International Law

Bad Advice about If Your Identity Is Stolen

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Tom Fragala has a nice little piece about bad advice regarding identity theft, at his blog Identity Theft.

Apparently, Tom could not get his post accepted at Consumerist, and so posted it at his website.

In the spirit of helping, I am going to pass it on.  (What is Consumerist thinking?)

"First and foremost, to attempt to create a 5 step list for all identity theft will never, ever work.

Because the correct procedures for recovering from existing credit card fraud, or new credit card fraud, or ATM/debit card fraud, or other types of fraud are all very different.

I'll address the specific steps in the blog post that are inappropriate here. [For a person who had a credit card stolen.]

Tom goes on to point out that a) putting on a fraud alert is irrelevant, b) filing a complaint with the FTC is pointless because the FTC lacks jurisdiction or money to investigate identity theft, and c) contacting the police is equally dumb.

Contact your credit card company immediately and dispute the charges, is Tom's advice.

Yup, but why does the Consumerist think that Tom doesn't know what he is talking about?

Full post as published by Misleading Advertising Law on July 23, 2008 (boomark / email).