted of second degree murder under John Healey's name, and it wasn't until just before the sentencing that his true identity was discovered.

You can read more about the story here. It's good for John Healey that this was discovered. It wouldn't have been a serious problem for him to have the murder of a police officer on his record.