Re: Women more affected by ID fraud, study finds

MCP wrote:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10236214-83.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0

Women are more affected by identity fraud then men are, according to a new
survey that also found that it takes women longer to restore their
identities but they also tend to change their behavior afterward.

In a survey of 808 U.S. households, half of which reported fraud, 28 percent
of women said they had been victims of identity fraud compared with 21
percent for men.

This corresponds with a report in February from Javelin Research that found
that women were 26 percent more likely to be victims of identity fraud than
men.

In the latest survey, from fraud protection service provider Affinion
Security Center, 17 percent of women said they lost $1,000 or more from the
fraud compared 10 percent for the men.

Women also are more concerned about identity theft than men, with about 80
percent saying they were "most concerned" with identity theft compared to
less than 60 percent with for men, the survey found.

The disparity between the genders could have to do with the purchasing
decisions women make in the household, said Tom Rusin, chief executive of
Affinion Security Center.

"Also, men might see this crime as something that they can deal with on
their own," he said. "It's no different than a man who waits three weeks to
go to the dentist after experiencing a tooth ache, whereas a women might be
more likely to address the ache much more quickly."

Annie Kim, a 29-year-old who works in advertising, said she got all her
money back when someone cashed checks in her name and charged purchases to
her accounts in 2005. But it took her nearly a year--and many hours of
worry, frustration, and effort--to clear everything up.

It all started when she got phone calls one afternoon from two of her credit
card companies informing her that someone tried to cash blank checks they
had mailed to her for thousands of dollars. A few days later, she got her
bank statement and saw that someone had paid bills with checks that used her
bank account and routing information but a different name and address.

"At that point, I was pretty freaked out," Kim said in a phone interview on
Thursday. "I ordered a credit report and that's how I found out that it was
postal fraud."

Basically, someone had walked into a U.S. post office and filled out an
address change request form in her name that forwarded her mail to a
different address. The post office does not require people to show proof of
identity when they do this in person, although it does charge people one
cent on a payment card to verify identity when they do it online, according
to Kim.

She quickly canceled her bank and credit cards, only to find that other
accounts were getting hit too. For instance, she had $800 in charges for new
cell phones and service on her Sprint bill that she had not authorized.

Kim said she tried to file a crime report but was told by police that she
needed to name a perpetrator to do that. She also tried to hunt down the
person responsible but that too was a dead end.

"I'm an 'A' type of person and I'm pretty aggressive, but you can imagine a
lot of people wouldn't be able to handle all of this," she said. "If you are
a victim of identity theft you are on your own. There is a lot of work and
diligence that goes into it. You have to stay on top of it to get your money
back and clear your name."

Kim has tips for consumers who want to protect themselves against identity
fraud:

.. Sign up proactively for credit monitoring services, which offer alerts if
there is any change to bank and credit accounts. "The cost for me is totally
worth it," she said.

.. Request that special passwords be required for important activity with
bank and credit accounts, as well as utilities.

.. Cancel printed statements and get statements them online only. "It's
better for the environment anyway," she said.



ALL THIS IS THE FAULT OF THE CREDIT CARD COMPANIES AND THE BANKS.

A few years ago the systems for handling people's money were far more secure. For example, recently the journalist and lead presenter on /Top Gear:/ Jeremy Clarkson said even if you knew the person's bank details, it was impossible to take money from someone's account. With this he published his account number and sort code; someone transferred £500 from his account to a charity without his knowing - until it was too late.

A few years ago it was TRUE that you could not remove money from someone's account like this; you could put money into an account but not take it out. Now - thanks to the government wanting to watch everything we do - you cannot put money into an account anonymously but you can apparently take it out! Now you cannot issue a cheque without risking your account being raided.

Credit cards used to operate as a sort of quasi-cheque system in which a multipart docket with the credit card details embossed onto it had to be signed by the credit card holder - and the credit card holder would keep one copy of the docket. Since the late nineteen-seventies the credit card companies have allowed credit card number only to be used for transactions with no proof of the credit card holder's legitimacy.

I have been banging on about these weaknesses for decades and been treated like some moaning minnie. In spite of the fact that credit card and identity fraud are now main stream issues and amongst the most prolific crimes committed in the modern era; the credit card companies and the banks have done nothing to introduce effective security arrangements.

I suspect that this is because the credit card companies are happy to oblige other capitalist businesses with this lack of security. If - for example - we reverted to the old more secure systems, all e-commerce would end and hotels would no longer be able to demand credit card details in advance. Also, even if payments for hotel rooms were made with credit cards the details of the agreed payment would be on the docket and the hotel would not be able to levy added charges after the guest has left the hotel - knowing all too well that you are not going to go half way across the world to fight a legal case against them in ta foreign country; with a foreign legal system and in a foreign language.

D.

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Women have spent the last
30 years proving that men
have been right for the
last 30 centuries.
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