Identity Theft and Scam Alert

Increasingly in the state of North Carolina, as well as nationally, the reported incidents of Identity Theft and of citizens being scammed are on the rise.

The Henderson County Sheriff’s Office is alerting and informing residents on the methods thieves use to obtain personal information and precautions to safeguard that information.

Identity thieves gather your information by stealing mail, hacking into databases of companies with which you do business, and rummaging through commercial and residential trash. They may also obtain information through the theft of a wallet, purse or through the use of a card skimming device that may be attached to financial transaction points such as an ATM or other place you may swipe or insert a credit or debit card. If your identity is stolen, the thieves will most likely change your billing address, order new credit or debit cards or open new accounts and then maximize the credit limit on those accounts. Due to the fact the statements are being sent to a new address it will likely be some time before the crime is discovered. Other adverse affects of identity theft are that the thieves could open checking accounts in your name, obtain automobile loans, ruin credit ratings, or if the thief is arrested on an unrelated matter, they may provide your name and information to law enforcement officials, which could result in warrants or other legal processes being issued against you.

If you learn you’re a victim of identity theft or your financial information has been compromised, you should take the following actions to minimize financial loss and potential credit problems:

Immediately contact your financial institutions to close or suspend accounts.
• Contact law enforcement and file a written report.
• Contact any of the three national consumer credit reporting companies either on-line or by telephone (Equifax-1-800-525-6285, Experian-1-888-397-3742, TransUnion-1-800-680-7289) and have a fraud alert placed on your credit reports.
• File a complaint with the Federal Trade

Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. This government agency maintains an information database that is available to thousands of law enforcement agencies worldwide and provides additional opportunities for those agencies to detect identity theft trends and to arrest identity thieves. Victims may contact the FTC electronically at www.ftc.gov or by calling 1-877-438-4338.

The following are some proactive ways to help safeguard your personal and financial information:
• Never carry your social security card in your wallet or purse.
• Limit the number of financial transaction cards you carry on your person.
• Never leave your purse or wallet unattended for any reason.
• Invest in an inexpensive paper shredder and destroy all non-essential information that contains personal identification information, bank account numbers, credit card numbers or old credit applications.
• Never provide any personal or financial information over the telephone. Identity thieves frequently pose as representatives of banks, government agencies or companies with which you may do business.
• Check your credit at least once a year.
• Never print your social security or driver’s license number on checks.
• Routinely monitor all your financial accounts; most of these are available online.
• Use automatic deposits for payroll, social security checks and other sources of income.
• Never share any of your (PIN) Personal Identification Numbers used to access your financial accounts and choose a unique number for each account.
• Never write your (PIN) Personal Identification Number on your credit or debit cards.
• Consider having your mail delivered to a locked Post Office Box and do not give your key to anyone else.
Financial Scams are also on the rise and come in many different forms. These scams are engineered to give people the belief they have either won a significant cash prize or they are presented a business opportunity and with little or no effort they will receive substantial profits. Listed below are a few of the most common financial scams:

• Lottery and Sweepstakes Scams- victims are usually contacted by telephone and told they have won a substantial cash prize. In order to collect the winnings, a certain amount of money must be wired to lottery officials in order to secure the cash prize. The majority of these scams originate outside of the United States and there is generally no means of recovering any stolen monies. *Note* Any form of participation in lotteries outside of the United States is a federal criminal offense and participants in these lotteries are generally not viewed as a victim of a crime.

• Phishing Scams- potential victims receive a message through electronic mail and it appears to have come from a bank or other financial institution. The message requests the recipient to enter personal information such as social security numbers, birth dates, bank account numbers, and personal identification numbers in order to verify accounts. These requests may also include some type of threatened adverse consequence if you do not respond with the information in a timely fashion. Some reported scams have also included electronic mail that appears to come from state or federal government agencies claiming that money is owed and if not paid, you will be arrested.

• Mail Scams -Victims receive either a fraudulent cashier’s check or money orders with instructions to cash them at their bank, keep a substantial portion of the money and wire the remainder to someone else. By the time the victim learns the checks or money orders were bogus, the wired money has been collected by the scammer. The victim is ultimately held responsible by the financial institution for the scammed funds. These counterfeit checks and money orders are very difficult to differentiate from legitimate ones.

• Telemarketing Scams -come in the form of offers for discount medical plans claiming substantial health care coverage at a cost well below available general market rates. Another scam can also target persons of a philanthropic and caring nature by posing as charitable organizations requesting donations to their fraudulent charity. • Bail Scams-scammers contact people by telephone and state they are a friend of one of their relatives, such as a grandchild. They state the relative has been arrested and requests money be wired in order to post their bail. After the money has been wired, the family member or Grandparents learn there has been no arrest and their money has in fact been stolen. Sheriff Charles S. McDonald states “The majority of these identity theft schemes and financial scams originate outside of the United States and that fact makes it nearly impossible to recover any stolen monies. These criminals often target the elderly and persons on fixed incomes and if victimized it has a lasting adverse effect on their quality of life. Given these situations, we are conducting community educational presentations in order to prevent our citizens from suffering financial loss and being victimized”.

Anyone interested in obtaining more information concerning identity theft, scams or to schedule a presentation, please contact Sergeant Duane Cannon at 828-697-4596 Ext 4930.

(Image provided by Henderson County.)