Fraudsters can use your Social Security number to open up new credit accounts in your name — and those accounts can do all sort of damage to your credit score.

“You can’t know what is in your credit report unless you look at it, and you won’t know what you need to work on until you know what is in it,”

There are two types of identity theft:

• “Existing account fraud” or “account takeover fraud” occurs when a thief acquires your credit or debit card information and purchases products and services using either the actual card, a counterfeit card, or the account number and expiration date.  Victims may not learn of account takeover until they receive their monthly account statement.
• “New account fraud” or “application fraud” occurs when a thief uses your SSN and other identifying information to open new accounts in your name. Victims are not likely to learn of application fraud for some time, because the monthly account statements are mailed to an address used by the imposter.
• Everyone needs protective services.

Hurt Your Job Prospects

Many employers now routinely look at credit history when assessing job candidates. (About half, according to a 2012 study by the Society for Human Resource Management.) A report pockmarked by ID theft-related errors could sink your application. Employers can’t reject you because of what they see on your credit report without telling you, but then, employers can also gin up any old excuse for rejecting you. Legislation to eliminate the practice has been proposed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and others, and a few states limit it, but odds are you live in a place where an impostor can steal both your money and your job prospects

The use of phishing—essentially tricking people to give up personal and confidential information for the purposes of fraud, identify theft and financial gain—is old news. But it rears its ugly head every year during the holidays. All types of email and online fraud increase exponentially during the winter holidays as online shopping picks up and people become a little more distracted in general.

Whether at work or at home, you need to be vigilant to these attacks. Whether catching up on emails after being out of the office, or finishing up your online shopping, there are lots of things you can do to protect yourself

• Increase the security and privacy settings on your social networks; limit your interaction to people you know.
• Develop good password-management skills at work and home. Strong, complex passwords – and different passwords for different sites — are critical to keeping you safe.
• Do not click on links in emails from unknown senders. If it seems suspicious, or the offer is too good to be true, delete it.
• Do not open attachments in emails from people you do not know.
• When in doubt, ask! Report it to phishing@gm.com by sending a copy of the suspicious email. Open a new email, select ‘Attach Item’, select ‘Outlook Item’ then select the offending email and Send. Finally, permanently delete the email from your mailbox.

Identity fraud can be described as the use of that stolen identity in criminal activity to obtain goods or services by deception.

Fraudsters can use your identity details to:

• Open bank accounts.
• Obtain credit cards, loans and state benefits.
• Order goods in your name.
• Take over your existing accounts.
• Take out mobile phone contracts.
• Obtain genuine documents such as passports and driving licenses in your name.
• Stealing an individual’s identity details does not, on its own, constitute identity fraud. But using that identity for any of the above activities does.

The first you know of it may be when you receive bills or invoices for things you haven’t ordered, or when you receive letters from debt collectors for debts that aren’t yours.

Home life services will protect you

A new identify is stolen every 2 seconds. 1 in 4 people will experienced identity theft.  Last year $16 Billion Stolen from 12.7 Million Identity Fraud Victims in 2014.

Should you be concern, YES!

ID Thefts happen every day, all over the world and it happens to all types of people. No matter how poor or rich you are, no one is completely safe from ID theft and its relative loses. So the only way to be protected is to be aware and make consistent efforts to monitor your accounts and information..

Sign up for Home Life services and be protected.

When you invest your money, does it matter what the product or service provides or is it the (ROI) return on the investment you’re interested in?

How many people do you know, that graduated from college with a science degree and now working in the banking industry?  Why, it matters  not what the degree is in, only that you have a degree! Money solves problems, if you stop working for 6 months, do you have the income set aside to pay

your fixed monthly overhead?  Go to BRedy.biz for answers