AS EMPLOYERS STRIVE to broaden their benefit portfolios, demand is growing for benefits that go beyond traditional health and dental discount programs. Employees are increasingly calling for help in the areas of identity theft protection and legal services.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, identity theft is one of the fastest growing and most personally devastating non-violent crimes in the United States. Meanwhile, when it comes to legal matters, studies show that taking time away from work to resolve legal issues is a leading cause of costly employee work absences.

Human resource managers know that offering attractive benefits packages can improve employee satisfaction and retention. For more than 37 years, Pre-Paid Legal Services Inc. has been a leader in the legal-service-plan industry in North America. They have approximately 30,000 groups—privately and publicly held companies, school districts and other organizations—that offer services to their employees. Enrollment is steadily growing, company leaders say.

Today’s litigious society requires attorney representation, and businesses can help their employees by making it affordable. From estate planning and will preparation to assisting identity theft victims, the services offered by Pre-Paid Legal’s Provider Firms help people deal with legal issues large and small.

“In years past, the majority of people who needed help the most have been shut out due to the high cost of legal representation,” says Keith Davis, manager of group marketing. “Pre-Paid Legal is changing this. The plan we recommend to employees provides solutions to all of these legal problems and much, much more.”

A Simple andAffordable Solution

Employers are often surprised at the levels of interest their employees show toward Pre-Paid Legal’s plans. The legal and identity theft services offered, and the simplicity of enrolling employees, make Pre-Paid Legal a smart addition to any employee benefits package.Pre-Paid Legal offers simple and affordable services.• Employers are not required to administer paperwork.• Plans are priced competitively for groups of all sizes.• Employers can elect to pay for the service or offer it as an optional employee-paid benefit.• Open enrollment means new employees can take advantage of the benefits as soon as they’re hired. To Find out more simply check out the link below,

http://bit.ly/WOzZd

Here is something to say to yourself as you recall the May 1st illegal immigration protests, “I could be one of them.”

Quite literally, you could be. You are probably well aware of the raid by Federal authorities last month that found over 1000 employees of IFCO Systems were illegal immigrants. However, what you are not aware of is the fact that in the audit leading up to the raid, according to CNN, over 53% of IFCO’s entire work force was using fake or stolen social security numbers. Whose numbers? Who knows! The federal government, IRS, and Social Security Administration are not saying. Nor, are they planning on it because to do so would highlight to the public the greatest threat posed to the average American by illegal immigration, identity theft.

If you have started a new job in the United States since 1986, then you are familiar with the first day ritual of producing your Social Security card and drivers license for your new employer to complete the federal I-9 “Employment Eligibility Verification” form. There are several reasons for this report, the first is to ensure that all your personal information is correct so your withholding taxes can be credited properly, the second is for the employer to verify that you are actually you and not an imposter, and the third to verify that you are either a citizen, or authorized immigrant eligible to work in the United States.

The third one is the kicker for illegal immigrants. Obviously, if you are here illegally, you are not going to have any of this documentation. So, luckily for illegal immigrants, the black market has rushed to the rescue by creating the multimillion dollar industry of selling counterfeit Social Security cards, and even entire “citizenship kits” containing, in addition to the Social Security card, a drivers license and birth certificate.

This is where the fun begins for you and me. Where do you think they get the information on these documents? Sometimes from death records or “dumpster diving” through your trash to find a misplaced piece of personal information. But more often than not, they are just made up.

According to Bob Sullivan, of MSNBC.com, there is over $420 billion in tax money sitting in the “Earnings Suspense File” of the IRS and Social Security Administration because they do not know to whom the money should be credited because it was paid under invalid, or misnamed, Social Security numbers. The numbers of invalid tax filers has exploded exponentially during the past five years, 9 million in 2002 alone, coincidentally, coinciding with the latest wave of illegal immigration from Mexico.

And, according to Sullivan, “most — between 50 and 80 percent depending on whom you talk to — represent illegal immigrants using a stolen or manufactured Social Security number at the workplace.”

You might be thinking right now, “So, what’s the problem? If someone is in the United States illegally, at least they have the decency to pay their taxes. Even if it is with a fictitious Social Security number.” You might be right as long as you do not consider the problem of what happens when someone guesses a Social Security number that already belongs to someone.

The beauty of this situation is if it ever happens to you, you will be the last one to know about it. In fact, you will probably never know about it because credit bureaus, the IRS, and Social Security do not inform people when their social security numbers are being used by someone else. Nor, can you find out since the information on those who stole your personal information is considered “confidential.”

You will just have to wait around until there is a problem to find out. Maybe it will be a friendly letter from the tax office demanding thousands of dollars in back taxes, being denied a loan because the person using your numbers jumped on an apartment lease, not getting a job because the work history on your credit report does not match your resume, not getting unemployment insurance in New Jersey because you have a job in Arizona, or, for some real excitement, finding your name on the Texas Department of Public Safety’s “Sex Offender Database” which allows you to track pedophiles by Social Security number.

Sounds like fun! Who knows, maybe your five year old is already in debt for an Audi!

The entertainment will go on and on since our elected leaders are evidently planning on turning the illegal immigration crisis into a political circus that will generate nothing but useless sound bits until the situation gets so bad they are forced to act. The problem is we are already to that point, they just do not realize it. Let us hope that whoever steals your identity is on their best behavior until they do.

© April 2006, Justin Darr

Thieves use your information to acquire a driver?s license in your name or claim to be you during a traffic stop

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You could receive DWI, DUI, and other driving-related charges.
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Your driving privileges could be suspended or revoked.
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You could be arrested during a routine traffic stop for crimes you did not commit.

Social Security (SSN) Identity Theft

Thieves use your SSN Identity to gain employment or to report income under your name

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Thieves take the income, but don?t pay the taxes, leaving you with the bill.
* Wanted criminals use your SSN Identity so they can get employment without being found.
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Illegal immigrants use your SSN Identity to gain employment.
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Thieves and Criminals use your SSN for employment, medical, financial, criminal, school, and other purposes.

Medical Identity Theft

Thieves use your information for insurance benefits, Rx, Medicare, Medicaid benefits, or for medical tests

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Your rates could go up or your coverage could be cancelled or used up.
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You could owe thousands of dollars for a procedure you never had.
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You could be unable to obtain medical or life insurance, other coverage, and/or employment because of conditions that you do not have (AIDS, Diabetes etc?).

Character / Criminal Identity Theft

Thieves mask their criminal activity behind your identity

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You could be arrested.
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You could be denied employment because of fraudulent criminal records found during routine background checks.
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Security checkpoints at airports could become a nightmare for you.
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You could be denied a passport and be barred from leaving the country.

Financial Identity Theft

Thieves use your information to open new accounts or to gain access to existing accounts

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Thieves rob your accounts.
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They rack up outrageous charges on credit cards, take out new loans, and more.
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They destroy your credit, forcing you to pay higher rates.
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You can absolutely be held responsible for the debts incurred by the thieves in your name.

1. That it is just about your credit cards or your finances
2. That you can’t be held liable for the debt racked up in your name by thieves
3. That you can take steps to 100% prevent the crime

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Identity Theft – The First Misconception

“That it is just about your credit cards or your finances”

Identity theft is so much more than just your credit cards or your finances. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission reports that only 28% of identity theft has to do with your credit cards and less than half of all reported instances are financial in nature. Please refer to the post on the five common types of identity theft to gain an understanding on what Identity Theft really is.

My definition of Identity Theft is: “When someone gets some piece of information about you, personally, professionally, or financially, and uses it to their benefit and your detriment”. The mainstream media is missing the boat because the majority the of reporting done focuses on the financial side of the equation. They are completely missing 4/5′s of the problem.

This global industry had its genesis in the collapse of the former Soviet Union. Well trained, idle KGB agents plied their trade in criminal rather than political intrigue and quickly became recognized masters of the art. The open, global nature of the Internet was a natural outlet for them. Their success did not go unnoticed. Today many nation states reportedly employ similar organizations in support of their strategic objectives. The former territory of the Soviet Union has been a rich incubator for this, with Romania and Bulgaria receiving particularly high marks for their contributions to the problem.
The situation is about to get markedly worse for a variety of reasons. Consider the multi-billion dollar fraud of Bernard Madoff, the Stanford Financial Group, or the platoons of less creative players who merely rolled up eight and nine digit takes. If the regulators couldn’t find and stop that, we can safely assume that no one is watching the contractual and operational security aspects of an outsourcing deal between an American company and a service provider in Pakistan. A simple lack of oversight, or even a lack of understanding of the need for oversight, can permit an authorized insider to cause more trouble than the professional system breaker.
Infosec Analyst Laura Wilson sums it up nicely: “Remember when the Soviet Union broke up and everyone was worried about keeping track of their plutonium? Today’s situation is just as bad – our companies can’t keep track of the data with which they’ve been entrusted.”
Wall Street’s distress is going to exacerbate the troubles. Toxic paper tied to questionable mortgages has accumulated in bank vaults all over the country. Concerns are coming apart–not due to problems in their operation or overall concern about their sector–but instead due to bankers all but panicking and pulling their customers’ credit in order to shore up their own shaky positions. Watching the market gyrations closely are players like the Chinese government, holding two trillion dollars in U.S. Sovereign debt, and the Saudi Arabian Sovereign Wealth Fund with its six hundred billion dollar war chest.
The U.S. State Department in conjunction with the U.S. Treasury have rules in place to ensure that foreign wealth isn’t buying up American companies for the sake of strategic interests, but these protected businesses are in narrowly defined categories. How this will work in difficult economic times when any company handling credit cards is a treasure trove of clean identities capable of enabling foreign agents and international criminals to move freely through our borders?
The provenance of the foreign companies doing the purchasing of domestic firms is another gap where identity assumption comes into play. A shell company leads to a false identity which leads to another shell company which leads to a far away post office box rented the summer before by a man three years dead. The first hints of investigation of the first ring of defenses leave those at the core of the problem plenty of time to wind up their operations and make their escape.
Madoff and the managers of the Stanford Financial Group were filled with hubris and were beyond unethical, but they are real people who sold a fake product. The next round of revelations will be of real products, falsified personal and corporate identities, and mysteries of future harm contemplated by the authors of the crime.