In an era of data breaches and a trend in stolen identity crime rings, it seems no one is secure. A story published today in ConsumerAffairs.com brings the reality of identity theft home to one woman, Suzanne Finch, who has been struggling for over a year to determine the source of a data breach that has altered her life dramatically.
Finch found that a data breach into Citibank’s servers may have been the cause of her personal information being used to open accounts and make purchases she never authorized. But Citibank isn’t admitting to the breach or the cause of the fraud against Finch. For anyone discovering their identity has been stolen, this story is one that leads to no resolve or hope…and government laws that do little to protect identity theft victims.
The only way for individuals to protect their identity is to take control of their personal information. Monitoring your own background checks and credit reports help keep you aware of what is happening to your your accounts before the crime spirals into an uncontrollable dark hole of uncertainty. In a world where good credit is needed to purchase almost anything, or even to obtain some jobs, Americans need to take measures to limit access to their accounts and personal information.
In some cases, stolen identities are used to commit crimes, giving identity theft victims a criminal record. With some 80% of employers conducting background checks, you may not know about this until you apply for a job or get pulled over by a police officer for accidentally running a stop sign.
Please visit www.mybackgroundcheck.com for resources and information on taking total control of your personal information.