As someone who has been the victim of identity theft it’s hard because it messes up your credit and ruins your credibility and making it extremely difficult to get credit and other financial assistance because your credit was shot because someone decided to steal your credit card or number and started charging things on it and then what’s worse is that you would contemplate your financial institution would be on your side they accused me of running up the tab and trying to accumulate out of paying it.

It’s pretty sad how some banks will treat their customers like criminals when they’re the innocent party out of all this and they’re the ones who are going to struggle trying to get their good name back. The hard deal is that many identity theives are in fact drug users and illegal immigrants preferably from Mexico and other Latin American countries who come here illegally and buy stolen social security numbers and other things like doctored legal papers. The most famous of all scams is the Nigerian 419 advance fee scam.

The code 419 is the code for the Nigerian law conventional to prosecute scammers who perform illegal activities under the statutes. Countless Americans are scammed of millions of dollars and Oprah had someone from ABC news on her show who in fact went to Nigeria and explained that the reason this scam happens is because as many people know most of the countries in Africa are extremely poor and mainly due to a evil government and/or corrupt government officials and the lack of job opportunities and it’s mostly males who conduct this illegal scam and they learn the scam in school.

One scammer who was the top 419 man scammed more than a million dollars and was living in one of the best neighborhoods of Lagos(the capital city of Nigeria) and drove a Mercedes which was seized by the government and he was sent to prison to assist time for fraud and money laundering. They even showed footage of when the police had raided an internet cafe where scammers were at work scamming people and one guy was in the middle of scamming a woman who had just sent him her banking information(big mistake on her part) and they were able to tape them in action to prove they had committed the crime.

The scammers who are out here prey on the most vulnerable which is the elderly and that’s why it’s important that those who manage the finances of someone who’s elderly to watch who contacts them. Many elderly people score calls from bank representatives since they comb the white pages at random calling people and they keep doing it until they snag a victim which is why so many older people are falling prey to many different scams because they’re the most vulnerable and easiest to con since they don’t have anyone there to make sense of what they’re about to do.

I was scammed by a company of $300 for a credit card since my credit was shot as a result of my being a victim of identity theft and the company who did this was U.S. Benefits and they were a pretty sketchy company based out of Buffalo, NY, then they relocated to New Hartford about 10 hours away and then it’s a straight shot up to Champlain which is proper on the border to the United States and Canada.

Then I had done some research and found out they had scammed other people too and they don’t really send you credit card information once you receive the package from them it contains stuff for a pre-paid cell phone, satellite dish, and other products and if you call them and say that this isnt what they were supposed to send you you’re greeted by an extremely rude assistant who talks to you like you’re a child and then you’ll find a nasty call from someone named Eve Lake who’s the manager and then she’ll rep to acting a fool as well.

Anyone who got taken by this company should call the Unique York State’s Attorney’s office and file a complaint if you have been ripped off by this so called company and any information you got like the package they sent you accomplish copies of it and send it to the state’s attorney’s office and the list of names of personnel you talked to so they got a record of it and then file a complaint with the every consumer relate organization you can find your hands on because the more they’re reported the bigger the case will derive and this can be launched into a full blown investigation and possible legal prosecution of the staff and their manager Eve Lake. U.S. Benefits is on Ripoffreport.com and the Better Buisness Bureau as well, but hit up as many fraud sites as you can and get the word out.

Many people won’t come forward out of humiliation and embarassment, but they don’t have to be embarrassed because the goal is to be an even smarter consumer and to spot a scam before you get taken and it’s all in the power of education and really paying attention to what is around you. Take bigger steps to protect your good name and your finances so they’re not being targeted by frauds and scammers and by doing this you can save yourself the headache of trying to rebuild your good name back after being taken by a scammer. For some of you out there who have been scammed accept information you have of the company, organization, or individual and post it on every consumer website out there and make copies of the documents and send it to your respective state’s attorney’s offices to their consumer protection division to file complaints.

Also taking steps to keeping yourself from being a possible target is to check your credit history once a year for any discrepancies and report anything suspicious on record and have it removed. Any accounts that you have closed or paid off make sure it’s removed from your credit history because if it stays on there it can affect your score. This also applies to credit card accounts as well because the last thing you need is to have a low score because the company didnt have the discrepancy removed if an account was closed or paid in full.

Other things you can do is to also take the back of your credit or debit card and in the area that you location your signature you can write with a fine tipped permanent marker saying “ASK FOR ID” and leave room for your signature because if you do that and if your card gets lost or stolen someone can’t walk in and start using it because all the cashier has to do is flip the card over and see what you wrote and ask the person for ID to match the name on the card which can scare off potential ID theives.

Also any credit cards that are expired or closed cut them up or you can purchase a shredder that can shred expired credit and debit cards, paper documents and even CD Rom disks if you have confidential information on them. Office Depot, Office Max, and Staples carry high grade shredders that do a diamond or micro carve for paper so that it can’t be taped succor together since strip shredding can allow a criminal to assemble a single bill and consume your name to open up accounts.

If you believe a buisness where you got client records and you need to get rid of them hire a professional document company to arrive in and dispose of the records because it’s not just individuals that are victims of ID theft you got buisnesses that are targeted as well since ID theft doesnt discriminate. Also if you’re a frequent traveler to put your mail on hold because if you go out of town and your mail and newspapers start to pile up that’s a potential hazzard waiting to happen and that’s how a lot of home invasions happen when mail piles up for days that’s a key indicator for burglars that nobody is home. So anytime you go out of town just occupy out a short make to maintain your mail until you return or have a trusted neighbor go over and pick up your mail and hold it until you get back.

Doing that also cuts down on the potential target of ID theft and scams and you also protect sensitive mail from being compromised like your bills and other documents. Removing your name off junk mail lists and opting out of getting catalogs you don’t do buisness with and here’s a compiled list of addresses to begin getting your name off these ridiculous lists and to stop a lot of the junk mail and in the process saving some trees because more than one million pounds of junk mail derived from 100 million trees ends up as waste which means a few thousand trees suffered just so a buisness can swamp your house mailbox with flyers, chain letters, and other things. See below for address and contact information on getting your name and house address off the junk mail lists:

Direct Mail-DO NOT MAIL LIST……you can log on to www.DirectMail.com and fill out the form to get your name off junk lists and to close getting unwanted and unsolicited mail.

Acxiom…….You can log on to their website at www.acxiom.com and fill out the develop to remove yourself from junk lists and 3rd party mailers by selecting US Consumer Opt out on the homepage. Or you can write them by postal mail Acxiom Corporation Attn: Opt-outs / Consumer Advocacy, PO Box 2000, Conway AR 72033-2000 (1-501-342-2722)

Pro Quo……….You can log on to their website at www.ProQuo.com and fill out the form and decide who you do and don’t want to derive mail from.

Metromail Corp., Consumer Services, 901 West Bond, Lincoln, NE 68521 (1-800-228-4571, Ext. 4633).

Abacus Direct, PO Box 1478 Broomfield, CO 80038-1478 (1 800-518-4453 or 1 303-410-5294)

InfoUSA, Attn: Product Quality Division, PO Box 27347, Omaha NE 68127

Donnelly Marketing, Inc., Data Immoral Operations, 416 S. Bell, Ames IA 50010 (1-515-382-5441)

The Polk Company send to the attention of the Opt-Out Coordinator, The Polk Company, 26955 Northwestern Highway, Southfield MI 48034-8455 (1-800-873-7655)

Lexis-Nexis, (P.O. Box 933, Dayton OH 45401 phone 513 865-6800, Fax 865-1555).

Advo( the inserts the feature missing children) Advo-System, Inc. Consumer Assistance P.O. Box 249 Windsor, CT 06095 or you can go to Advo.com and select ‘About Advo’ in the box on the left and scroll to Consumer support they’ll allow you to do it three ways by postal mail, email, and by phone(they say this is the more effective blueprint to reach them next to postal)

Carol Wright send to the attention of customer services P.O. Box 7823 Edison, NJ 08818

You can send letters or emails to these companies requesting that your name and address be removed off their mailing lists and this is done for 5 years and you have to re-register after 5 years. This will also slow down the unwanted and unsolicited junk mail from companies you didnt request information for and to conclude having your mailbox flooded with crap while at the same time saving some trees since millions of trees are wasted for all the flyers and catalogs that earn sent unecessarily.

People don’t ask for much and if it means to free their mailbox of the garbage then so be it because it’s nice to approach home to a mailbox that’s not busting at the seams with unwanted mail and catalogs especially from places you didnt request these things from. Protecting your privacy is a right and when having to cut down on getting mail means to protect yourself from ID theft this is the best design to do it. This also lets potential theives know that you’re not a victim either and won’t be their target.

There was a show wait on in the 80s that I wish they would have brought wait on called ‘Fight Back’ and that would have been the ideal show that would have been mountainous in this time since so many people are becoming the targets of identity theft and consumer rip off. This should be a good way to glean the word out about how not be a target for theives and fraud.

NBC was the one who ragged to air this show and if you go to Google you can look up the Fight Back website and ask when the show is coming back because anyone who was into Saturday night television in the 1980s remembers this explain fondly and watched dilligently and got tips about how to deal with consumer fraud and even had a few laughs watching host David Horowitz pulling staunch viewers letters from his infamous ‘Horror File’ and reading them on the air and this was done close to the end of the show.

I missed that show since it really gave people a voice to stand up and fight wait on against consumer injustice and to get back at these companies. Since this is a new generation and a new time ID theft and consumer rip off is at an all time high. It’s time to put the voice attend in the consumer and to let these companies know they’re not going to get away with ripping off customers and consumers with their crappy products and services and to rectify any wrong doing that they did if they don’t want to lose someone’s buisness.

Again for those of you out there who have been ripped off by this company called U.S. Benefits please contact the New York State’s Attorney General’s office directing all inquiries to their consumer protection division and make sure that you send copies of any of the materials U.S. Benefits sent you so that they can build on their case against this fraudulent credit company and Eve Lake is their manager and note that the rude receptionist doesnt identify herself by name which is a positive sign that they’re brazen enough to answer calls in an unprofessional manner.

Picture them to the Better Business Bureau and contact consumer bureaus in Canada to see if U.S. Benefits has been reported for fraud up there as well over the country’s border since they got a Champlain, NY post office box which may indicate they’re running the business in Canada with an American postal address to keep from being discovered.

They don’t have a legit phone number that goes to an office because when you call them it’s an 800 number and you’ll be on the line and when you ask to speak to a manager the receptionist gets extremely nasty with you demanding to know why you want to talk to the manager and then tells you that you’re being extreme and says she’ll brand that to your file.

The only time she gets like that is when people open asking questions about where the $288.00 was going towards and she doesnt even have the decency to be straight with the customer except being rude and hanging up on them. So if anyone who reads this out here who had a run in with this fraudulent company don’t be embarrassed to come forward and file a complaint the bigger the voice the chances there could be restitution and possible criminal action against this company.

I filed a police record with the New Hartford Police Department so that it’s on record wherever they were so that there’s a paper trail and to provide the Attorney General’s office with the information you filed with the police so that it’s helping to build their case against this company. Exposure is the best way to get compliance from fraudulent businesses to rectify problems reported if they don’t want a lawsuit or possible criminal prosecution.

Check out Ripoffreport.com, Better Business Bureau, and FTC(Federal Trade Commission) and file complaints with them too because the exposure will be detrimental to fraudulent buisnesses and organizations. Remember when you fight back you’re standing up for yourself and for others who have been cheated and defrauded by companies who are out to take consumers for what they’re worth and not give them what they’re entitled to.

Contact Fight Back on their website and contact NBC to bring this show back to the network since it was extremely popular back in the gradual 70s and througout the early mid 80s because the show will be a capable tool for people to get some tips on how to fight encourage against consumer injustice.

The guest Oprah had on the show was a consumer fraud specialist to the AARP(American Association of Retired Persons) by the name of Sid Kirschheimer who wrote a book called “Scam Proof your life; 377 ways to protect you and your family from ripoffs, bogus deals, and other consumer headaches. You can find a copy of this book in your book store or on Amazon.com because you should read the books from specialists like him who make it his mission to educate consumers about what is and what isnt a good deal especially since the elderly is most prone to scams and fraudulent crimes against them. Study up other books by people who specialize in cosumer protection and resources for those who got taken by a bogus deal or swindled out of money.

Education is very much and scam artists will be petrified of those who bulk up on information to protect themselves of those who attempt to swindle money out of you. Many of you do a lot of check writing for bills and purchases should invest in some pens and they’re not expensive, but these are good for using when writing checks because another trick that ID thieves do is wash checks and fill them in and commence writing them out for obscene amounts of money.

According to Uniball.com check washing costs Americans in excess of $815 million a year.Uni-ball designed a pen called the 207 Signo which is designed with Special ink to bond to the paper that the check is Printed on so if a thief tries to wash the check the ink won’t come off it’s waterproof and it’s inexpensive to buy you can get these pens at Staples, Office Max, Office Depot, or any office supply store it’s a small investment to protecting your signature and your suited name.

October is ID Fraud Awareness Month and if you go to Uniball.com and select your section of the world you can click on the icon that says ID fraud and gaze a picture of Frank Abagnale, Jr. the man behind the character Leonardo DiCaprio portrays in Catch Him If You Can when he began his career of defrauding at 16 until he dodged a possible 30 year stretch in prison to work for the government as a financial security expert to teach FBI agents in the region of bank and check fraud. According to statistics the Federal Trade Commission has indicated that 9.9 million have been the victims of ID theft and costing consumers around $5 billion annually and banks and financial institutions a whopping $48 billion a year.

The National Check Fraud Center says check washing costs just over $815 million a year and costs consumers around $1,173 and nearly 200 man hours to get their credit straightened out. Check fraud costs losses to be around $20 billion a year. Uniball has a line of pens that are good for check writing and signing documents with:

Vision
Vision Elite
Roller Grip
Deluxe
Jetstream
Jetstream RT
Impact
Gel Stick
Impact RT
Signo Gel RT
Gel Grip
207 Premier
207 LTD.

These pens are available for purchase at any office supply store and are genuine for check writing and signing documents. There are also 50 cities that are prone to ID theft according to Uniball.com so look below to see where your city ranks:

1. Phoenix, AZ

2. Riverside, CA

3. Las Vegas, NV

4. Miami, FL

5. Dallas, TX

6. Sacramento, CA

7. San Francisco, CA

8. Los Angeles, CA

9. Houston, TX

10. San Antonio, TX

11. Orlando, FL

12. San Diego, CA

13. San Jose, CA

14. Atlanta, GA

15. Denver, CO

16. Austin, TX

17. Memphis, TN

18. Washington, DC

19. Jacksonville, FL

20. Seattle, WA

21. Charlotte, NC

22. New York, NY

23. Tampa, FL

24. Chicago, IL

25. Portland, OR

26. Indianapolis, IN

27. Baltimore, MD

28. Salt Lake City, UT

29. Philadelphia, PA

30. Detroit, MI

31. Birmingham, AL

32. Oklahoma City, OK

33. Cleveland, OH

34. Hartford, CT

35. Kansas City, MO

36. Columbus, OH

37. Richmond, VA

38. Virginia Beach, VA

39. Nashville, TN

40. Boston, MA

41. St. Louis, MO

42. Milwaukee, WI

43. Minneapolis, MN

44. Louisville, KY

45. Providence, RI

46. Rochester, NY

47. Pittsburgh, PA

48. Cincinnati, OH

49. Buffalo, NY

50. Current Orleans, LA

It would shock you that this was taken from the Federal Trade Commission annual portray of cities that are prone to ID theft and other fraud crimes now this is an even bigger reason to really take the important steps that is needed to protect your good name and reputation and staying ahead of the criminals tricks and to produce distinct you don’t end up the victim. Education and prevention is the key to stopping fraud and scammers in their tracks because the last thing that they need is to cross paths with an educated person who knows the criminal’s trick from the inside out. Educating yourself on security tactics which is out there for the picking since the internet is a world of information in the accomplish of a desktop or laptop computer. If you see a security and fraud expert who keeps a regular contribution to a newsletter or newspaper read them on a regular basis when they update information on the latest schemes and fraud crimes. Prevention is probably your best weapon against scammers and frauds and it takes a smart mind to use the information and applying it to one’s life. Don’t let yourself be a victim fight back with knowledge and education.

What Scam Artists Dont Want Smart Consumers Like You To Know Photo

What Scam Artists Dont Want Smart Consumers Like You To Know Pic

What Scam Artists Dont Want Smart Consumers Like You To Know Picture

What Scam Artists Dont Want Smart Consumers Like You To Know Photo

What Scam Artists Dont Want Smart Consumers Like You To Know Photo

What Scam Artists Dont Want Smart Consumers Like You To Know Pic