- ISBN13: 9781413309560
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Someone’s identity is stolen every four seconds — don’t be a victim!
Over 8 million Americans have their identities stolen each year. Most don’t find out until it’s too late, only realizing their predicament once their bank accounts have been emptied or their credit rating has been destroyed. And you don’t even have to be an adult to be at risk — over half a million children are the victims of identity theft each year.
Protect yourself and your children against America’s fastest-growing crime with Stopping Identity Theft, written by identity protection expert and TrustedID CEO Scott Mitic. You’ll get ten simple, action-oriented protection plans for limiting the vulnerability of your personal… More >>
Plain and simple, this guide covers eveything you would need to know with respect to identity theft and how to protect yourself. Very easy to understand with alot of reference information.
Rating: 5 / 5
You could never be too safe these days. ID Theft is one of the most painful thing to experience. And it is common: “someone’s identity is stolen every two seconds. More than 100 million Americans – over a third of the U.S. population – have already become victims” (from the back cover of the book).
The book attempts to minimize the ID Theft by educating the reader for potential pitfalls and scams so that one may avoid it. The book covers 10 easy steps (in chapters) to security:
Step 1: Know thy credit report.
Step 2: Keep prying eyes off your financial accounts.
Step 3: Be on guard when you’re online.
Step 4: Spot the scams before they spot you.
Step 5: Be a savvy shopper.
Step 6: Take your personal information off the market.
Step 7: Clamp down on thefts of your medical coverage.
Step 8: Watch your family’s back.
Step 9: Have a safe trip.
Step 10: React quickly if your identity is stolen.
Although I consider myself cautious and not a newbie to ID theft, the information on the book was very helpful. Sure, some of the ideas on the book are common sense, but need to be repeated. Again, you could never be too cautious. Highly recommended.
Rating: 5 / 5
As we all know, identity theft is now almost rampant in society. This resource provides you with the necessary steps we all can take to help avoid falling into fraudulent traps. I really enjoyed these CDs and implemented many of the suggestions.
Rating: 5 / 5
Overall, I found this product to be competent, though the audio-book format is probably not the best medium. I’m glad that the publisher included the text in electronic form, since there are references to websites and lists in the audio program. I listened to CDs in my car and they worked flawlessly. Both the narrator and author were clear and easy to understand, and the program was informative and even mildly entertaining.
Identity Theft is a broad topic. In this in this 4-5 hour program, virtually the whole gamut of ID theft is covered, from the various schemes used to steal identities to what actions should be undertaken to repair the damage. Special consideration is given for child/elderly identity theft, medical identity theft, and the securing your personal computer on the internet. The author is the founder of an identity protection outfit, and he discusses pros and cons of various services such as ID theft insurance, etc.
Based on my own experience with identity theft and various scams, the information on these areas is sound. However, some of the computer security advice is out-dated. Notably, people who have wireless networks should use WPA or WPA2 instead of WEP, as the audio program erroneously recommends.
The package includes 5 CDs, 4 comprise the audio program and 1 contains the eBook in PDF format. The Nolo software is unnecessary as it merely links you to Adobe to download Acrobat Reader and then copies the eBook to your computer.
Each audio disc, with odd exception of disc 4, is thoughtfully divided up for easy navigation. Discs 1-3 have 30-40 tracks, each 2-3 minutes long. Each track seemed to cover a complete thought, so while listening, if I needed to hear something again, I found it very convenient to just hit the repeat button instead of fiddling with rewind. Disc 4, while similar in duration to the others, is divided into only a few tracks, each lasting about 10-15 minutes. This inconsistency was aggravating since the methodology I used while listening to the first 3 discs no longer applied.
Stopping Identity Theft is more valuable as a general reference than as a step-by-step manual. It provides a well-rounded foundation for personal identity protection by explaining what thieves are after and what they can do with information that we carelessly hand out. Finally, I believe the publisher has done right by including an electronic copy of the text along with the audio program. This was an excellent companion to the audio-book, and it is my hope that future audio programs will do the same.
Rating: 4 / 5
Identity theft is something I’ve sometimes worried about in the back of my mind, and this book helps point out the different threats. The main areas of focus are monitoring your credit, watching out while online, guarding medical records, and keeping your social security records safe. The book provides useful information on how to monitor your credit and good advice on what to look for when you get a credit report. It also discusses many of the online threats in great detail, and some who are familiar with the more common ones may find this part of the book a bit overly-detailed. However, it triggered my mind on something my mother-in-law had said, and we found out she had been victimized online, although it doesn’t appear to have been extensive or particularly harmful.
I was surprised at the need to monitor medical records, but apparently this is a greater problem than I had realized. I wish the advice had been a little more detailed on monitoring your social security number, but it seems to be enough to get you started. The book at times seems to be a bit dated, like it might have been written in 2008, but fortunately there is a companion website with updated and additional information and resources. At first I didn’t think this kind of book lent itself well to the audio book format, but it also contains the complete e-book on a fifth disk which is helpful and I found myself going back to it several times for something I’d heard while listening at the gym.
Overall, a very important topic that deserves attention, and this book presents the information in a helpful way. It makes it feel a bit daunting at times, but the book breaks it down nicely into manageable areas.
Rating: 4 / 5