The Employment Report

Employment Report, Editor’s note: I know a lot of you are here because you’re either currently seeking employment or are thinking of starting your search soon. I reposted this article (with the author’s permission) for you to set your minds at ease as you begin sending résumés off to JobBoardA, EmploymentSiteB and Employers C-G. Everyone’s worried about identity theft these days. It’s a major hot button issue, to be sure, but that doesn’t mean it should discourage you from achieving your career goals.

If your local TV news anchor were to be believed, people everywhere are having their life savings pilfered away by identity thieves right now. The most common methods these fiends are using? According to the news media, the ubiquitous “they” are taking information right out of your computer. To hear newscasters talk, identity thieves do it even when you’re using secure sites, or your email client, or they might even be able to steal your account numbers directly from your mind.

Sensational and ratings-grubbing though they are, the local TV news stations have an important point. Identity theft does exist and it does happen to normal, everyday people. It just doesn’t happen to normal people every day, like the credit protection agencies charging millions in monthly “fraud prevention” fees would like you to believe.

In 2005, the Better Business Bureau and the Javelin Strategy & Research group released a report of the results, the latter obtained from a survey concerning identity fraud. Their study concluded that despite growing fears to the contrary, only 11.6 percent of all identity thefts reported occurred online; the majority of people reported that it was a stolen wallet or checkbook that resulted in fraudulent charges.

Also, contrary to the scare tactics used by national and local media, strangers are not the ones who are “out to get you.” Of the fraud cases surveyed where the identity of the culprit was discovered, half were committed by a friend, family member, relative, neighbor or in-home employee – someone known by the victim.

“I was surprised that with all the emphasis on the scariness and mystery of the Internet, it diverted attention away from the primary causes of identity theft,” Ken Hunter, president and chief executive officer of the Better Business Bureau, told the Chicago Sun-Times. “We feel comfortable in our homes and leave things lying around. We shouldn’t do that.”

Additionally, the survey results show that people who manage their financial information online rather than receive paper statements were better equipped to detect misuse of their accounts quickly. These people reported damage amounts averaging $551 while people who manage with paper statements lost an average of $4,543. Half of the digital damage reported was a result of accidentally downloaded spyware.

According to the study results, “a wide variety of metrics confirm that identity fraud problems are NOT worsening, with the total number of victims in decline.” For example, the median value of identity fraud crimes remained unchanged at $750; however most identity fraud victims incurred no out-of-pocket costs. Also, the average time it took to resolve an identity fraud crime dropped by 15 percent – from 33 hours in 2003 to 28 hours in 2004.

Prevention and early self-detection are still the best ways to deal with identity theft. The Better Business Bureau says consumers can reduce the threat of identity theft by preventing access to personal information.

The Bureau offers the following tips on their Web site:

– Shred paperwork, statements, credit reports and even those credit card offers that come in the mail and don’t carry your Social Security Card in a wallet or purse.
– Use online banking to replace paper checks, statements and bills.
– Sign up for automatic deposit.
– Get your mail promptly and mail bills with checks at the post office.
– Keep passwords secret and change them frequently.
– Wipe sensitive data off a hard drive before discarding an old computer.
– Ignore e-mail messages with Internet links and type the full address instead.
– Review bank and credit card statements frequently to detect unauthorized activity.
– Contact financial providers if you don’t get a timely statement.
– Use e-mail-based account alerts to monitor transfers, payments, low balances and withdrawals.
– Review your credit report at least once a year through Equifax, Experian or TransUnion, the nationwide credit bureaus.

Credit monitoring services say they can aid with your detection and prevention — but for a fee. Pat Regnier of MONEY Magazine wrote that “over an adult lifetime, a deluxe monitoring service that watches all three bureaus may cost you more than $9,000 in today’s dollars.” Regnier goes on to ask if “that heightened level of safety [is] really worth six times the $1,500 you’d pay for a no-frills single-bureau monitoring service?”

Beth Givens of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego doesn’t seem to think so.

“If the credit industry were doing a better job protecting you, we wouldn’t need such products,” she said. Givens works directly with the issue of identity theft daily says that her prevention routine is to review her free credit reports every four months; a far cry from the “lock all your doors and bar the windows” overreactions you might hear elsewhere.

Be smart. Be safe. But please try not to go into unnecessary hysterics.

By: L. Kyle 3/4/08