Identity theft just got a new attack venue by stealing somebody's medical records in order to fool the insurance companies and gain some money. Pulling this scam out without getting busted immediately is accomplished by piecing together a synthetic identity from broken pieces of other persons' identities.
People can monitor public records on their own rather than paying for a monitoring service, the only problem is that databases range from DMV records to mailing lists, so it can be quite challenging.
Let's say we have three people: Bob, Jane and Luke. The scammer uses Bob's full name address, Jane's date of birth and Luke's social security number. That is a jackpot for a scammer because it means they have pieced together a synthetic or bionic identity. In the end, all three of these folks credit may be damaged, but they won't all find out about it at the same time.
Because credit reports are triggered by social security numbers, Luke will likely be the first to find out he's been targeted because he'll likely see strange accounts on his credit report. But when it comes to just names, addresses and birth dates, those pieces of information are first stored as public records. So if only Bob's name and address and Jane's date of birthday are linked to a fraudulent identity. They wouldn't necessarily see it on their credit report.
That is where public records monitoring can help. Industry expert Adam Levin, who authors www.identitytheft911.org, explains what public records monitoring is all about. "What they're looking for is any anomaly in your personally identifying information, your middle name changes, your age changes, and your date of birth changes."
They are also monitoring any change to your address, phone number... even your mother's maiden name. If there are changes, then they will notify you right away.
The bottom line here is if your social security number is stolen, you can pretty much expect to have credit issues. If it's your name, address and date of birth, it is not a guarantee, but there is a chance you'll be negatively impacted and find out much later in the game.
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