Americans are all for making life easier and to allow more free time to do as we
please. Taking the car to be washed rather than doing it myself. Having a gardener
maintain the yard rather than hauling out the lawn mower, the weed whacker, and the
hedge trimmer to spend every Saturday afternoon doing it myself. Taking the dog to the
groomer rather than filling up the plastic kiddie pool, hosing down the eighty-five pound
Golden Retriever, slathering him with shampoo, rinsing off the soap, and all the while
trying to keep him in the little kiddie pool rather than chase the cat, without me falling in
with him; but he shakes himself off and I end up getting soaked anyway. However, with
some modern conveniences come some unexpected problems. Identity theft is a modern
problem which can quickly ruin a lifetime of established good credit. It is one of the
fastest growing crimes which has brought about a whole new way of scamming people
out of their hard-earned money.
An elderly neighbor got a phone call from “her grandson” who said he needed her
mechanic“ her credit card number to which $600 dollars was charged for “repairs.” By
the time the scam was discovered, her credit card had been maxed out to nearly $8000. It
took a lot of phone calls, letters, and finally the involvement of a lawyer to clear the
woman’s name and get the credit card company to write off the bill.
A restaurant in Santa Monica, California was shut down when several of its food
servers were caught swiping customers’ credit cards through mini card machines they
carried in their apron pockets. These mini card swipers collect personal data on each card
owner which made it easy to access multiple accounts on line. People’s accounts were
being charged with small purchases which would not necessarily stand out enough to
credit card companies to alert its clients. The guilty “swipers” were mostly college
students who were buying school books, fast food, gasoline. As one of them said, “I’m
just trying to make it through school.”
Online banking has really caught on the last ten years. Many people do it and do
not think twice about their personal information possibly getting into the wrong hands.
Another neighbor of mine thought she had plenty of money in her checking account to
cover the April payment of property taxes. She paid the money online but was shocked
when it did not go through. Non Sufficient Funds. Apparently her own daughter had
gained access to her mother’s online banking information and went “shopping” online,
drained the account. The late fees she had to pay were staggering.
Modern conveniences do make our lives easier. However, identity theft is a
downside to the convenience of modern money handling. Identity theft is a growing
problem and is becoming more sophisticated everyday with the advancement of
technology. We, as consumers, can use technology to our advantage but we still have to
be aware that we can not trust everyone with our personal information because it can be
used against us.
