If you have never been a victim of identity theft, please read this. There are ways to help prevent identity theft from happening. For those who have already been a victim of identity theft, this article should prove helpful to you as well. There are ways to reduce the risk of identity theft and everyone can benefit from being more informed on the subject. Identity theft is taking place every day and is increasing at a rapid rate all across the U.S.

Monitoring your background check can help to prevent identity theft. This method has proven highly effective in determining whether you could be at risk for identity theft. Monitoring your own background check will give you the ability to find any false information that someone else could have entered while stealing your information. You may not believe this is happening today, but it is becoming more prevalent across the U.S. Identity theft is one of the worst crimes committed against an individual. Personal records are stolen and used by the person stealing them. You are at risk of having your social security number stolen, along with your phone numbers and other private information. Many insurmountable problems result from identity theft.

The consequences of being a victim of identity theft are difficult to comprehend. The result of losing private information can cause numerous problems and personal grief for months or even years to come. Monitoring your background check can prevent identity theft. Take precaution, be safe. Don't let identity theft happen to you. Visit http://www.mybackgroundcheck.com to learn more about monitoring your background check and preventing identity theft.

Victims of identity theft have to endure many problems in connection with the crime, but recently an identity theft victim in New York who tried to get married was surprised to find out someone else had already tied the knot using the identity theft victim's name.

According to a story in the New York Post, the identity theft victim – Sara Benitez, 44, from Queens – went to the marriage office and was shocked to discover records showed she was already married to man she had never met.

Plagued by identity theft since 1992, Benitez later discovered an identity thief – Araceilis Cherico, 46 – had stolen her identity and used it to get married, divorced, ignore parking tickets, and even collect a refund from the IRS, the Post reported.

While Cherico will be sentenced to 60 days in jail and have to pay thousands in back taxes and penalties, the DA's office is helping Benitez get her “marriage” expunged so she can marry her long-time boyfriend, according to the Post.

The nation’s leading provider of applicant-supplied background checks, MyBackgroundCheck.com offers consumers are variety of “personal” background check options – in which individuals perform background checks on themselves – to use as jobseekers, students, volunteers, and tenants, all while protecting themselves against identity theft. For more information on how personal background checks can help prevent identity theft, visit www.mybackgroundcheck.com, email info@mybackgroundcheck.com, or call 800-503-2364.

Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MybackgroundChk.

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A team of experts has come up with a “Top 10” list of identity theft predictions for 2010, and the immediate future does not look any brighter for victims of the crime.

According to a press release, the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) – a non-profit organization established to support identity theft victims and broaden public awareness of the crime of identity theft – and nationally recognized identity theft expert Robert Siciliano have teamed up to create a Top 10 list of identity theft predictions for 2010 and beyond.

1. The recession will lead to more identity theft scams, since identity thieves always find a way to use difficult economic times to their advantage.
2. Identity thieves will take advantage of high unemployment rates by tricking jobseekers with fake job listings and work-at-home scams.
3. The number of individuals with no criminal history who will begin to explore the crime of identity theft for financial gain will increase.
4. Child identity theft and identity theft cases perpetrated by people close to the victim – such as friends, roommates, and fellow workers – will increase in tough economic times.
5. Medical identity theft will rise as high unemployment and high medical insurance costs cause uninsured people to use the coverage of friends, relatives, or strangers to get medical care.
6. Insider identity theft will increase due to the failure to secure workplaces to prevent identity thieves from gaining access to personal information contained in databases or paper files.
7. Individuals will fall victim to Governmental identity theft after they apply for government assistance and benefits using their own Social Security Numbers (SSNs), leading to complications with government institutions.
8. Criminal identity theft – when one individual uses another’s personal information to avoid having a criminal record – will grow, leading to loss of employment and benefits, and to arrests of identity theft victims.
9. Social media identity theft will increase, allowing identity thieves hack social media accounts with “phishing” to create infected links or false pages to steal personal information from users and their “friends.”
10. Over the next two years, identity theft crimes – and the  number of victims – will increase unless changes are made in information security, especially to the current system of identification that has few safeguards to protect consumers.

While these predictions show how identity theft could get even worse, the crime is already a problem for millions of people. According to Javelin Strategy & Research, identity theft and fraud increased 22 percent in 2008, affecting nearly ten million Americans. And those numbers are expected to get worse before they get better.

To help protect against identity theft, MyBackgroundCheck.com – the nation's leading provider of applicant-supplied background checks – offers individuals “personal” background check services to help keep personal information current, accurate, and secure. For more information about personal background checks, visit www.mybackgroundcheck.com, email info@mybackgroundcheck.com, or call 1-800-503-2364. Follow MyBackgroundCheck.com on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MyBackgroundChk.

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While many identity theft cases have been reported on this website during the past year, there are a few stories that rise above the others in terms of uniqueness and how they impacted the ongoing debate on how to combat identity theft. Here are five interesting identity theft stories from 2009:

• May 2009: As if finding work in tough economic times wasn’t already hard enough, this story from WHAS-TV Channel 11 in Louisville, Kentucky showed how a jobseeker named Michael Anderson discovered first-hand how identity theft can turn the dream of landing a job into a nightmare. Unfortunately for Anderson, another man with the same name, date of birth, and social security number kept showing up when potential employers ran pre-employment criminal background checks – and this OTHER Michael Anderson had an extensive criminal record that included indecent behavior with a juvenile and assault. As a result, no one would hire him.
• July 2009: In what has to be one of the longest cases of identity theft on record, the Associated Press (AP) reported the shocking story of Tom Lesh, 66, of Coos Bay, Oregon, who had suffered from identity theft for 35 years – in other words, over half of his life. Lesh said he has known since the 1970s that his identity was stolen by a friend of his brother and he had spent, in his words, “thousands of hours” over the decades since repeatedly trying to clear his name and correct his financial records and credit history by writing letters to credit card companies, banks, and government agencies – and even appealing to the alleged identity thief’s mother for help.
• August 2009: In case there are still those who believe identity theft only happens to people with little or no financial acumen when it comes to matters of money, an exclusive report from Newsweek revealed that the nation's chief banker and the man credited by some with saving the world from another Great Depression, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke, was just one of the hundreds of victims of a sophisticated identity theft ring that stole over $2 million from consumers and financial institutions across the country, proving identity theft can happen to anyone.
• September 2009: A report by the Seattle Times showed that identity theft victims could strike back at criminals who steal their identities by telling the story of how Michelle McCambridge, a 23-year-old retail store clerk and college student, helped bring down an identity theft ring after a chance face to face meeting with the woman who stole her identity. The fast thinking McCambridge had the store security cameras zoom in on a fake ID the identity thief was presenting with another woman's name, an action which set in motion a federal investigation that ultimately brought down an identity theft ring.
• October 2009: An article on the website for the Lexington, Nebraska newspaper The Lexington Clipper-Herald tells the story of an identity theft victim who ended up in jail twice for a crime he didn't commit, once after being robbed and calling the police for help. Joe Salazar, 38, of Omaha, Nebraska, spent a night in jail after calling the police to report a burglary at his home, and he also spent two weeks in jail – including last Christmas and New Year's Day – after being pulled over for speeding, all because the identity theft victim had an arrest warrant for failing to appear for sentencing in a drug case meant for an identity thief using Salazar's name.

These are just a few of the literally millions of stories about identity theft. According to Javelin Strategy & Research, identity theft and fraud increased 22 percent in 2008, affecting nearly ten million Americans. Overall, approximately 1.8 million more adults fell victim to identity fraud in 2008 as compared to 2007, the first year-over-year increase since Javelin began collecting data in 2004.

To help protect against identity theft, “personal” background checks – where people perform background checks on themselves – can ensure that personal information is current, accurate, and secure. While many background check firms only service businesses, MyBackgroundCheck.com – a pioneer in consumer requested and applicant supplied background checks – offers individuals affordable “personal” background check services. Over one million individuals have purchased background checks through MyBackgroundCheck.com.

For more information about personal background checks, visit www.mybackgroundcheck.com, email info@mybackgroundcheck.com, or call 1-800-503-2364. Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MyBackgroundChk.

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As further proof that identity thieves will take advantage of any opportunity for identity theft – including the H1N1 Virus – the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is reporting on its Health Related Hoaxes and Rumors page that it has received reports of fraudulent H1N1 Virus emails referencing a supposed “CDC sponsored State Vaccination Program” that are actually attempts to gain personal information to commit identity theft.

The CDC reports that the fake email messages attempting to gain information for identity theft – a process known as “phishing” – asks users to create a “personal H1N1 (swine flu) Vaccination Profile on the cdc.gov website” and that “every person that has reached the age of 18 has to have his/her personal Vaccination Profile on the cdc.gov site.”

However, the CDC has NOT implemented a so-called state vaccination program for the H1N1 Virus requiring registration on www.cdc.gov, and warns that users clicking on the “Create Personal Profile” link in the email risk having malicious code installed on their system that could steal personal information and lead to identity theft.

The CDC also reminds users to take the following steps to reduce the risk of being a victim of the H1N1 Virus phishing attack that could lead to identity theft:

• Do not follow unsolicited links and do not open or respond to unsolicited email messages.
• Use caution when visiting un-trusted websites.
• Use caution when entering personal information online.

An example of the H1N1 Virus phishing email can be seen at www.cdc.gov/hoaxes_rumors.html.

MyBackgroundCheck.com is a leading provider of consumer requested and applicant supplied background checks that allow consumers and jobseekers to keep their personal information accurate and secure from identity theft. To learn how personal background checks can help prevent identity theft, visit www.mybackgroundcheck.com, email info@mybackgroundcheck.com, or call 1-800-503-2364. Follow MyBackgroundCheck.com on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MyBackgroundChk.

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