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When you become a victim of Identity Theft, there are two basic paths you can choose to take. Work hard to try and restore your identity yourself, or have a company that does actual restoration take over the Identity theft restoration for you.

I have talked before about the only solution I feel is a viable solution for having someone else do it for you, and why, I think, you should have someone else do it for you.

When you become a victim of Identity Theft, it's like having your vehicle break down in the middle of the highway.

Your options
Do it yourself You can probably hook up a tow rope Try to listen in and diagnose what went wrong Spend time and money learning how fix cars and working to fix what went wrong	Hire someone Call the tow truck Take it to a trained professional who has the ability to test with equipment you don't own Pay a trained expert to spend the time and money working to fix what went wrong.

Some people like to fix their own cars. Me? Unless it's a little issue, I would much rather take it to someone else and let them fix my car.

Same goes with my identity.

My bias is clearly toward having someone else fix it for you. Even with as much as I know about Identity Theft, (especially with as much as I know about Identity Theft) I still make sure that I have a plan to have an attorney and a restoration specialist when I'm going through the process of restoring my name.

The Federal Trade Commission offers some good tips in the deter section of this video below. Even though I've never seen any conclusive studies that show shredding your documents will prevent Identity Theft, it's still just a good idea.

The Federal Trade Commission is now into the full swing of their deter, detect, and defend program. The FTC's bias seems to lean toward having people restore their own identities.

If you're in that camp, then the Windows Media video below, from the Federal Trade Commission, explains some good ideas if you want to try to restore your own identity.

Visit the FTC online at http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft

Or take a look at what I feel is the real problem of losing your information and the real solution to Identity Theft for individuals.

Posted by Jonathan at 09:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

In this video, we show CardersMarket.com and how they help new Carders (beginners) get started into the Market of buying and selling other people's information.

As we talked about yesterday, CardersMarket.com states that they're just allowing a place for illegal activitiy to be discussed, and not really participating in any illegal activity themselves.

They are, however, also teaching beginners on how to get involved in the scene.

Posted by Jonathan at 08:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

In this video, we highlight CardersMarket's position. CardersMarket.com states that they're just allowing a place for illegal activitiy to be discussed, and not really participating in any illegal activity themselves.

Carder's Market points out that it isn't a crime to discuss illegal activity (at least not in the United States and many other free-thinking countries). When that discussion turns into action is when there is a crime which actually occurs.

It's a super-gray line that is being walked here, and not one which I'm a fan of.

However, watch the video below and make your own determination of what's actually going on at www.cardersmarket.com.

Posted by Jonathan at 01:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Want to take a look inside the CardersMarket.com forum? Take a look at the video below.

CardersMarket.com is a web site where people's information is being bought and sold as a commodity.

The transactions aren't actually taking place on the forum itself, but the discussions and interactions are, nonetheless, taking place on this message board.

Links relevant to this post:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/infotheft/2006-10-11-cybercrime-hacker-forums_x.htm

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/06/interview_with_1.html

http://afterlife.wordpress.com/2006/06/19/cardersmarket-shadowcrew-and-credit-card-theft/

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/53340.html

Please feel free to leave comments below.

Posted by Jonathan at 11:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

So here's something interesting to note.

A reporter for the Longmont Times Call (in Colorado), recently became a victim of credit fraud herself.

"As a crime reporter, I had written dozens of stories about identity theft and credit card fraud. I knew what to do. I called credit reporting agencies and told them about my stolen account number to protect my credit rating. I called the police. Then I got antsy. I started investigating the businesses where my money was spent. I soon found out it was going to be harder than making some phone calls and dressing down some careless store managers. The four businesses — Shoe Depot, Tina Fashion, Frank Collection and Photo Creation — where money from my account was spent are in Fontana, Calif., according to my bank statement. So I called the Fontana Police Department. I called the city’s chamber of commerce. I went on the Better Business Bureau Web site. But no one had ever heard of the stores, and the police couldn’t find an address for them. I even left messages for people whose names are connected to two of the “businesses,” which I found on a public information Web site. No one called back. Luckily, my bank sorted out the mess and had money back in my account by 2:30 p.m."

The article is written under the title of Identity Theft a bitter pill. Fortunately for the reporter, she was only a victim of credit fraud.

Credit only accounts for 25% of Identity Theft. As the reporter experienced, the advice everyone offers you regarding how to deal with Identity Theft may be good, but it also may be incomplete, and often doesn't help victims who really need the help the most. Because most of the advice available deals with the financial impacts of identity theft, the people who need the most help are those for whom there are the fewest answers.

What real advice is there for those who have had their social security number stolen and had it used to commit medical identity theft, character Identity Theft, social security identity theft (i.e. someone working under your name and you owe the taxes) or gotten a new DMV record in the name of the victim?

The majority of the advice is statistical... be patient, and persistent, because the average identity theft victim spends 600 hours and $1500 in the quest to clear their name.

Click here to see what Identity Theft Secrets feels is the best protective solution for the majority of Americans, or you can also visit the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, which has some excellent Do-It-Yourself preventive solutions.

Posted by Jonathan at 02:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)