Wrongful Credit Damage, Identity Theft and Debt Collection Abuse Blog

I am frequently asked whether online banking is safer than traditional banking or banking-by-mail. The answer is: the jury is still out. There are identity theft opportunities regardless of how you bank.

Suzanna Montezemolo, a policy analyst for Consumers Union, correctly states the situation: “Consumers can do everythign right–not give out passwords or financial information–and still become victims” of identity theft. Sophisticated fraudsters have found ways to stay a half-step ahead of even the most secure online precautions. Also, as discussed in some of my other blog entries, the financial industry has bought & sold identities for so long, as a commodity, that no one out there knows just how far one’s personal identifying information has been spread about. It would be almost impossible to track. And no one knows what security precautions are being taken at the many places where some or all of your personal information is now residing.

So, my recommendation? I tend to avoid online banking but I have also learned to be very careful with my checks and my transactions. But, if you need to on-line bank, I would select the bank with the best and most up-to-date security precautions. This will mean some additional added hassle for you, but if it avoids an identity theft, it’s worth the trouble.

Thanks for reading.

The very latest developments from the big three:

1. Equifax: is trying to convert to a fully automated dispute process where no human eyes (or human judgment or sentiment) will ever become involved in processing your disputes. It will all be done by computer. No matter what you write to Equifax, it will be encoded in some pidgeon-hole which probaby does not even fit and sent, via computer code, to the furnishers.

I think the way to demonstrate to Equifax that this system might not be workable would be to completely computerize the medical diagnoses of the members of Equifax’ board of directors, as well as their family members. No matter what they say, a computerized encoded message will be sent to a pharmacy and a prescription filled, with no human interaction. I think that might make the point to them.

Equifax, as we all know, has long outsourced its dispute handling to Jamaica, Canada and now Pakistan. Jamaica is my favorite: “Hey, mon, why are you so uptight about your credit report? Have a draw on this spleef–it will help you chill out!”

Experian, Transunion: yep, outsourcing on the way. Experian still has its “performance quotas”, where its customer service representatives have to process, I think, a minimum of seven disputes per hour to be kept on the payroll. Let’s see, that’s one dispute every eight minutes, not counting bathroom breaks, coffee breaks, etc. Yeah, I really think eight minutes is plenty of time to untangle a complicated identity theft situation. (Not!)

On the web today was a good article, “The True Cost of a Low Credit Score,” written by Tamara Holmes for Bankrate.com. I recommend it. Find it on the web. It has good and truthful information about just how a lower credit score can affect what you pay for credit. Also, as we know, credit scoring is increasingly important in many other areas of life, including employment applications and insurance underwriting for any kind of insurance.

Moral of the story: keep an eye on that credit report! If it belongs to you and it’s legitimate, then work to clean it up legitimately (i.e. don’t use “credit repair clinics” to clean up truthful information on your credit report, as these can mess up your credit report as much as they can help it), and for untruthful information, keep an ever-vigilant eye and dispute it when it comes up.

And, if all else fails, call me (if you’re in Southern California) or go to myfaircredit.com or www.naca.net for a referral to a local credit reporting attorney near where you live.