EDUCATION - Know the Facts

FACT #2: It could take up to 2 YEARS and THOUSANDS of dollars to clear your good name!

Identity theft victims often feel personally violated and can suffer potentially severe emotional and other nonmonetary harm.

Although the average victim spends over 30 hours and $500 attempting to “clear their good name,” those victims who suffer from more serious ID theft spend an average of 60 hours and $1,200! And, many victims spend much, much more!   Imagine, you could spend the equivalent of between one and two SOLID work weeks just trying to recover from an identity theft event… not the ideal way to spend your free time, is it?

The good news is that, if you become a victim of identity theft, the sooner you find out about it, the better!  According to a study published by the Federal Trade Commission (September 2003), the amount of time needed to resolve problems depends on how quickly the identity theft is discovered.

For victims who discover, within one month, that an identity theft has occurred, only 24% spent more than 10 hours resolving their problems.  Where the theft was discovered between 1 and 5 months afterwards, 41% of victims spent more than 10 hours resolving their problems.  And, where it took 6 or more months to discover the misuse, 80% of victims required more than 10 hours to resolve their problems!

In addition, victims who quickly discovered that their information was being misused were far less likely to incur out-of-pocket expenses.

It’s amazing what incredible damage ID thieves can do; ranging from a few blemishes on your credit report to actually filing bankruptcy in your name.  Some criminals even use an innocent person’s identity to commit crimes and then disappear, leaving the victim to be arrested!

So, what’s the moral of the story here?  Do whatever you can to make sure that you discover a theft of your identity as soon as possible!