| Making Money Magazine | |||
 |
|
 |
Career Education | Home |
|
|
Webscams
By: Ed Lamaster
Last month we talked about how vulnerable people are when it
comes to sharing financial data. Wouldn't you know that I ran
into a guy who is paid a "headhunter" fee for prequalifying
loans. He isn't a loan officer, he's not an employee of any
financial institution. He's a freelancer who sits down with
people and has them fill out loan qualification papers that he
passes on to someone who sells the actual loans. I guess this isn't any different from some stranger calling you on the phone. I can only imagine what some of these boiler room call centers look like with minimum wage part-timers who come in to take down loan information. I just know that I would NEVER give my information to one of them. But then again, maybe I already have. You see, there are many times when we give away information, perhaps just snippets of our lives here and there, that gets written down and sold to information brokers. Large database engines try to pair that information with other information, putting together the puzzle pieces of your life. The problem is that these databases frequently get it wrong, but can cause you some headaches later down the road. I found this out when Best Buy nearly rejected my credit application. The credit report they pulled showed an address in another city-where I had never lived. The problem was that that the borrower that did live at that address was delinquent on a car loan. Through some coaxing, I was able to get the rep to tell me the source of the erroneous information-my own credit union! There are many more databases that are filled with public records about you. Once I showed a local radio talk show host just how much information I could find out about her. Understand that celebrities are pretty careful about what information they give out in public, and they're a bit sensitive when they find out how transparent they really are. When she sat down in my office, I presented her with a stack of information, all obtained for free from various websites. This information told about her education, where she had lived, relatives names, her husband's name, and a nice satellite picture of her house. Talk about shock! What was shocking to me is that all of the information had been obtained freely and legally. Just for fun I decided to try this out on a family member using a site that is a meta-search for these types of databases, ZabaSearch. Not only did I find her address, but I also found her name listed with other family members addresses. All I can think of is that she was somehow listed as a reference for them. This site is truly scary. I found phone numbers, links to political donations, email addresses, satellite photos, online photos and more. Perhaps this doesn't bother you a whole lot. Let me put it to you another way. There's enough information in these databases for someone to put together a fairly complete view of your life, complete enough to fool some potential lenders, especially those who don't do much to check your identification. Dumb would-be thieves can easily get false IDs to go along with their new identities. Smart ones can even get your banking account information, but that's a story for another day. So what does this mean to the entrepreneur? More than most people, your credit rating is critical to your financial success. Even if you are building your business with cash, you will likely need a loan at a future time if you're going to expand. The worst thing that could happen is for your business to get derailed because of erroneous information showing up on your credit report or in some of the other national databases. One friend of mine had his identify stolen. False checks were cashed around the bay area, and his credit rating took a nosedive. Unfortunately, his business is his family's sole income, and his energies were no longer directed as his work, but in filling out police reports, arguing with credit bureaus, etc. It has taken him years to iron out the mess, and his business is still impacted. The old advice about getting your credit report every year from the three major credit bureaus is essential to the entrepreneur, but you have to go beyond that. Take a look at sites like ZabaSearch, KnowX.com, Intellus, InfoSpace. Google search your name and address. See what information is out there and find the sources so that you can be in charge of your destiny. My story ends with a bit of a challenge. Don't be surprised if you're going to have to do some work to get erroneous information removed from your credit file. I'm still waiting for my credit union to remove some wrong information-several years later!
Writer Information
Written by
Ed Lamaster
Ed Lamaster is the CEO of SystemIntegrity, LLC, a Sacramento-based information security company. He is also a weekly guest on the Poppoff Show, Saturday mornings on AM1380-KTKZ. You can contact him by email at elamast@systemintegrity.com Website: http://www.systemintegrity.com/
|
 |
Thinking about advertising? |