Mature Life Features

. . . don’t know

what happiness is

until they get married,

and by then, it’s too late.

‘Tis Always the Season to Protect Your Identity

Identity theft, which is easier to commit than credit-card fraud because the criminal only has to steal your name and not your card, accounts for almost half of the thousands of consumer fraud complaints made to the Federal Trade Commission each year. Almost 10 percent of the population become victims of identity thieves each year. These are just the ones we know of because they are reported to the FTC.

You can lose your identity in an instant – the time it takes for a crook to memorize your birth date or Social Security number as you give it to a shop clerk, for example. The hurly-burly of holiday weekends and the Santa season are the identity thief’s playground.

Modern thieves can hack your cell phone and get your most personal information, such as your name, Social Security number, address, and other valuable data, to use to make a purchases and loans in your name. Many steal identities from mailboxes – more than 100,000 residential mailboxes are raided every day in this country – or they fish bank and credit-card statements from trash.

An identity thief may use your name but another address so you won’t be aware of the debt made in your name because statements will be sent to that other address and your credit will be trampled.