I really think that all of the hype surrounding identity theft is, well, hype. Yes, the electronic exchange of personal information certainly offers opportunities for exposure, but people act like this is something new.
I saw one consultant on TV make it a point to indicate that you're most vulnerable in paper transactions. It was particularly worse in the days of carbon copy card slips. The human being at retail that can touch your card is far more suspect than any online site where nothing other than a machine ever sees your information. I tend to believe that.
I guess we always need something in the news to worry about. Terrorism is apparently so last year.
Six years ago I was the victim of identity theft. The bastard got an ID with my street name and a different town and state - Indiana (never got an answer from IN if it was issued by them since at the time, they were the victim, not me - back then the laws were different).
He opened up credit cards with JCPenney, Sears, Marshall Fields, Home Depot, NTB and either maxed them out with purchases immediately, or bought gift certificates until they were maxed.
He also went to a dealership and with my credit history got a Chrysler Sebring LXI Convertible.
The point where his plan fell apart is when he went to Beneficial to get a loan of $15,000 to allegedly bury "my" father who just died. He was all set to get the loan when the loan officer noted that he forgot to fill in a section on the forms which he had left for approval. The LO called my place of employment to get the information - when to his suprise he found out that it was a fake.
I spent the better part of the next year working to clear my history - because again, at that time the laws on identity theft claimed the creditor was the only victim, yet they were looking to me to get police reports about the theft.
What a nightmare - I still get peeved when I think about it.
Well....not all of us are computer savvy genuis like the Pizz-nasty. For most of Americans, this is new. We have to think in the mode of the 60-year old grandmother in Iowa because that's who thinks that this is new.
Me, I check my shit everyday. In fact, my sister-in-law was a victim six months ago.