Credit & Debt: The Housing-Identity Theft Connection, Part II

Back in June I blogged on the topic of the easy homebuying market resulting in a potential bonanza for identity theft. The combination of instantly available credit, no-document loans with little verification, and the cottage industry for stolen SSNs, credit card numbers, and so on, makes for a veritable bitches' brew of data disasters.

Today the Register has a chilling article on how easy it is to get your home sold out from under you, thanks to the proliferation of public information available today:

Local widow Susan Lawrence faces the loss of a home she's lived in for 30 years after crooks used publically available information to pose as her and sell her home out from under her feet.

In another case, an actress lost her home to ID thieves who sold her property to an accomplice, who disappeared after securing a bogus $250,000 mortgage in her name. ®

Keep control of your information at all times. Don't give anything out over the phone without verifying who you're talking to. Never give out your Social Security number to anyone but government agencies (and sometimes not even then). Monitor your credit reports and bank accounts regularly for signs of fraud or unusual purchases. So on and so on.

Identity theft can be as minimal as reversing a fradulent charge of a few hundred dollars on your Visa Platinum, or it can be as devastating as having your entire life ruined and your property stolen from under you. The only antidote is vigilance and information.

ADDENDUM: Proving that great minds and gray ladies think alike, here's an excellent (if depressing) overview of the SSN-based ID theft crisis from the New York Times. Well worth the read.)

(Image courtesy of Defensology.)

Posted at September 4, 2006 02:31 PM

digg this story

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://weblog.housing.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/233

Back in June I blogged on the topic of the easy homebuying market resulting in a potential bonanza for identity theft. The combination of instantly available credit, no-document loans with little verification, and the cottage industry for stolen SSNs, credit card numbers, and so on, makes for a veritable bitches' brew of data disasters. Today the Register has a chilling article on how easy it is to get your home sold out from under you, thanks to the proliferation of public information available today: Local widow Susan Lawrence faces the loss of a home she's lived in for 30 years after crooks used publically available information to pose as her and sell her home out from under her feet. In another case, an actress lost her home to ID thieves who sold her property to an accomplice, who disappeared after securing a bogus $250,000 mortgage in her name. ® Keep control of your information at all times. Don't give anything out over the phone without verifying who you're talking to. Never give out your Social Security number to anyone but government agencies (and sometimes not even then). Monitor your credit reports and bank accounts regularly for signs of fraud or unusual purchases. So on and so on. Identity theft can be as minimal as reversing a fradulent charge of a few hundred dollars on your Visa Platinum, or it can be as devastating as having your entire life ruined and your property stolen from under you. The only antidote is vigilance and information. ADDENDUM: Proving that great minds and gray ladies think alike, here's an excellent (if depressing) overview of the SSN-based ID theft crisis from the New York Times. Well worth the read.) (Image courtesy of Defensology.)