Protecting Yourself From Identity Theft

Identity theft is one of those things nobody likes to talk about, particularly if you’ve been a victim. Joel (not his real name) is one of those people. We met last year when I was searching out contract website designers for a project I was working on. He is a quiet, caring man who’s the sole breadwinner of a family that’s been trying to get through the “dot-com” downturn. What impresses you right off the bat about Joel is that he’s a man of principle—deeply committed to his faith, family, and doing the right thing. Like most of us, he never knew how much information about him was easily available.

We had set up this meeting about a week in advance, and Joel did not know much about me other than the fact that I needed an initial website design for my security company. I also didn’t know much about him at this point. Joel had pointed me to samples of his work on the Internet. His work was visually appealing and well-organized, but contained hints about his personal life. It was by collecting these hints and analyzing them that a more complete picture began to emerge about Joel.

At first, all I found was a link to another business and an image gallery. I went to the image gallery first. The titles of some images gave me clues about the possible names of his children and wife, including a reference to a woman with a different last name than Joel’s. I didn’t know who she was, but decided to print off a copy and hold on to it for further research.

I then turned to the website of the business that was linked to Joel’s website. There I found some indications that this might be the website of a relative, or at least a close friend. The artwork there was similar to the artwork on Joel’s website. I looked through the raw HTML code (what is sent to your web browser so that it can display pages like this one) for additional clues. Both of the websites I looked at were designed with the same tools, and some metatags (hidden words in web pages that help search engines index them) were the same.

Any good web investigation will take you to a search engine. My favorite is Google (www.google.com) because of the speed of searches and the relevancy of results. I put into the search box the names that I had found on the two websites and some other information that might help me find out more about Joel, his business, and perhaps even some information about him personally.

What came up next was fascinating. Using just the information that took me five minutes to find, Google returned several pages of possible matches, including one match that appeared to be a family newsletter and another match on genealogical information that could be his family tree. In fact, there was more information than I would normally find quite this quickly. Within 10 minutes, I was able to determine who Joel’s father and mother were, where they lived, who his siblings were, where they were born, etc. I even knew who was playing in what sports, what babies were expected, and a lot more.

One of the most interesting pieces of information was the birthplaces of the siblings. As many were born in Utah, I figured I had a better-than-average chance of guessing his family’s religion as well. This was the one fact that I decided to test at our face-to-face meeting.

At Joel’s office, we went through the usual business greetings, etc. He took me to the kitchen area and I quickly stepped in to offer to pour him a drink before he could offer this to me. True to his beliefs, he refused the coffee and wanted water. I knew I was now on target with my assumptions about Joel’s background. As Joel gave me his sales presentation, I looked for additional clues about him. He wore a ring on his left ring finger. He dressed professionally.

When I do business with people, I’m very interested in “who” they are. Believe me when I say that I’ve learned that people are not always who they appear to be, particularly when sales are involved. Joel also wanted to make certain that I was for real, and so I figured it would be time to spring on Joel what I knew about him in ten minutes of web searching.

Of course, this is when I wish I had a camera with me. I told Joel about his wife and two children, his parents, where he was born, who his siblings were, where he lived, and yes, even his religion. The look of shock was incredible as I explained the easy steps anyone could have taken to gather this publicly-available information. Joel knew I was for real, and I even hit an unexpected nerve.

I asked him the question I had been itching to know the answer to: Had he ever had his identity stolen? Joel lowered his head and sheepishly said that he had, and that it had been the worst experience of his life. In fact, he was continuing to battle with creditors over charges he had not made, and his credit was a disaster. Because the crime had not occurred in the county where he lives, there had been confusion about who would take a police report, how to file it, how it would be shared with creditors, etc.

By the way, Joel became a believer that day and now works with me, wanting to help others better secure their lives and businesses against those who would steal from random, innocent people in order to help themselves. Next month I’ll tell you about another case, and what you can do to protect yourself.

In the meantime, I’d like to hear about YOUR stories of identity theft. Tell me how you found out about it, how it impacted your life, and what you did to regain your life. You can email me at: ed@connectedshow.com

For more information, contact Ed at SystemIntegrity, LLC by email at elamast@systemintegrity.com or toll-free at 866-SAFE-BIZ.

Website: http://www.systemintegrity.com/