ATTORNEY'S ADVICE-----NO CHARGE

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Larry Harp

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Received this in an e-mail and thought it was good enough to pass along.



Harpo







ATTORNEY'S ADVICE-----NO CHARGE

A corporate attorney sent the following out to the employees in his company.



1. The next time you order checks have only your initials (instead of first name) and last name put on them. If someone takes your checkbook, they will not know if you sign your checks with just your initials or your first name, but your bank will know how you sign your checks.



2. Do not sign the back of your credit cards. Instead, put "PHOTO ID REQUIRED."



3. When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the "For" line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number, and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes through all the check-processing channels will not have access to it.



4. Put your work phone # on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a PO Box, use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a PO Box, use your work address. Never have your S S# printed on your checks, (DUH!). You can add it if ! it is necessary. However, if you have it printed, anyone can get it.



5. Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine. Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel. Keep the photocopy in a safe place. Also carry a photocopy of your passport when traveling either here or abroad. We have all heard horror stories about fraud that is committed on us in stealing a name, address, Social Security number, credit cards.



6. When you check out of a hotel that uses cards for keys (and they all seem to do that now), do not turn the "keys" in. Take them with you and destroy them. Those little cards have on them all of the information you gave the hotel, including address and credit card numbers and expiration dates. Someone with a card reader, or employee of the hotel, can access all that information with no problem whatsoever.



Unfortunately, as an attorney, I have first hand knowledge because my wallet was stolen last month. Within a week, the thieve(s) ordered an expensive monthly cell phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Gateway computer and received a PIN number from DMV to change my driving record information online. Here is some critical information to limit the damage in case this happ! ens to you or someone you know:



1. We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately. The key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them.



2. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc., were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an investiga tion (if there ever is one). However, here is what is perhaps most important of all (I never even thought to do this.)



3. Call the three national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and Social Security number. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name. The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit. By the time I was advised to do this, almost two weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done. There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves' purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away this weekend (someone turned
 
Good Info Harpo.

Last spring someone got my Cabela's Visa Card number and went on a spree. Believe it or not in Merry ole London England. Spent about 300 quid at a strip joint in London and then a buch on othe fun stuff. Total was 1200 pounds. Luckly I didn't have to pay.

fatrap
 
I printed that. Great info. Also, check with your homeowners insurance company and see if they offer theft identity coverage. I got $25,000 coverage on mine for a $40 annual premium.
 
As with all advice, you get what you paid for. Some of what is contained in the "Attorney" post graciously provided by Harpo is good, some bad. For example, the hotel key card issue is not true. See http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/hotelkey.asp for more info. Also, writing "PHOTO ID REQUIRED" on the back of credit cards will not always work. Think about it. How many times have you used your credit card and the clerk never even bothers to look at the back of the card, let alone compare signatures? In addition, many credit cards now have a statement on the back that says "NOT VALID UNLESS SIGNED."



On the other hand, some of the information is pretty good. Keeping a photo copy of the contents of your wallet is not a bad idea, nor is retaining a photocopy of your passport while on travel. The downsides to these tricks is that you've also created yet another document that must be protected from loss or theft. Personally, I don't carry a wallet - just a couple of credit cards, driver's license and small amount of cash in a small clip. Less to keep track of.



The advice to report immediately any loss or theft is a good one, but that seems like it should be pretty obvious (at least I hope it would be!). As for contacting credit bureaus for a fraud alert, if you don't do it, you're still protected with the call to the credit card companies as well as the police report. Under applicable banking laws, you are never responsible for charges not authorized by you - if someone steals your credit card information and you report it, you've got proof that subsequent charges are not authorized. The police report also protects you from accounts fraudulently opened in your name. Yes, more paperwork is involved with the credit bureaus, but failing to notify them immediately won't leave you out in the cold.



Finally, I question the value of the "attorney" publishing his occupation. Doesn't seem like being a lawyer has any bearing on his advice. First, it seems to me that as an attorney, he would have done a bit more research on the information he was providing. Second, his "expertise" appears to come from having his wallet stolen and going through the process as a victim of a crime, not as an attorney that practices in the area of fraud.



Regardless of the holes in the post, I still thank Harpo for posting this. Anything that helps us more aware of not being vulnerable to con artists and thieves is a good reminder. The key is to separate good information from bad.



Thanks Harpo!



JC
 
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