Personal Finance List

457-55-5462.

That’s LifeLock CEO and co-founder Todd Davis’ social security number. Do with it what you will. He’s so confident in LifeLock’s identity theft prevention service that he doesn’t care who has his personal information. “I have had many people say that I’m making the number up, but it’s the real deal,” Davis says. “We do this to prove the point that your personal information is everywhere right now, but if you make it useless, it doesn’t matter who has it because they can’t use it.” (more…)

The New York Times reports that identity fraud accounted for $49 billion in losses in 2006. Although rates of identity theft appear to be decreasing, it is still a crime that affects nearly 4 percent of Americans.

If you are a victim of identity theft, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) offers four steps you should take immediately after the identity theft has been detected:

1. Contact a consumer reporting company (such as Equifax, Experian or TransUnion) and request a fraud alert on your credit card.
2. Close all affected accounts and fraudulently created accounts.
3. File a complaint with the FTC (1-877-ID-THEFT).
4. File a complaint with the local police and/or with the police in the area where the identity theft took place.

For more details, visit the FTC’s identity theft website at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/