Join getAbstract to access the summary!

Identity Theft

Join getAbstract to access the summary!

Identity Theft

How to Protect Your Most Valuable Asset

Career Press,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Don’t ask the existential question: Who am I? Ask a practical one: who is claiming to be me, and using my credit cards?

  • 0.5×
  • 0.75×
  • 1×
  • 1.25×
  • 1.5×
  • 1.75×
1×

Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

Identity theft is an inevitable but horrifying form of abuse in a society that depends largely on trust, credibility and the free flow of information. Victims often don’t even know they’re being taken advantage of until their accounts are drained and their credit is ruined. Sometimes, they don’t know until the police break down their door, arrest them at gunpoint and throw them into jail for crimes identity thieves have committed in their names. This book will tell most readers more than they probably want to know about the crime of identity theft, with anecdote after anecdote about repugnantly clever thieves. It’s not particularly well written and lifts too much from public documents and testimony, but this isn’t the kind of book one reads for pleasure. This concise, very useful guide to self-protection points out many sources for additional information and action. getAbstract.com highly recommends it for the purpose of minimizing your risk. After all, you want to protect the answer to that eternal question of identity, "Who am I?," from the thief who claims, "I am you."

Summary

That Thief’s Identity Came from Your Wallet

Identity theft is a frightening crime, frighteningly easy to commit, frightening in its consequences to victims. You present an opportunity to an identity thief during any ordinary, everyday transaction: buying gas, showing a driver’s license, even throwing direct mail offers into the trash. Most people don’t know identity thieves have victimized them until they begin to get calls from bill collectors trying to collect debts that the identity thieves have run up on their cards. In one notorious case, an identity thief charged a six-figure sum to credit cards in his hapless victim’s name, applied for and received a home loan in the victim’s name, bought vehicles and even guns in the victim’s name, and eventually even went bankrupt in the victim’s name. This thief even phoned his victim with taunts!

Victims of identity theft can find it difficult and expensive to clear their names. Sometimes, thieves commit violent crimes and leave their victims to be arrested and to have to prove their plight. Consider these frightening statistics:

  • Identity theft has been involved in more than 90% of financial crimes.
  • Financial...

About the Author

Robert Hammond has degrees in psychology and sociology and studied law at Western State University in California. His previous books include Repair Your Own Credit and Life After Debt.

Comment on this summary