Latest questions and answers:
Question: I went to www.optoutprescreen.com to remove my name from the preapproved offers, however they wanted my social security number. How safe is it to give my number on the computer? Thank You.Adam Smith: That's a tricky issue for which I don't have a good answer. The experts always say we should guard our Social Security numbers zealously and reveal it only when absolutely necessary. In practice I've found it very hard to avoid giving out the number (and impossible when it came to clearing the fraudulent charges to me). I also know as a reporter how easy it is to find someone's Social Security number.
In the case of www.optoutprescreen.com I personally did give my Social Security number, but I understand you are not required to give it. They will try to process the request without it.
Question: This is how easy it is to steal a credit card number without stealing your card. Staying at a hotel in Key Largo, I left my purse under my clothes in our locked room. Someone took the numbers off of my Home Depot card. When we received the bill the following month, someone had charged over $20,000 on it. In one day someone charged over $5,000 at the Miami Dade store. Don't you think that should of ring a bell to ask for ID, or that we live on the other side of the state? It took us two years to get it cleared up. Unreal, but it happens every day. Have a good one.
Adam Smith: Unfortunately, that doesn't sound especially surprising. One could get justifiably paranoid about this stuff. There have been people busted in restaurants for systematically swiping credit and debit cards into "reader" devices and then selling those numbers.
Question: Thanks for writing this story, although it's personal and usually journalists separate their personal lives from the "news." That you were personally impacted by the identity theft makes your perspective much more valuable. There's good advice in your article. Perhaps you will follow the proposed as it moves through the Legislature. Will it move?
Adam Smith: It's not clear yet if the "credit freeze" legislation (HB 37 is titled "Security of Consumer Credit Report Information") is going anywhere. It doesn't yet have a Senate sponsor, and I'm told state House members who heard testimony from lobbyists expressing concerns showed little enthusiasm.
I don't normally express my opinion on something as blatantly as I did with Sunday's identity theft first-person account. Being as biased as I am in thinking this legislation is a no-brainer, I can't see me continuing to write about it much. I hope we do continue following it, but it's probably more appropriate for me to back off. But - one more editorial comment - people who think consumers ought to have the option of restricting access to credit reports should contact their state legislators and let them know.
The credit bureau lobbyist I talked to noted that credit freeze's are not a silver bullet that will protect everyone from identity theft. He's right. But they certainly add protection for people who want it.
Question: Here are some follow-up ideas for the criminal: You should have insisted that the prosecutors nail the defendant (Fish) with income tax fraud. Because he's already in jail if will cause him to stay another 24 month on top of the 57 months he'll be there. You can sue him for triple damages while he's in prison. You can issue him a Form 1099 if you forgive the debt he's run up and cause the IRS to chase him.
Adam Smith: Thanks, but I've already spent much too much time dealing with Shad Fish. Besides, he has no apparent assets to go after. I did finally get the fraudulent debt removed from my record.
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Times political editor Adam C. Smith is taking reader questions on his credit-theft story (
