Senior Citizens and Identity Theft: Alarming Trends
By admin • Oct 28th, 2008 • Category: Identity Theft, Identity Theft Protection, Identity Theft Victims, lifelock reviewsThere is one thing that absolutely can be said about identity thieves: They will stop at nothing. In this day and age, senior citizens need to be wary of the potential that they very well might become the victims of identity theft. Unfortunately, in this day and age, senior citizens are prime targets for people who are intent on committing the insidious crime of identity theft.
There are a number of common scams that are pulled on senior citizens when it comes to identity theft. The first line of defense when it comes to senior citizens and identity theft is educating these people on the different types of identity theft schemes that are being utilized in regard to the identity if seniors today. The bottom line is this: As a senior citizen, by better educating yourself on the types of identity theft strategies being employed by criminals the better chance you will have of protecting yourself against becoming a victim of identity theft in the first instance.
When it comes to identity theft schemes involving senior citizens, the telephone oftentimes is used by unscrupulous people intent on committing these types of crimes. Typically, a caller will connect by phone with a senior citizen and tell the elderly individual that the call is being made on behalf of a trusted charitable organization, law enforcement or a financial institution. There are other scenarios that are used as well. In the end, these criminal callers convince these trusting senior citizens to provide all manner of personal and financial information, allowing these crooks the chance to steal the identities of these good people.
Door to door schemes are also relatively commonplace when it comes to identity theft and senior citizens. For example, a thief will come to a senior’s home contending that he or she is collecting money for a trusted charity, involved with some sort of government related project or program and so forth.
Finally, mail theft and dumpster diving are also common tactics that are utilized by criminals to obtain the identities of senior citizens. Most seniors simply do not take the time to shred important documents before throwing them in the trash and most seniors do not pay a great deal of attention to issues such as the security of their mailboxes. Simply, there senior citizens lived a good part of their lives in an era when you simply did not have to worry about such issues as identity theft.
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Another alarming trend in identity theft is the fact that LifeLock affiliates have been known to steal identities in order to fraudulently sign customers up for LifeLock accounts. My husband was a victim of identity theft by a LifeLock affiliate, something that he didn’t discover until a $99 charge from LifeLock showed up on his credit card bill. When he called LifeLock, they immediately knew what had happened – the LifeLock representative he spoke with was actually the one who informed him that there have been multiple instances of identity theft among LifeLock affiliates so that they can sign up new customers in order to meet quotas. Here’s a thought – one way LifeLock could help in the fight against identity theft would be to do a better job ensuring that they’re not hiring identity thieves. Until LifeLock can do a better job of protecting me from themself, I certainly wouldn’t trust them to protect me from anyone else.
http://tovadarling.blogspot.com/2008/11/so-heres-scoop.html
it is quite sad that these identity thiefs take advantage of the elderly. I see how they can be an easy target, most of them are not very well informed on how it all works and dont know much of what to do to prevent identity theft. I think it is extremely important to inform people about the seriousness of identity theft and how it is important to take care of your identity.
Thank you.
http://www.allaboutidentity.com
Don’t worry, this will never stop.
Yep, the elderly are a HUGE “market” for identity thieves. Pretty terrible, when you think about it.
Seniors need to know what ways they can be at risk, and that they can and should question *anything* that seems either awry or too good to be true.
Their adult children or other family members/caretakers can also be a help here. Education is the best prevention…there should be more classes for seniors to learn how to protect themselves and their finances. I think that would be a step in the right direction.
In the event a stranger is at your door claiming to be part of a charity, always ask for a badge and some form of ID.
However, no charity really goes door to door so that should be a surefire sign that this person is likely a scammer or identity thief.
i work with seniors in the insurance business and although they have taken some precautions, they much more. all seniors should take note and ask for the state insurance I.D’s of insurance reps before giving their personal details on applications. make sure theses insurance reps are who they say are…that goes for all lines of coverage.
You know I read another blog post recently that stated only 11% of identity theft occurs online. With a regular service in place providing a credit report, identity theft can be spotted quickly. This is a good option, especially for senior citizens and others vulnerable to attack.
Unfortunately senior citizens are more at risk for identity theft because a majority of them are left out of the cyber crime loop. They are extremely uninformed as to what goes on in todays age. 10 or even 20 years ago this type of crime was almost nonexistant.