|
 |
|
|
you can be responsible for the bills created by an identity thief
You can't be held liable for fraudulent charges I'm sure that somewhere along the line you've heard that line in an identity theft commercial. Well no matter what your bank, credit card company or anyone else tells you, you CAN be held liable. According to the Fair Credit Billing Act, your liability is limited to $50. This law covers resolving billing errors on your account including fraudulent charges. In The Federal Trade Commission publication, Take Charge: Fighting Back Against Identity Theft, your liability under the law is explained on page 19. First of all you must dispute the charge within 60 days of the charge first appearing on your bill, that dispute must be made in writing. QUOTE: "Send your letter so that it reaches the creditor within 60 days after the first bill containing the error was mailed to you. If an identity thief changed the address on your account and you didn't receive the bill, your dispute letter still must reach the creditor within 60 days of when the creditor would have mailed the bill." As you can see from the law quoted, you can indeed be held liable for fraudulent charges, even charges you don't know exist. This is why it is of the utmost importance that you stay on top of you billing cycles. Credit monitoring is of the utmost importance too. Credit monitoring will reveal new accounts opened in your name. I suggest everyone order a copy of this publication from the FTC. You can order it free, click on the identity theft button on their website, www.ftc.gov. While this publication is very informative and can help you with a simple straight forward Financial identity theft, it does not help you with the other four areas of identity theft. Your social security number, driver's license, medical records or criminal history records. For complete protection you need a program that not only monitors your credit(and notifies you of activity immediately), the program needs to address restoration of all ares of your identity and address the legal costs involved in restoring your identity.
|
Contributor's Note
Cheryl Baumgartner is a Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist. She works to educate individuals and businesses about identity theft and the issues that surround this epidemic. She can be contacted at legallady01@hotmail.com or 210-317-7147
|
|
Federal Trade Commission website
No reactions yet.
Please login or sign up to rate this intel.
Please login or sign up to add a comment.
The copyright for this content entitled "you can be responsible for the bills created by an identity thief" has been specified by the contributor as:
All Rights Reserved
This content may not be copied, distributed or adapted by anyone under any circumstances.
|
 |
May, 2012
2008
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2009
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2010
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2011
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2012
January, February, March, April, May
|
|
Not a member yet?
Qondio is a powerful network for making it online. If you have a website to
promote, we can help.
Sign up and get in on the action.
|
|
Welcome to Qondio! Discover the awesome power this network can deliver by going to our About page. Or you could skip straight to the Sign Up form.
|
|
