Identity Theft: "Surprise! I'm You!"

It doesn't take much smarts for someone to become you, to swipe your identity either with a credit card or a check or both. That ought to scare you. It certainly scares me.

You know all those credit card bills you pay off, then tear the bill up and throw away? Or the credit card offers you get in the mail which you toss without opening? Or ANY old checks which you don't need any more which go into the trash can next to your desk? Any one of those thing can lead to some unscrupulous person cleaning your financial clock.

I am leading up to a link to my friend Kim Komando's website. Kim, known worldwide in print and in broadcasting as "The Digital Goddess", sends out three newsletters each day, plus an extra on the weekend. In one newsletter from Labor Day, she has a link to a service which she hosts called "Protect My ID."

We got involved with identity theft through contact with Frank Abignale, who most people know as "The Great Imposter." Two things which he suggests anyone do to help prevent identity theft are (1) buy and use a shredder for ANYTHING with your name and/or any information on it, and (2) only write checks with a gel pen rather than with a typical ballpoint; the gel ink imbeds itself into the paper on a check so what you write cannot be removed.

We actually became involved with the art of "check washing", and we were amazed at how easy it is to do. Using a simple household chemical, all ballpoint information on a check can be lifted, removed and dissolved in a matter of minutes. The check can then be dried and it ready for reuse. The person(s) who steal the check and wash it may not be the ones who reuse it, either. "Clean" checks are sold for a lot of money to others who can write themselves enormous amounts, even above what's available in the account.

For that reason never leave outgoing checks in your mailbox. Post them in a big blue iron box which notes that it is property of the USPS. And write all those checks with a gel pen; if someone DOES get ahold of a check, unless his name is City of Scottsdale - Water and Sewer it will do him no good.

Yes, SHOWLINE does handle gel pens as well as some of the newer pens with non-erasable ink. But that is for another time.