Crime On The Rise?
Posted on: March 5, 2009 by Matt
I have been hearing more and more stories lately about people being affected by crimes of some sort. The stories have ranged from car break ins to robberies to identity theft. Living in a small New England town I generally have not heard much going on in the past but lately it seems to be on the rise. I am guessing that these scary economic times are largely to blame and people are getting desperate but my observations are purely speculation.
Anyway – I suppose that it does not matter what the root cause is, the fact remains I have heard a lot of people noting problems. I have not actually heard or seen any statistics on an increase in crime but I still think it wise to be cautious. In order to make sure that I do not end up losing out I plan to:
- Keep a close eye on all my statements: Both for bank accounts and credit cards.
- Grab my annual copy of my credit report: Everyone gets one copy of their credit report per year. It is a good way to check for accounts opened in your name that you did not open.
- Continue checking my online banking items daily. I generally keep an eye on my primary accounts on a daily basis to make sure there are no additional charges or items pending that I did not authorize. I will keep up on this.
Has anyone else heard more crime stories recently? Are you taking any steps to protect yourself just in case?
I’ve seen an increase in scam solicitations sent through the mail recently. There always were before, but last week, I received at least 3 in a space of 2 days. They looked very convincing, but I looked them all up online and found them to be scams.
This prompted me to compile a guide of consumer safety resources from the government on learning to recognize, avoid, report and recover from scams and frauds, as a reference for myself as well as my blog readers.
I hope you don’t mind my sharing it here. I’m encouraging everyone to bookmark it for future reference and share it with their friends and family because knowledge is your best protection.
Consumer Safety Resources from the Government on Fighting SPAM, Scams, Fraud, Phishing and Identity Theft
Penelope -
Thanks for the feedback and the link! I will be looking to add it to my weekly link round up later today!
These are things I’m not as responsible about doing. Obviously I look at my statements online quite frequently, but not with an eye specifically for these things, though I think I notice when there’s somethign unusual.
My Mastercard company called the other day to cancel my card because one of the stores I had used it at was robbed in the last six months and the info was comprimised. They can’t say what store, but they’re sending me a new card immediately.
Sounds like you are worrying about online crimes. What about muggings and other robbery? I have heard warnings on our local news channels about children being kidnapped for ransom to get money. That is extremely scary to me.
@PFIncome: I did not even really think about kidnapping and mugging!!! Those are really scary. I live in an area where mugging and kidnapping are generally unheard of but anything is possible. Thanks for increasing my awareness (and paranoia, lol).
Good tips. Also, remember that you can request one credit report from *each* of the three reporting agencies each year. So, you could cycle through the reports and basically check your report once every 4 months instead of just once a year.
John – good point. I never thought to try and rotate my credit reports. I know that the annualcreditreport.com site allows you to pull them all at once together but never thought to try splitting them up.
Thanks for the idea.