There are individuals that exploit the special occasion to perpetrate crimes. Robberies, burglaries, and thefts are extremely widespread. Every one of these felony offenses can contribute to theft of identity. Often, the culprits employ a disguise of some kind. The mask is a typical style of concealment for such outlaws.

Their purpose of transgression is not promptly detected for the reason that countless individuals are wearing costumes along with masks on Halloween. The outlaws, aware of their own conniving intents, take hold of the opportunity to rob and steal. If you come in contact with disguised behemoths, you may be shocked to conclude that they could desire more than your candy. My recommendation is that you should remain very cautious and stay away from situations where you may feel endangered or exposed. Let your intuition lead you.

Trick or treaters typically finish their candy collection movement shortly after 7 PM, and a few may possibly end a little bit later. My common guideline is to stop answering the door at 8 PM. I will let the doorbell ring, and ring, and ring past that time. I don’t open it for anyone. Additionally, I try to stay at home as crime tends to exponentially increase in certain areas on October 31st, especially after dark. You should be conscious of that.

Oh and one more thing… HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Dear Account User

This Email is from Hotmail Customer Care and we are sending it to every Hotmail Email User Accounts Owner for safety. we are having congestions due to the anonymous registration of Hotmail accounts so we are shutting down some Hotmail accounts and your account was among those to be deleted. We are sending this email to you so that you can verify and let us know if you still want to use this account. If you are still interested please confirm your account by filling the space below.Your User name, password, date of birth and your country information would be needed to verify your account.

Due to the congestion in all Hotmail users and removal of all unused Hotmail Accounts, Hotmail would be shutting down all unused Accounts, You will have to confirm your E-mail by filling out your Login Information below after clicking the reply button, or your account will be suspended within 24 hours for security reasons.

* Username: …………………………
* Password: …………………………..
* Date of Birth: ……………………….
* Country Or Territory: …………….

After following the instructions in the sheet, your account will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. Thanks for your attention to this request. We apologize for any inconveniences.

Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his/her account after two weeks of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently.

Sincerely,
The Windows Live Hotmail Team

This phishing attack is intended to steal personal information from Hotmail users by having them provide information which should be guarded by most intellectual people. However, phishing scams like this one tend to net identity thieves and other criminals great bounties in a form of a stolen email address, which often is used to send more spam.

This email came with an “official” looking logo and was very colorful for a professional email (see your own copy). To most people it will look like spam, as it is unprofessionally written and structured. Share this post with your friends and family so they can see the way these types of phishing attacks are orchestrated. I think this article is really worth a mention.

Maiden Name Uses
The harsh reality is that many corporations use the maiden name as a code word or a password per se. These companies can be your credit grantor, bank, or NITV… short for Naive Identity Theft Victims. This is supposed to be a security procedure that is designed to offer an extra layer of security when interacting with your credit card account provider, for example. In theory this is a great concept, but overtime it became used too often. Identity thieves and other criminals learned that a simple mother’s maiden name is all that gets them to the “pot of gold.” Yes, criminals need more than your mom’s name to commit fraud, however with little more effort and that precious name your identity is as safe as a semi truck on an ice lake in Texas.

Your Mama’s Name is the Culprit
Learn to protect yourself from identity theft by calling all the financial and private entities you deal with to change your mother’s maiden name to something more secure, like a password. Most companies will gladly make this change for you as they know the reality of identity theft all to well. It is in fact your bank or your credit card service representative that may be providing an identity thief with your financial and identifying information. The devious thief may have obtained the maiden name in public court records, in your dumpster, or calling you as an administrator of a large inheritance… “all I need is your mother’s maiden name to seal the deal.” In any event, protect your identity by protecting your mother’s maiden name and further ensuring that the name is not used for anything else but warm memories.

I have noticed that many of you have been searching for Family Secure: child identity theft hence if you click on the Family Secure link it will take you directly to the identity theft protection home page.  Otherwise you can type this address into your web browser: www.familysecure.com.

Once there, you can find out how you can protect yourself, your children, and therefore your entire family from id theft and fraudulent activities. Although the information about identity theft is not very detailed, it is to the point and the identity theft statistics are very informative.  The Family Secure website does a great job at providing you with the protection and prevention details.  What’s great is that they provide a $2 million guarantee in an event of identity theft.  Additionally, the identity protection program by Experian provides fraud resolution support and credit monitoring.

Tough Luck
If you read newspapers or watch the news you may have seen an unscrupulous media attention regarding mothers and fathers stealing the identity of their child.  It is something that people in very tough situations do, people who are lazy, people who undermine and disrespect themselves and others.  Crime of this nature is not known to many, but under the radar of a watchful eye it can still happen.  Why? because there is no watchful eye.

Child identity theft committed by parents: mother and father
Parents are the ultimate guardians responsible for their kids.  As one happens to follow the notion that physical and psychological harm to children is often done by parents, we can safely say that financial harm can be added to that list.  What gives a parent a right to mess with his or her child’s credit and financial future?  Nothing.  It is plainly unacceptable to do so.  A break of trust and unjust anguish awaits the kids that are the victims of child identity theft.

Note this
White collar crimes, like identity theft, are being more recognized by law enforcement agencies, courts, and corrections systems world wide.  Id theft and child id theft seems to be the new fad in the dark world of crime.  But if you are thinking of buying yourself a Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, or just plain groceries using your kid’s identity, BEWARE!  You will most likely get caught, sooner or later, and if you won’t, your kids will surely be happy to give you a black eye, followed by an extensive criminal investigation, and lawsuits charging for the credit cleanup.

Parents, if you are reading this and you are facing a tough time.  Please take the relationship with your kids into consideration before hurting them like that.  Identity theft is a very hard thing to straighten out and often derogatory information on the credit report, even when marked as fraudulent, may lead to bias treatment by lending and credit granting agencies.

One thing you have to visualize is the feeling of cleaner and better credit.  If you have ever had that feeling you know that you have opportunities unlike many Americans.  The opportunities are:

• higher credit limits
• higher spending power
• lower interest rates
• and even 0% financing.

You are the lucky one who can have a lower mortgage and car payment and although you may not like the credit reporting system you rest easy at night with that peace of mind.  Why shouldn’t your kids be given the same chance when they are adults?

Child identity theft is rampant and a torrent of new child id theft cases piles up daily.  Most of the children whose identity is stolen don’t know it until little Jimmy gets a phone call from a cell phone company asking for a payment of a hefty bill. Or maybe, little Mary will greet a sheriff deputy asking for her to show up to a legal hearing after a thief swindles several business for thousands of dollars using Mary’s name.  You, as the parent can stop child identity theft by learning more about it and teaching your kids the value of a clean credit.  It is not too early to start teaching your children about practical financial basics, and that includes knowing that this thing called credit will follow them for the rest of their lives.

But what if you find yourself trying to prevent child identity theft, but it still happens? What went wrong?

You may wonder and wonder, pull your hair out, and file millions of police reports, however, the answer may be right under your nose.  In my experience, most of the child identity theft is attributed to family members, close and close enough, who have horrible credit ratings or they don’t have the necessary financial backing to finance their expenses or investments.  Yes, your own family may perceive this white collar crime as innocent, often getting into an addictive state of spending on little Jimmy’s and Mary’s identities.

There is no set formula for catching your family members trying to steal your or your kids’ identity.  Even though it may be someone right under your nose, you will not smell this crime on them unless you check your kids credit report to verify your suspicions or plainly your curiosity.  If your kids are under the age of 18 they should have a spotless credit record and by that I mean totally blank.

Some kids may have the following entry on their credit record and still be under eighteen: the ever present credit card entry, specifically listed as authorized users.  Some parents allow their children to have their own credit cards with their own name that is to help the young lads and gals to establish credit record.  If you see anything else, it is either your kid trying to take out a student loan to buy a laptop or an identity thief who may wreck your child’s financial future.

You are confusing me…

Yes I may have done that, but the other culprit is self orchestrated identity theft.  A kid stealing his own identity to finance, well… whatever.  Education is key in having your kids understand the value of sound financial decisions, and although I repeat that, you know something is wrong when your underage teen has a better car than you, a lavish home theater system in his room, and a fleet of Armani suits in his closet.  The self identity theft is really not theft, but it is what many of Americans do, buy on credit using credit grantors who think that little Jimmy and Mary made $250,000 baby sitting.  The system is not great and manipulation of credit applications by the applicants is immense.  It is no wonder that many credit reports yield a tremendous difference between factual information and the one in the credit file.

To sum up, teach your children about the risks of identity theft.  The prevention tips on this blog should help you understand that the age doesn’t matter when it comes to having pristine credit.  Child identity theft or not, It isn’t too early, nor too late, to start monitoring your and your children’s credit file for derogatory information.