What time of year is it?
Question of the week: What time of year is it?
Answer: ID theft and credit card scamming season!
Greatly tempering the benefits of the internet and e-tail are the risks of identity theft and compromised credit accounts. There are tens of thousands of shops around the world spending all day every day probing, prying, and breaking through firewalls to obtain data.
From cellular carriers, to department stores, to casinos, to federal governments, the mining of data to sell to bad actors is a very lucrative business. How lucrative? It is estimated that telemarketing fraud alone will exceed $40 billion dollars this year.
“Hello, am I speak to Dennis? This is Kevin calling regarding your Medicare coverage…” Hey Kev, I’m getting older but not yet your target age.
If you are on social media you have likely seen a significant spike in posts and ads for goods and services marketing to holiday shoppers. Some, daren’t say “many,” are legitimate retailers. Many…
You see a post for a really neat jacket with the logo of your husband or brother’s favorite sports team at a great price. You click through to a site that has apparel for almost every team, professional and college, at very low prices. You gear up and are able to knock off crazy Aunt Susan the misguided Cowboys fan, and your dad the life-long suffering Jets diehard, plus many other relatives.
Your checkout, pay $400 for all the goods to knock out most of your gift list, free-shipping! And wait. After getting no information following the initial purchase confirmation, you call a service line, get told it has shipped. You know the rest of the story. No goods, card has been charged and unless your credit card company has a very good reimbursement plan you are out $400.
More harmful is a stealing of your identity, name, address, social security number, bank account information. With this information scammers can get a home loan and buy a house, purchase a car, in some cases sell a house. There are several companies that offer identity protection, with different assurances and reimbursements depending on the plan you provide. Most of these start with monitoring credit reports, especially inquiries by working with the credit reporting agencies to prevent any inquiries without you lifting the “stop” on the inquiry.
Earlier this year a major site, National Public Data was compromised and almost three billion personal records “may” have been exposed. National Public Data provides background checks, storing all the information provided to initiate the check, and the information found.
There are different sites that will inform you if your records have been breached, some using only your name, address, phone number or email; others can go deeper, but you have to determine if you feel comfortable providing your social security number.
A quick check site is DataBreach.com.
What can you do?
First and foremost, go to optoutprescreen.com and click the “opt-out” option—unless you want your information sold when an inquiry is made for a home loan, credit card, auto loan, student loan…
We use this service for our clients before running credit reports, typically about 5-6 days before as it takes a few days for the credit bureaus to be notified. Selling information on who is making inquiries for credit is a very lucrative business for the three major credit bureaus. Over the past five to seven years the bureaus became very aggressive selling data to lenders in m any industries that includes phone, address and emails, so they can solicit potential customers that have already made an inquiry for the type of credit they extend.
Research different companies that offer identity theft protection and choose one that fits your budget and amount of risk you would like to defer.
DO NOT just click and buy! If you see a really good bargain on a social media site do some research. Google the company, “is bestsportsjerseys.com a legitimate site?” “Complaints/reviews….” It is better to waste $15 more for crazy and misguided Aunt Susan’s Cowboys’ jersey than have $400 stolen.
I feel I don’t have to but I must say, never sign up for anything off a cold call. Over the years I have been amazed at how many clients have answered my call and within minutes are giving me all their personal information for a loan, social security numbers, bank accounts, income. Yes, I lead by say, “Your agent asked me to call…” but never has someone said, “thank you for calling let me confirm with her and call you back.”
Finally, the vast majority of telemarketing fraud and internet fraud it perpetrated on seniors—this is why Kevin calls about my Medicare, I’m within some years, a few, okay three, for eligibility so they cast the net. Have conversations with your parents regarding identity theft, and more importantly wiping out bank and retirement accounts by relationships established on line or over the phone.
As well, most of those scammed have admitted feeling lonely and glad they had a friend who cared about them. Visit and call your parents.
Tis the season, be joyful, but alert.
Schedule an appointment to discuss your options if you are considering purchasing a new home or property or refinancing an existing one and want to know the mortgage options available to you.
Have a question? Ask me!
Not enough to deter the Fed. November’s employment data was released today showing 217,000 new jobs were created last month. While a nice gain in new jobs, following only 36,000 jobs added the prior month due to the Boeing strike and two major hurricanes, a large increase in new hires was expected. New jobs did not satisfy the number of new job seekers as the unemployment rate in November ticked up from 4.1% to 4.2%. Also showing health in the job market was hourly wages increasing a very healthy 0.4%, outpacing inflation. While the data shows that employment is still healthy, it does not appear strong enough to cause the Federal Reserve to drop its benchmark interest rate in a few weeks.
Rates for Friday December 6, 2024: After peaking in mid-November following a steady increase since September, rates continue to decline on decent but not great economic news, slowing inflation, and the Fed easing rates.
FIXED RATE MORTGAGES AT COST OF 1.25 POINTS LOCKED FOR 45 DAYS FOR PURCHASE TRANSACTIONS:
30-year conforming 6.125% Down 0.25%
30-year high-balance conforming 6.500% Down 0.125%
Please note that these are base rates and adjustments may be added for condominiums, refinances, credit scores, loan to value, no impound account and period rate is locked. Rates are based on 20% down with 740 FICO score for purchase mortgages.
It’s that time of year in Southern California where we walk around our homes with very poor insulation in hoodies and sweats, and walk around outside in shorts and t-shirts.
I have long said, there is no place as cold as Southern California once the temperature drops below sixty-degrees.
Have a great week,
Dennis
