Did you know that every 70 seconds in the world, someone has their identity stolen?  According to the FBI, identity theft has surpassed the drug trade as the most lucrative and easiest crime to commit.  Want to know who the latest victims are?  Children!  The reason being, they cannot open a credit file until the age of 18 and by the time they graduate from high school, buy their first car or apply for a student loan, their identity will have been compromised thousands of times.  Over 20,000 children and teens in the U.S. were victims of ID Theft in 2008 (FTC stats).  You might be saying to yourself, “I shred everything and my bank monitors my credit cards”.  Sorry to burst your bubble, but if you happen to be stopped for a fixit ticket and at that moment you find out that you are wanted in 2 states you have never visited, with felony warrants for your arrest.  Who will you call? Wells Fargo?  Don’t think so….. Supposing it is your teenage son or daughter or grandchild?   Imagine who they will be sharing a cell with…Credit cards are only 20% of the problem. The other 80% are…..Character/Criminal (aka Your Good Name), Medical, Social Security, DMV. 

To make matters worse, the FBI has noted that what these thieves are doing now is even more hideous. They take someone’s SSN, another’s Driver’s License number and someone else’s credit card and and create an entirely new person who goes to the hospital to get medical treatment on your dime.  Sadly, unbeknownst to you, that person could have AIDS, Cancer or some other infectious disease which will become a permanent part of your medical record. Supposing you need medical care?  Since your medical file has been changed, they could give you medication or a blood transfusion with the wrong blood type which could prove fatal.  Due to the new privacy laws in place, you cannot correct your medical file.  So, the new laws enacted to protect you are the very ones that could hurt you or your family.  One last question: Do you have the time and money to sit on the phone with the various bureaucracies to try and resolve this on your own?