Identity Theft with Carmen Marttila Part 1
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Matt: Welcome to Bellingham Technical College’s Money$marts Podcast. I’m your host, Matt Benoit, each episode we will talk with BTC students, staff, community professionals and financial experts about financial wellness and literacy in order to help listeners navigate resources in the community and empower themselves, financially. Today, we have the first half of an interview all about identity theft. This is a two part episode because our guest is offering up a lot of helpful and important information about how you can protect your identity.
Today, We are here with Carmen Marttila from Junior Achievement of Washington. She is the Northern Washington Regional Director of Junior Achievement of Washington. How are you doing?
Carmen: I’m doing great, Matt! How are you?
Matt: Excellent! I’m doing well. So, let’s talk about the work that you do. What got you into the work of financial education and why do you think this work is important?
Carmen: What got me into it was my banking background. Working in banking for the past, about 15 years I have found that the lack of financial education really hinders peoples’ ability to succeed in life and not just financially but in meeting their goals in general. And that got me into that journey of financial, adult financial education. So, for the last several years I have been in banking but primarily focused on financial education of adults in our community and throughout different areas in Washington, Skagit, Island, Snohomish, all throughout and really helping individuals who didn’t have the benefit of financial education as kids have it now as adults. That led me, just a couple of months ago, to transition into my new role with Junior Achievement of Washington. So, I transitioned from banking and having that adult education background to now doing this for our youth. Because that is, I think, where the lack of support has continued to happen throughout. I didn’t get financial education in school, most people don’t and Junior Achievement does a great job of providing students, k-12, the ability to learn, not only financial literacy but entrepreneurship and work readiness. And that’s something that I’m very passionate about.
Matt: Excellent. And that’s a wonderful thing because we’ve talked, on a previous episode of this podcast, about how we learn about our finances, whether that comes from our parents or some sort of schooling. The fact that you’re working hard to empower a group of young people with financial knowledge so the older they get, the more they’re going to learn, and the more they’re going to be, sort of, ahead of the curve in terms of financial knowledge. That’s a, that’s an awesome thing.
Carmen: Well, and I think sometimes, even at that age particularly, they forget that having a positive credit score will impact them at a huge level when they become adults when they start looking, not only for employment, but a place to live when they move away from home to go to school to go to college to come to BTC, they’re going to need a place to stay and often they don’t think about how that credit is going to be impacted and how – that’s what we’re trying to do is teach them young to understand finances so they can be well prepared and be better qualified to have that second level or next level education. 
Matt: Now, the topic of today’s episode is identity theft prevention. And obviously you have some experience with that, obviously coming from a banking background. And it’s something that effects a lot of people of all ages, whether you’re 18 or 80 it can happen to you. And often times, I think we all probably know someone who’s been a victim of identity theft at one time or another. So, how do you know, first off, that you’ve been a victim of identity theft?
Carmen: Well, there are a number of ways that you can identify that you have been an – that you’re identity has been compromised. And it’s interesting that you say you can be 18 to 80 because you could be a newborn and have identity theft. Just recently, I heard of a case where the mother of a young child started getting notices for debt on the child’s name and what happened was the child’s information had been compromised at the hospital. Someone had taken that child’s identity and stolen it and used it for nefarious purposes. So, it can happen at any age, which is why it’s so important to be prepared and aware. So, one of the ways that commonly happens and actually it’s coming up here in just a few months, is tax identity theft. That happens when someone takes your social security number to get a tax refund or a job. And you typically don’t find out that this has happened until you go and do your e-filing of your taxes, you’re expecting a refund perhaps, and then you get notification from the IRS that you’ve already collected that refund. When in fact you haven’t, your identity has been stolen. Another one that happens quite often is medical identity theft, which is why it is so important that we protect our social security numbers, Medicare, health insurance identification, all of those numbers, all of that information can be easily compromised if we are not careful. So recently, at one of my adult financial education classes someone shared that their adult son had committed identity theft on the father. Same name, different state, the son got in an accident needed medical help, didn’t have medical insurance, provided the father’s information, they found the father in the system at the hospital, and then when they found out is when they started getting all those medical bills. So, it happens quite often. Other ways that you might recognize that you have identity theft, collection notices, you can get calls from collection agencies that you – asking for payment for things that you have no knowledge of. When you review your credit report, you might notice that there are credit cards or loans that you never signed up for or applied for. And, when you’re denied credit employment, perhaps even trying to find a place to rent and they deny you the ability to do any of those things because of a negative credit history that perhaps you weren’t aware of.
Matt: When we talk about preventing identity theft what would be your go-to tips for that?
Carmen: Number one: check your credit report. We don’t do it. Most people don’t do it and it’s free! We all get a free identity theft report from all three agencies, Transunion, Equifax, and Experion. And you can easily get it by going to annualcreditreport.com. NOT freeannualcreditreport.com that’s the one that charges you. So, the one that actually doesn’t, the government provided and approved one, is annualcreditreport.com. When you go there, you want to make sure that when you pull your credit report, which is different from pulling your credit score, you want to see the report because that’s going to allow you to have a detail review of your credit history. You want to look at your personal information, you want to look at your public records information, make sure that it all looks correct. Make sure that you’re not listed as a co-signer on loans that you are not aware of. Make sure that any accounts that were closed by you and “closed by consumer” is typically how they list it. And check the collections section. There is a collections section in your credit report that you can look at to make sure there is no collection agencies listed as coming after a debt that you, again, might not be aware of.
Matt: You know, you talked about this can happen at any age, basically if you have a social security number or social security card, it can happen. So, but you who do you think are the main targets of identity theft when you look at the numbers? Who tends to get targeted more often?
Carmen: We all do but it tends to be, typically, elder. The elder population seems to be targeted quite often. And, that’s why it’s important to identify signs, to have good communication with individuals in your family that live alone and are older and perhaps forget to be careful when they pick up those phones, when they get those telemarketing calls, and having the ability to remember that, and particularly, now-a-days, for instance, most of us don’t use checks. But some older population, or maybe some individuals just prefer to get checks. If you have checks, you shouldn’t have them delivered to your unsecured mailbox. Have them delivered to the branch, to your bank, and pick them up from there because that is better, a better option to be, to have a more secured ability to – an ability not to have those checks stolen. But individuals that maybe are on the internet, playing in those social media sites, where you play games are huge targets as well. Social media, individuals who are often on social media and share a lot of information and don’t set the structure within their social media for privacy settings, and let everything go public are very easy targets. Because then anyone can have the ability to see your history, to see your family members, have access to a lot of information that they wouldn’t have otherwise. So, those would be, I would say, the ones that I would, that in my experience, people or individuals tend to be the most targeted. 
Matt: So, in general, obviously, we talked about protecting your social security number, what information does an identity thief need in order to make that crime happen?
Carmen: You know, just about, it’s so simple, unfortunately, now-a-days, but if you have your wallet stolen and you carry everything you own in it, you know. Sometimes, unfortunately, individuals will carry their social security card, we need to carry our driver’s license-that’s understandable, but there’s no need to carry your social security card. They need that to be able to commit a crime. Your driver’s license, sometimes people carry every credit card that they own in their wallets, I recommend that they don’t. Carry the credit card, one or two max, that you’re going to, typically, need or use and leave everything else in a secure place at home or a safe deposit box at a bank, a place that would be less likely to be compromised. But, typically, it is as simple as that, they get your full name, your address, and your social security number which often be acquired quite easily, especially if we’re not being cautious when we’re sharing that information with marketing that we get online or phishing. You know, there are phishing scams where they’ll send you emails telling you your “oh, your account has been compromised, click this link and we’ll be able to make sure that we take care of it” No. Typically, those are scams that are trying to get your information so being very aware of not answering those type of phishing emails. It’s important as well as not carrying everything with you because it doesn’t take a lot.
Matt: You know, I was thinking it would also be important to say, obviously, in the age of cellphones where smartphones, so many people do financial transactions on their phones. That’s another thing, you talk about having your wallet stolen, same thing with your phone if you don’t have proper security measures on your phone and you just, let’s say you just – easy access to your account so you’re not logging in or out and it’s already open… if you don’t…
Carmen: Exactly! Not only that, but a lot of people tend to go to Starbucks or different places to do their, their business. You should not do your banking, don’t access your banking information on an unsecured public Wi-Fi network because that is going to expose you to that identity theft that is very prevalent now-a-days.  
Matt: And I think too, it’s important for the students out there to, when it comes to, let’s say applying for financial aid and the use of your social security number to be very careful about that. The only site you should really be going to is FAFSA.gov and that is a free application that you’re doing so if you go to any other site and they’re asking you to pay to sign up then that’s probably a really, that’s a big red flag. Yeah, so just be careful how you use your social security number when it comes to applying for student aid and make sure you’re going to – make sure the sites you’re using are legitimate and again for FAFSA, there’s only one and it’s FAFSA.gov. 
Matt: This ends part one of the Money$marts Podcast episode with Carmen Marttila all about how to protect yourself against identity theft. If you’d like to learn more, please tune into part two of this episode and be sure to check out all our episodes on the BTC website. They’re loaded with stories, tips, and tricks and strategies for financial literacy. This podcast is produced by Cheryl Kennedy with music courtesy of Bensounds.com. I’m Matt Benoit. See you next time.
Part 2:
Matt: Welcome to Bellingham Technical College’s Money$marts Podcast. I’m your host, Matt Benoit, each episode we will talk with BTC students, staff, community professionals and financial experts about financial wellness and literacy in order to help listeners navigate resources in the community and empower themselves, financially. On today’s episode, we continue our conversation with Carmen Marttila about how to protect ourselves against identity theft. Carmen is the North Washington Regional Director of Junior Achievement of Washington. And there’s a lot to talk about on the topic of identity theft so if you haven’t listened to part one of this episode, I highly recommend listening back to Identity Theft Protection part 1.
Matt: So, if you are a victim of identity theft, what are the first steps you’re going to want to take to take to deal with it.
Carmen: So, I would say number one, you want to fill out a police report. Often, people don’t because they think that, well, I know the police isn’t going to do anything. The point is not necessarily that they’re going to act immediately, that the police is going to go after that individual that maybe stole your wallet, or documents, or your identity in some way. But what’s important is that you will have a document that shows that you did the steps that needed to be required to protect and to make everyone aware that your identity was compromised. So number one, do a police report, number two, access your bank. Talk to your banker and let them know I have misplaced, I have lost, I have - someone has stolen my wallet, my car got broken into, my home got broken into, whatever it is. And they will help you with cancelling credit cards, cancelling debit cards. You might need to set up a new checking account, whatever type of accounts you have that would be easily accessible. They would probably recommend for you to close those accounts so that if they are compromised, it’s not going to go anywhere. You set up new accounts with new debit cards, new credit card numbers will be assigned to you. That is very important. If you have creditors and you’re concerned about them compromising your relationship with those creditors, you want to reach out to them and let them know that your identity has been compromised. I would recommend that you pull your credit report, make sure that everything looks right and then I would request a credit freeze. What that means is that no one will be able to apply for credit under your name or social security number. And that is very important. Once you do that you do want to check your credit, perhaps a little more often because you just want to make sure that nothing fell through. The other thing that I would do is I would report it to the Federal Trade Commission, the FTC, and you can go online at identitytheft.gov and what they do is once you go to that site, they’ll ask you to create an account. But what that does is that provides you with the ability to receive from them, form letters that you can then provide to your creditors to make sure that they have all the information that they need to understand that they should not be allowing anything to come through without reaching out to you and understanding that you truly meant for that transaction to happen or new relationship. Individuals can also reach the FTC by calling, and I like to share this number because I think it’s important for everyone to have the ability – sometimes we assume that everything can be done through the internet but some people like to make a phone call and have that human connection so they can reach them at 877-438-4338. And that is an important resource to have. So, a combination of creditors, your bank, a police report is going to be the first three steps you want to make sure to take care of when something like this happens. 
[17:22]
Matt: So, obviously, the time is, the timeframes is going to be different depending on who you are and how extensive the level of identity theft might be but, on average, how long does it usually take to solve an identity theft related problem?
Carmen: You know, that’s why it’s so important to take action immediately, because the quicker you take action, the less likely you are to be compromised at a level that is going to take, sometimes it can take months, sometimes years to clear up identity theft. Because sometimes you don’t find out for an extended period of time. I’ve known individuals who found out that their identity had been stolen when they switched jobs and then their job recruited them back and when they did the background check they found out that the person who had stolen their identity was in jail. And because it was and employer that knew them, they were able to say “Oh, by the way, did you know?” [Laughs] And it took going to court, it took really having all types of document to prove that you are the person that you say you are and not the person who stole your identity and is in jail. I just recently had my sister visit for the first time. We went to Canada, and we got stopped and pulled in, you know how they pull you in and it’s like “uh oh, what happened?” And they cleared us, and I asked, I said “What, what was the problem?” Because they were asking my sister questions and they said “There’s a person with the exact same name as your sister in our system who has committed some crimes and we have to make sure that, that your sister is not the same person.” So, you sometimes will have unfortunate situations that will alert you of it but until you’re aware, you – it can take, sometimes it can be as quickly as writing a letter to the three agencies to clear your credit and that can take a few months. And sometimes it can be years because of the level of identity theft that has happened. So, it’s hard to give a number, really.
Matt: So, have you yourself ever been a victim of identity theft? To take this from being abstract to personal here, and if so, what happened?
Carmen: Knock on wood; I have not had it at a large level. But, I’ve had minor incidents, definitely attempts. I get attempts all the time. Recently I got a voice message on my mailbox telling me that the IRS was coming after me and if I did not return their call that there would be a warrant out for my arrest. Right, they’ll try to trick you with things like that. In small scenarios, I’ve had my credit card compromised. Several years ago, I went on a cross-country trip and we had to stop and get gas at a little remote gas station and I think that’s how it happened. And when we got home and we looked at our statement, which is why it’s so important that you always review your credit card statements, we noticed that there were transactions that we did not, that did not execute and immediately, we, my husband and myself, called the credit card and said “nope, those were not authorized transactions.” Cancelled the card, and took immediate care of cancelling that card and getting a brand new number so that we wouldn’t, it wouldn’t continue. So, things like that have happened but, thank goodness, nothing major. 
Matt: Yeah, that’s…
Carmen: But I’m very cautious! 
Matt: Right! And I think that’s one of the important tips to take away from this episode is be cautious!
Carmen: You also have to be careful with discarding marketing stuff and pre-approved credit cards and things like that. I always recommend shred things like that. Shred expired debit cards or credit cards, cut them up, shred them, statements – all of those things. And the best tip is, if you’re going to shred it, try to do it with one of those shredding machines that crisscrosses the shredding so it turns it almost into confetti. If it’s just a straight through they can tape it all back together and when they dig it out of the recycling or trash. So, the best way to make sure that it’s truly destroyed so that it’s not able to be compromised is the crisscross type of confetti shredding but that is a great way to try to prevent that as well.
Matt: We talk about identity theft prevention services, there’s companies that specialize in that sort of thing, some banks, there are some banks locally here that also offer identity theft protection services as part of being a customer with a savings account that sort of thing. What do those identity theft protection services actually do and do you recommend them?
Carmen: I don’t dislike them. They truly are a service of convenience. They don’t do anything that you and I can’t do on our own. But it’s really a matter of what is your time, you know, what price do you put on your time? Because it is time consuming to pull your credit report to monitor it on a regular basis, review it to ensure that there’s no soft hits or hard hits on it that are going to compromise it. Or that someone is trying, without your knowledge, to access it and commit identity theft. So, it’s really a matter of convenience and your ability to be able to afford that. If you have financial constraints and it’s really going to put you in a place where it’s going to be detrimental rather than beneficial, then don’t do it. And just be a little more proactive about being cautious about how you protect and share your personal information, pull your credit report once a year, we also can get our credit report at no cost if you apply for a loan. Whether you’re approved or not. Once, by law, if we apply for any type of loan product, we can say to that lender, “you know I’d like a copy of my credit report” and they will provide it to you. So, if you wanted – if you already pulled it for the once a year at no cost and you want to see it one more time, you are able to do that if my chance you happen to also apply for a loan. But it is important to understand that those monitoring services are a great value for somebody who maybe has identity, an identity and personal things that they really want to ensure are protected and want to have that peace of mind because they send you emails and notifications that say “we check and it looks good everything’s fine” So, if you want that peace of mind, and it’s worth to you whatever number of dollars they charge. Go for it. If it’s at no cost it’s even better, why not. I have done it. When, we had for a while, even in the past, even Equifax, when it was compromised, Target for a while was there and they were offering free monitoring service for a year for anyone that wanted it who had their services. I’ve always accepted it. It’s not going to hurt for me to have that monitoring service but for the most part, it’s nothing that you and I can’t do.
Matt: So, you mentioned that you can see your credit report, or ask for it if you apply for a loan, are we talking any loan? Does that include student loans?
Carmen: Yes, that includes student loans. What typically happens is they will provide you with phone number or an address to mail requesting that credit report – that copy of your credit report. And then at that point you would follow up, whatever instructions they give you from the lending officer and they’ll typically mail it to you within… within, I believe, is one to two weeks they typically get it to you.
Matt: So, finally, do you know of any resources in the community that can help folks get educated about identity theft? Maybe any consultants who can meet with folks whose identities have been stolen?
Carmen: The law advocates are a great local resource that can help. There are also, for individuals who have had a credit challenge and maybe have either had to default or have had identity theft and are having to find a resource for credit counseling, there is a Washington – the Washington State office of attorney general, if you search while you’re in there the debt relief and credit counseling, that will take you to the US department of justice, US Trustee Program and they provide you with an approved list of credit counseling agencies. Which is great because that will give it to you by county, by your city. And you can find one that is, that can be in your state. You can also go directly to justice.gov. That’s another option, one last one would be the National Foundation for Consumer Counseling. That one provides a list of certified members as well. So, there are a lot of local resources. Like I said, the advocacy, local individuals will help. There’s a lot of nonprofits too that will help you with, with finding the appropriate support, locally.
Matt: Is there anything else you’d like to add on the topic of identity theft and prevention?
Carmen: I guess what I would say is that it’s not as scary as it sounds. If you are aware you will be fine. It’s unfortunately, out there. It will touch pretty much everyone’s life, like you said earlier, whether you know someone or if you’ve been impacted by it yourself, it is not an end all. It can be overcome, even if it has happened, if it takes a few months or a few years, it can be overcome. As long as you remain aware and alert and take immediate action when you identify that you might have been a subject of it or your identity might have been compromised. You are going to do the right thing by alerting the appropriate partners and it’ll work itself out as long as you are always remaining alert and aware!
Matt: Excellent! Well, Carmen, thank you so much for being here today, I think we, I think we all learned a lot!
Carmen: Thank you! I appreciate being here!
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Matt: Thanks for listening to this episode of the Money$marts podcast. Be sure to check out all of our episodes on the BTC website they are loaded with stories, tips, tricks for financial literacy. This podcast is produced by Cheryl Kennedy with music courtesy of bensounds.com. I’m Matt Benoit. See you next time.