MySafetyPlace :: Identity Theft

Identity Theft

Identity Theft is the fastest growing crime worldwide. In the US alone, over 9 million people fall victim each year. That's a person every 2 seconds. Here are some facts about Identity Theft:

On average, it takes 330 hours to recover from Identity Theft
It usually takes 4-6 months, sometimes years to restore your credit
Identity theft costs were $56.6 Billion in 2006
The average victim lost $6,278 in 2006, according to Javelin Strategy and Research
Only 50% of money lost is usually recovered
Most of the crimes are never prosecuted
Institutional Identity theft, while covered heavily in the media, is not the norm and in fact is rare
Most thefts occur when someone loses personal information, the vast majority due to a lost or stolen wallet or purse or theft of personal information from your home or car

With MySafetyPlace™ you securely store your critical data. If you suffer a loss, you simply click on MyDisasterRecoveryPlan™ and select the information you need. We will immediately send you a secure email in Adobe .pdf format with all of your information and step-by-step instructions on how to recover. We'll tell you who to contact, how to contact them and provide helpful tips and links to begin the process of recovering.

When disaster strikes, especially with Identity Theft, time is of the essence. Having your critical information along with a guide to recover will save you significant time and money. Immediate actions will help you stop losses from mounting.

Some real life stories:

Kate, a 32 year old physician's assistant from Mountain View, California, was travelling in Costa Rica with friends. While on a beach excursion, the hotel room was ransacked and her wallet, passport and luggage were stolen, along with the copy of her passport she was wise to bring. Without credit cards, identification and passport, she was stuck. She had to wait until the US embassy opened in 4 days to be able to rectify the passport situation. Then, she had to wait until returning to the US to begin the process of cancelling credit cards, getting a new driver license, and replacing the other contents of her wallet (some of which, she couldn't, or didn't remember what was in the wallet). By then, the Identity Theft had already begun. It took her several months and hundreds of dollars to recover.

With MySafetyPlace™, the process would have been much easier and would have started right away. With a quick login to MySafetyPlace™, she could have had access to a list of credit cards to begin cancelling right away and have them reissued to her. As well, a copy of her driver license and passport would have made the return trip much smoother. When she got home, she could begin replacing her membership cards, insurance cards and other things in her wallet.

Today, Kate is a customer.

Jeff, a 28 year old Ph.D. student in San Francisco wrote to us the following:

"Recently I had the misfortune of having my car broken into. While at first it appeared that relatively little was taken, a correspondence from my credit card company soon revealed that my personal information had also been compromised. Unfortunately it was three weeks before I was even aware that this had occurred and the identity thieves had already fraudulently utilized ever credit account in my name. To make matters worse there was evidence on my credit report that the thieves were also in the process of opening numerous new accounts in my name and establishing new residences in my neighborhood with which to receive the credit cards and goods purchased in my name. I had heard of identity theft before but had no idea what to do now that it was happening to me. It was only after several months of hard work and hundreds of phone calls that I finally re-established my credit and proved that the thousands of dollars spent in my name were fraudulent. I can honestly say that it was one of the most stressful experiences of my life.

One thing that I learned from this experience is that it is absolutely critical to keep very close track of your credit. Most people that I know take for granted that if they don’t accrue debts and pay their bills on time that their credit is safe. What many don’t realize is that access to this information is not that difficult to come by and there are a growing number of individuals and corporations that will gladly take advantage of people who are not careful in monitoring their personal banking and credit information.

The way that our personal information is stored and distributed is actually incredibly complicated and requires careful attention. Almost nobody that I have met has any idea how the credit bureaus (who store and disperse your credit information) function much less what to do if someone was to access and misuse the information stored by these bureaus. I had information on my credit report that I had never even considered valuable and accounts that, to my knowledge, had never been opened. MySafetyPlace.com would have saved me an enormous amount of time, not to mention emotional and mental stress that I suffered from my experience. It would have offered me immediate feedback on the steps that I needed to take to get my financial information restored."

Thanks Jeff! We're glad to have you as a customer!