According to the federal trade commission, identity theft is the number one complaint reported to their agency.
Business identity theft is the fastest growing crime wave in the country
… and the effects can be devastating!
The problem is very similar to the credit and identity theft problem affecting millions of consumers each year, except, the repercussions for a business and its owner are far more damaging and serious.
The crime is much easier to perpetrate and more profitable for criminals than personal credit and identity theft.
BusinessIDTheft.org is maintained by the National Association of Secretaries of State and the Identity Theft Protection Association.
Criminals do the following:
- They easily obtain your federal tax ID number and use it to impersonate you and your business
- They easily pull your business credit report (no permission is required)
- They learn where you have accounts and credit, how much credit is available, where you bank, and then use your information to access credit, goods, and even your business cash.
- In most cases, because business owners are connected to their businesses, this activity ends up affecting their personal credit
- All this happens unknown to the business owner until he or she realizes something is terribly wrong, and even worse, their bank accounts have been cleaned out through cyber theft.
Business identity theft defrauds creditors and suppliers, financial institutions, the business’s owners and officers, and the business’s unsuspecting customers and clients.
Now for the Bad News…
Courts are holding business owners responsible in cases where the business took no action to protect itself or its customers / clients, and banks are not required to make the business (or the business owner) whole …
60% of businesses that suffer Business ID theft close their doors within one year!
– Wall Street Journal
Learn How to Protect Yourself