Here's part 3 of an interesting article from Money magazine that lists several identity theft statistics -- many of which I found surprising. It's done in a question and answer format, so here is today's question:
What type of identity theft is the most difficult to detect?
The answer:
Fraudulent accounts opened in your name. It takes an average of 152 days for victims to find out that a new account has been opened in their name. That's because only a credit report or notice from the lender or a collection agency will alert you to the new account's existence.
My thoughts:
1. I would have thought "charges to a credit card you already have" would have been the "winner" here.
2. This is why I have checking my credit reports as part of my New Years resolutions.
Charges to an account you already own are fairly easy to detect within one billing cycle if you carefully check your statement every month, as you should. in addition, many credit card issuers will call you to verify any unusual spending on a particular account. When an unknown account is opened in your name, with a different address, you never recieve any paperwork, and so are completely unaware of the problem until you are try to obtain additional credit and are turned down fo unpaid accounts, you pull a credit report, or you notice your intrest rates on other cards are rising due to a decreased credit score caused by unpaid accounts.
Posted by: Debt Free | May 31, 2006 at 08:55 AM