Articles Posted in Identity Theft

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Legal Assistance can assure a Quality Present

The Christmas shopping season is a time of year when companies showcase their new merchandise. It could be an amazing laptop or a great looking toy; these are all meant to make some considerable profit in a very short period of time. The products will ordinarily go through a very extensive quality assurance program but some defective models might slip through the cracks. A consumer has a right to some consideration if a defective product is purchased but the guaranties or warranties might not always be honored. A group legal plan that provides a degree of consumer protection as a legal benefit is extremely important at this time of year, and a great Christmas benefit for employees

The Hazard of the New Product

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ID Theft is a very real Danger

Christmas shopping is a time when people go off their budgets and purchase gifts in the holiday spirit. Some of these shoppers are in for a horrible shock. Even people who buy online from what they think are relatively secure websites run the risk of identity theft. Hackers can break into websites and steal personal information, including credit card numbers. It is entirely possible that either this credit card information will be used, or the hacker will use personal information to set up phony credit card accounts and start shopping madly. The real nightmare occurs when an individual discovers that his or her identity has been compromised. By that time the thief is long gone, and the victim is left to try to make sense of what has happened. It can take months to finally straighten up the mess and during that time an individual’s credit rating may be shattered.

Staying Vigilant

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ID Theft can hit on Campus

Going away to college is the first time of independence for most young people. It is a chance to be a little bit more on their own without parents close at hand. It’s exciting, but there are some risks involved. Being away from mom and dad doesn’t mean being away from a thief.

Identity Theft Can Strike

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Identity Theft can be Thwarted

More and more people have stopped using cash and are using credit cards instead. The convenience is almost too good to ignore and that is why people use them. Plastic can definitely get the job done. It really is too bad that identity theft makes it dangerous.

Sensitive personal information such as credit and debit card account numbers is vulnerable to the hacking skills of identity thieves. These pirates of information hack into websites and secure, confidential information, using it to set up dummy accounts. Identity thieves can also use discarded receipts or other piece of evidence that show confidential data. The result can be a credit rating is being destroyed by an unethical person. Those who have identity theft prevention and assistance through a group legal plan can address any attempt at identity theft efficiently.

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A Good Group Legal Plan has something more

Human resources directors recognize the importance of having group legal plans as part of a comprehensive employee benefits program. At the same time, they want the best possible assistance for employees. These management professionals want to see all that voluntary prepaid legal plans have to offer, and they are particularly concerned about the details.

Employees get into all kinds of legal troubles that distract from work. Many of these situations are unavoidable or accidental, but assistance is needed. A group legal plan is supposed to be able to help with items such as drafting a will, filing for bankruptcy, or helping out with an adoption. But there are few things that make voluntary prepaid legal plans much more appealing. It’s the little details like discounts on contingency legal fees or reviewing a contract that can convince management this particular benefit is worth having. These are just some of the things covered in the pages of a group legal plan designed by Countrywide Pre-Paid Legal Services

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Pando Networks conducted a study in 2011 of those states that have the fastest Internet speeds and download completion rates. The results showed that the mid-Atlantic region had the most number of the fastest states, and Maryland ranked fifth on the list. The Old Line State is definitely computer savvy and its residents make use of the Internet for all kinds of shopping and financial transactions. The convenience is great but so is the risk. There are pirates who are cruising the cyber space and identity theft is something that just cannot be ignored by anyone using a computer. The possible losses are enormous.

Thieves Prey on the Unsuspecting

Hackers have a field day going into people’s online accounts and harvesting confidential information. These thieves cannot only drain an unsuspecting person’s bank accounts, but can also set up fake credit cards and charge thousands of dollars on the phony plastic. The real tragedy is the victim not knowing what has happened until days or weeks later; long after the culprit has gotten away with the goods. Trying to recover both reputation and credit ratings can take hours, and an individual is left feeling vulnerable and frightened.

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America is quickly becoming a cashless society. Increasingly more financial transactions are done with credit cards and debit cards as opposed to dollars and cents. That is fantastic for retail companies because shoppers using plastic will buy a little bit extra, and it’s extremely convenient for shoppers as well. However, there is a danger that lurks on the fringes. Greater use of plastic opens up an opportunity for professional thieves to steal identity and use credit card information for fraudulent purchases.

Identity theft is becoming increasingly more common. Roughly 12.6 million Americans

were the victims of identity theft in 2012, with approximately $21 billion being stolen. The most common use of identity theft is for various forms of financial fraud. This doesn’t just include bank accounts or credit cards. Identity theft can also facilitate mail fraud, attempts to get tax refunds, and criminal attempts to get benefits from government social programs. Identity theft is even more serious when the stolen identity is used for drug trafficking and computer-related crimes. Any individual can request credit monitoring services from a third party, but the thief may be long gone before the final information is received.

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You are reading this online right now. You might check your email in a few minutes. Oh, and do not forget about adding money to your child’s college credit card. And somewhere, in between checking out funny videos on Youtube and posting in your favorite hobby forum, you will buy an expensive gift with your debit card and have it shipped directly to the recipient. You lead your life in a virtual, online world, but are you safe there? You lock your car and your house -are you locking your online activity to keep the virtual criminals at bay? Pre-paid legal services can help keep an eye on your online activity to ensure you are not being hacked.

By now you are thinking, “I don’t need extra online security. I have passwords and secure servers for that!” Think again. According to John Pozadzides in this article on computer passwords, 20% of internet users use the same passwords from a list of 10. That means that hackers can immediately access passwords for various accounts for 20% of online users.

The remaining 80%? Pozadzides writes, “One of the simplest ways to gain access to your information is through the use of a brute-force attack. This is accomplished when a hacker uses a specially written piece of software to attempt to log into a site using your credentials.” Chances are, you use one or two password for all your online accounts. Once a hacker implements their system, they can quickly gain access to your bank accounts and other personal information. Revisit our previous blog post on identity theft for a personal story on the effect of a hacker. Pre-paid legal services through Countrywide can protect individuals from a nightmare at the hands of a hacker.

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If you are a victim of identity theft there are some options you may have and there is actually a way pre-paid legal services can help you. Wilmington, Delaware may not seem like a hot spot for identity theft but in reality no city is safe from this world wide crime. Identity theft incidences has gone up every year over the past decade mainly because of the personal information we put on our websites. This doesn’t mean social security numbers and bank account passwords and account numbers like most people think however. The real way we burn ourselves is with social networking, emails, registering with sites, and other things. These sites require or request information such as our names, date of birth, location where we live, credit card numbers, and other information. That information can be seen by anyone, especially on a social networking site, and is more than enough for people to steal your identity. The good news is that while the crime has grown year after year, putting a stop to it and recovering has also become much easier. Once you have become aware you are a victim of this crime you simply contact the proper authorities and everything will be taken care of, or so it seems. There are other problems that need to be dealt with that may include legal matters and for that you may want an attorney.

This is where you would have a great advantage if you had Countrywide Pre-Paid Legal Services. The prepaid legal services would put you in contact with a network of qualified attorneys who have handled hundreds of identity theft cases in the past and can help you fully recover from this matter in no time at all. In addition, Countrywide Pre-Paid Paid Legal Services offers stand alone comprehensive identity theft and credit monitoring plans that can be offered as a voluntary benefit. The best part of having legal service plans or identity theft plans is the fact that the cost is nonexistent to you because it is covered by small payroll deductions just like other employee benefits but it is actually much cheaper than the others are. So instead of having to worry about finding an attorney and then paying them, prepaid legal services will put you in direct contact with an attorney that can help you immediately at no charge. Another great thing is that no matter where you live, the network of attorneys available to you are local so you will get unlimited face to face assistance for any legal situation you find yourself in. Legal service plans are a great advantage to have as an employee and one of the best employee benefits a company can offer.

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Gas prices show no sign of stopping their climb. This fact, coupled with the ever-increasing presence of personal technology infiltrating every aspect of life makes it easier to shop and pay bills online from your home or the office. Sure, the internet is convenient, but what is the cost of using it?

In some cases, the cost might be your very identity.

According to a study conducted by Javeline Strategy & Research, 8.1 million people are victims of identity theft every year. Though privacy protection has increased, the bad guys are equally as savvy -often, they are even more savvy than those developing the privacy protection strategies themselves.

Each case of identity theft ends up costing $37 billion every year. On an individual level, that amounts to approximately $631 per case, as reported by Fox Business. The toll that identity theft takes on credit can sometimes take years to correct. Of course, the emotional toll that such a crime takes on an individual is hard to measure. In some cases, financial loss is not the only risk.

As Kristen Hamill details on CNN.com, sometimes identity theft can turn violent. Frankly, it is no wonder that even more home invasions do not occur as a result of identity theft, since the information that cyber-savvy crooks get often details financial assets, employment location, and most scarily -one’s home address. Hamill’s article details the unfortunate death of two victims of identity theft who were killed by the thief.

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