Hello everyone. Welcome to this week's Sheriff's Corner. I'd like to talk with everyone about two items this week. The first is in the form of a request.
Please, if you see an abandoned vehicle on the side of the road, I would request you give us a call and tell us the location, the make and model and the license plate number. The quicker we get this information, the quicker we can determine the owner and reason why the vehicle is there. Also, we may be able to get this disabled vehicle before the vehicle is broken into or damaged.
Next, I feel it is imperative that we keep you up to date with ongoing situations or trends. In this week's case Identity Theft. This is a severe problem that will be with us for a long time. It is important that everyone protects this part of their life. Your personal information is as good, if not better than money or gold to crooks. One reason is that credit systems allow everyone with ID to set up lines of credit until fraud is detected.
Last year 9.3 million American's were victims of identity theft and Florida was 6th in the nation as it applies to numbers of people victimized per 100,000 people. That is, in Florida, of every 100,000 people 16,062 were a victim of Identity Theft. Of all fraud cases, 39% were Identity Theft type cases. These are pretty scary statistics.
Protecting yourself from this crime is fairly easy to do for those areas in your life you directly control. Here are some ideas. Don't give out personal information over the phone, mail or Internet unless you initiate the contact. Don't carry your Social Security card in your wallet. Secure personal information in your home, particularly if you have roommates or are having work done in your home. Make sure you shred documents, including bills and financial statements. We have had burglaries during which only personal data was taken. Next week we'll talk about the areas in your life you don't directly control.
More to come. Please take care. | 