Identity Theft: How Can You Protect Your Business?

At present, an increasing number of business owners are buying document shredders due to identity theft problems. Commercial or business identity theft is a major problem in the United States now.

In the summer of 2005, a new legislation came into being which declares that if you hire anybody for any purpose and have personal details in register about that person for credit references, Social Security taxes and so on, you need to damage those details prior to dropping that into the bin.

The legislation necessitates you to damage every computer disk or paper that incorporates personal details that have been gathered from a consumer report prior to disposing it.

On December 4, 2003, FACTA (The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act) came into existence after it was ratified by President Bush.

Some of the rules and regulations that FACTA laid down are the following:

Every credit card receipt (computer-printed) should demonstrate the last five digits of a credit card number. This came into being in the month of December 2003.

Every consumer is eligible to receive one credit report every year from Annualcreditreport.com. You can also call up the number 877-322-8228. This came into being all over the country from 1st September, 2003.

Every detail gathered from a consumer credit report has to be damaged by the business owner before disposing it. This came into existence on 1st June, 2005.

Anybody getting a hint of identity fraud has to inform just one of the three principal credit reporting agencies for the purpose of beginning a countrywide identity theft alert. This is in force at present.

Irrespective of the fact that your loan is sanctioned or not, it is compulsory for the mortgage lenders to furnish the credit score they utilized to ascertain the interest rate of the loan. This is also currently in force.

Identity theft is a truly significant issue which is plaguing the corporate sector of the United States. In 2003 only, the identities of about 7 million people were stolen.