Identity theft can easily lead to bankruptcy, and it’s on the rise. In fact, identity theft complaints to the Federal Trade Commission rose an astonishing 47 percent in 2015. Moreover, the Justice Department estimates that nearly 18 million Americans’ identities were stolen in 2014, demonstrating that the crime is greatly underreported. Hopefully last year’s spike was just a blip, but the more Americans integrate their lives in electronic networks, the more frequently thieves will steal their information and personas.
Beyond tracking consumer complaints, the FTC recently enhanced its “one-stop” Web site to help identity theft victims get back on their feet: IdentityTheft.gov. The site’s objective is to help users create personally tailored checklists (“recovery plans”) of all the steps they must take to resolve their particular situations. The Web site even “generates affidavits and pre-fills letters and forms to be sent to credit bureaus, businesses, police, debt collectors and the IRS.” The recovery plans are free of charge.
For consumers who aren’t interested in creating a recovery plan, IdentityTheft.gov has a series of menus that list actions people can take for specific types of identity theft, e.g. stolen Social Security numbers, medical identity theft, and even fraudulent bankruptcy filings. The advice is quite useful because identity theft appears in a variety of forms.
The FTC’s press release for IdentityTheft.gov can be found here.
As always, prevention is the best way to thwart identity theft, but IdentityTheft.gov isn’t really a resource for that. The simplest common sense measures do the most good. Only carry around the personally identifiable information that’s necessary for day-to-day transactions: driver’s license, yes; Social Security card, no. Do not give your personally identifiable information to strangers who should have no need for it. Monitor how your debit or credit cards are used. Use unique passwords. Encrypt your computer’s hard drive (a standard feature with most operating systems nowadays, thankfully).
If someone steals your identity, anything can happen—including insolvency—and a personal recovery plan might not be enough. If your identity has been stolen and you can’t pay your bills as a result, or if someone filed a fraudulent bankruptcy case in your name, then you should to talk to an experienced New York bankruptcy lawyer.
For answers to more questions about bankruptcy, identity theft, the automatic stay, effective strategies for dealing with foreclosure, and protecting your assets in bankruptcy please feel free to contact experienced bankruptcy lawyers near me Bruce Weiner for a free initial consultation.
