Giving Credit Where Credit Is Not Due
The big identity-theft bust last week was just a taste of whats to come. Heres how to protect your good name.
HERES THE SCARY THING about the identity-theft ring that the feds cracked last week: there was nothing any of its estimated 40,000 victims could have done to prevent it from happening. This was an inside job, according to court documents. A lowly help-desk worker at Teledata Communications, a software firm that helps banks access credit reports online, allegedly stole passwords for those reports and sold them to a group of 20 thieves at $60 a pop. That allowed the gang to cherry-pick consumers with good credit and apply for all kinds of accounts in their names. Cost to the victims: $3 million and rising.
Even scarier is that this, the largest identity-theft bust to date, is just a drop in the bit bucket. More than 700,000 Americans have their credit hijacked every year. Its one of crimes biggest growth markets. A name, address and Social Security number--which can often be found on the Web--is all anybody needs to apply for a bogus line of credit. Credit companies make $1.3 trillion annually and lose less than 2% of that revenue to fraud, so theres little financial incentive for them to make the application process more secure. As it stands now, its up to you to protect your identity.
The good news is that there are plenty of steps you can take. Most credit thieves are opportunists, not well-organized gangs. A lot of them go Dumpster diving for those millions of pre-approved credit-card mailings that go out every day. Others steal wallets and return them, taking only a Social Security number. Shredding your junk mail and leaving your Social Security card at home can save a lot of agony later.
But the most effective way to keep your identity clean is to check your credit reports once or twice a year. There are three major credit-report outfits: Equifax , Trans-Union and Experian . All allow you to order reports online, which is a lot better than wading through voice-mail hell on their 800 lines. Of the three, I found TransUnions website to be the cheapest and most comprehensive--laying out state-by-state prices, rights and tips for consumers in easy-to-read fashion.
If youre lucky enough to live in Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey or Vermont, you are entitled to one free report a year by law. Otherwise its going to cost $8 to $14 each time. Avoid services that offer to monitor your reports year-round for about $70; thats $10 more than the going rate among thieves. If you think youre a victim of identity theft, you can ask for fraud alerts to be put on file at each of the three credit-report companies. You can also download a theft-report form at www.consumer.gov/idtheft, which, along with a local police report, should help when irate creditors come knocking. Just dont expect justice. That audacious help-desk worker was one of the fewer than 2% of identity thieves who are ever caught.
1.What is the trend of credit-theft crime?
[A]Tightly suppressed. [B]More frightening. [C]Rapidly increasing. [D]loosely controlled.
2.The expression inside job most probably means _________.
[A]a crime that is committed by a person working for the victim [B]a crime that should be punished severely
[C]a crime that does great harm to the victim [D]a crime that poses a great threat to the society
3.The creditors can protect their identity in the following way except _________.
[A]destroying your junk mail [B]leaving your Social Security card at home
[C]visiting the credit-report website regularly [D]obtaining the free report from the government
4.Why is it easy to have credit-theft?
[A]More people are using credit service. [B]The application program is not safe enough.
[C]Creditors usually disclose their identity. [D]Creditors are not careful about their identity.
5.What is the best title of the text?
[A]The danger of credit-theft [B]The loss of the creditors
[C]How to protect your good name [D]Why the creditors lose their identity
答案:CADBC
四级词汇必备之常考词组3
四级语法必备之关于虚拟语气的几个要点1
四级词汇必备之常考词组19
四六级相似词语辨析:also和too
四六级词汇必备之常考词组10
四六级单词记忆法2
四六级单词记忆法1
四级83组易混淆拼错的英文单词
四六级考点词汇及真题解析之J字头
新四级词汇(三)
如何摆脱英语作文垃圾词汇
四级翻译必备之英汉类同成语
四六级词汇必备之常考词组9
四级词汇辩义汇总
四级词汇必备之常考词组12
四级常考经典词组汇总
新四级词汇题评点及策略
英语四级词汇高分必备练习2
四级阅读必备之124组四级核心词汇
英语四级词汇高分必备练习1
四级词汇与结构应试对策
四六级单词记忆的五种习惯
四级词汇必备之相似单词总结篇
四级词汇必备之常考词组18
四六级词汇必备之常考词组7
四级词汇必备之常考词组21
四级词汇必备之常考词组14
四六级词汇必备之象声词
四级词汇必备之常考词组2
英语四级真题形近词辨析技巧
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |