The Wall Street Journal. Complete Identity Theft Guidebook: How to Protect Yourself from the Most Pervasive Crime in America (Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal. Complete Identity Theft Guidebook: How to Protect Yourself from the Most Pervasive Crime in America (Wall Street Journal

It could happen when you make a routine withdrawal from an ATM, respond to an e-mail asking for information about an online account, or leave a new box of checks unattended in your mailbox. Identity theft is one of the easiest crimes to commit in America—and one of the hardest to prosecute. As thieves become increasingly clever, Americans have more reasons than ever to fear this elusive, ubiquitous crime. Now there’s a book to help you beat it. In two easy-to-understand sections, Terri Cullen, The Wall Street Journal’s expert on identity theft, first walks you through the most common types of identity theft and how to arm yourself against them, and then leads victims step-by-step through the process of reclaiming a stolen identity. The average victim loses more than $6,000 and spends approximately 600 hours negotiating the complex bureaucracies and paperwork—this book will help save time and effort by laying out the process. And by following the advice in the first half, you may never need the second! You’ll learn: • how to avoid the most common scams, from “phishing” to “dumpster diving” • why children under eighteen are the fastest-growing target, and how you can protect your family • why your credit report is the single most important document for protecting your identity • how to use the sample letters, forms, and other useful tools inside for recovering from identity theft In today’s marketplace, your two most valuable assets are your credit and your identity. No one should be without this vital guide to protecting them. Identity theft is one of the fastest-growing crime segments worldwide, yet the laws in place to prosecute these offenses are scant and rarely enforced. Cullen, assistant managing editor and personal finance columnist for the Wall Street Journal Online, explains that there are really two broad variations of identity-related crime: identity theft, which is impersonation of someone else to get a job or hide one's own criminal record; and identity fraud, the use of another person's credentials for monetary theft. Getting someone else's personal information is surprisingly easy, but Cullen shows in part 1 how, through simple diligence such as shredding documents and protecting yourself online, you can avoid having to follow the directions in part 2, where she explains how to clear your name should you become a victim. The average identity-theft victim will have to spend 600 hours clearing his or her good name. This is a straightforward guide broken up with interesting sidebars and plenty of charts, in the Wall Street Journal tradition. Siegfried, David TERRI CULLEN is an assistant managing editor and award-winning personal-finance columnist for The Wall Street Journal Online. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and son. CHAPTER 1 What Is Identity Theft, Anyway? Jerome Powell remembers being irritated with himself for not paying closer attention to his driving. When the Mountain View, Colorado, police car’s blue lights came on behind him, Powell, a government contractor, had just driven through a yellow light as it turned red. Now he would be late for his next appointment. He apologized to the officer and handed over his driver’s license and insurance information. He watched in his rearview mirror as the officer radioed from his cruiser for a license check. It seemed to be taking a long time to write a routine ticket. Finally, the officer approached Powell’s window and told him to get out of the car. Powell was stunned to find himself under arrest on two outstanding felony warrants. He was shocked and humiliated as the officer made him put his hands behind his back and then cuffed him and read him his Miranda rights. The Navy veteran spent hours in jail, shaking from fear that he might wind up charged with a crime he didn’t commit. The warrants for his arrest were issued in 2003, when a thief used Powell’s driver’s license to buy more than $10,000 in computer equipment and other items. Despite overwhelming evidence that it was a case of identity theft—the stolen goods were delivered to the apartment of a career criminal who bore no resemblance at all to Powell—he was forced to spend several thousand dollars to post bond and get a lawyer to clear his name. Jerome Powell’s unnerving and expensive experience is a true case of identity theft—the thief used Powell’s driver’s license to impersonate Powell. Not to be picky about it, but what the media and most people call “identity theft” is actually an umbrella term for two different crimes: identity theft and identity fraud. As in Powell’s case, identity theft occurs when criminals steal personal information and use it to impersonate the victim. An illegal immigrant using a stolen Social Security card to get a job is a good example of such an impersonation, as is a driver who has lost his or her license because of multiple convictions for driving while intoxicated and buys a fake driver’s license from an underground dealer contain