| | |
Telephone Credit Scams Play On Consumers' Fears
|
Identity theft is on the rise. In one particular brand of credit
fraud, telephone scam artists employ various unscrupulous
means to extract your personal information so they
can use it to drain current accounts, open new accounts
and obtain credit-all in
your name. The variety and inventiveness of the ploys
these criminals use to rob you of your well-earned
credit rating, money and peace of mind are continuously
growing. So how do you protect yourself from these
credit frauds and hold onto what is rightfu
lly yours? Be aware of the latest scams that are out there and ensure that, if you are
approached, you'll recognize the signs and thus avoid getting burned.
Currently,
for instance, identity crooks are employing all manner
of telephone scams to trick and defraud unsuspecting
victims into giving up crucial details about their
personal identities. One manifestation of this fraud
involves telephone identity thie
ves, in the guise of credit grantors on official business, calling people and asking them to
verify address, credit account number or other personal information. Needless to say, you
should never give out this information to someone you do not know.
These
criminals are extremely inventive and opportunistic.
They are adept at creating elaborate ruses aimed at
convincing consumers to part with their private credit
data. For example, when Y2K fears were at a fever pitch,
many identity thieves took advan
tage of the public apprehension about potential Y2K-related
side effects. Capitalizing on the Y2K scare, fraud
perpetrators would call people, identify themselves
as bank or financial institution employees, and request
personal information-for the suppose
d purpose of updating records in order to make the organization's systems Y2K-compliant.
Instead, these identity thieves used the information to perpetrate identity fraud against
the consumer.
As
this shows, identity thieves can be very convincing.
Utilizing common knowledge about current events and
trends, these criminals devise all types of schemes
and scams that can and do, in many cases, easily fool
consumers into divulging their personal i
nformation. Be on the lookout for these scams and take
steps to protect yourself. Never, for instance, divulge
personal information-such as bank or credit card account
numbers, your Social Security number, addresses or
family names-over the phone or the I
nternet, unless you have contacted the business yourself
and are sure of its legitimacy. No matter how plausible
or official a caller might seem or what reason they
might offer for their request, if he or she initiated
the call and is asking for personal
information over the phone, protect yourself by keeping your private credit information
private.
|