MyCRA Specialist Credit Repair Lawyers

Tag: clean credit rating

  • “Huge” increase in identity theft from scams: ACCC

    scamScam report numbers have ballooned to a massive $89 million lost to scams in Australia, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). Dating and romance scams topped the list of financial losses and the ACCC reports a “huge” increase in identity theft numbers from scams. We look at the details of the ACCC’s report, as well as which scams have taken the most victims. Be scam-savvy in order to protect your finances as well as your identity. Identity theft through scams, or any means can lead to credit file misuse, so it is important to know how to look out for scams as a way of maintaining your clean credit rating in this day and age.

    By Graham Doessel, Non-Legal Director MyCRA Lawyers www.mycralawyers.com.au.

    The ABC News Report ‘Scams cost Australians $89 million in 2013, says Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’ says the ACCC figures show a 10 per cent spike in scam reports last year, as well as an alarming trend in phishing and identity theft.

    Out of a total of 92,000 complaints received – losses amounted to $89 million. The ACCC’s Targeting Scams Report shows Australians lost $25 million to dating and romance scams with only 2,777 losses related to this type of scam.

    According to reports the most complained about scam was advance fee-upfront payment scams, where consumers are typically asked to make a payment with their credit card to access a bogus refund, prize or other kind of reward. More on this report:

    ACCC deputy chairwoman Delia Rickard says the figures are only a small snapshot of how much money people are losing to scams.

    “We talk to other agencies, and work is being done so there will be a central repository of all reported scams in Australia but that’s not in place just yet,” she told the ABC.

    “So we know it’s significantly more than the $89 million that was reported to us.”

    …Ms Rickard says she is very concerned about the “huge increase” in phishing and personal identity theft.
    “These can take all sorts of forms but usually it might be ‘fill in this survey and you could win a $50 voucher’ and you go to fill in the form and it will ask you for a range of private things with your name, age, address,” she said.

    “It might ask for your credit card details so they can deposit winnings into it, Medicare numbers, passport numbers.

    “What scammers do is they then use this information to impersonate you to open all sorts of accounts, run up debts in your name, drain your bank account.

    “So people really need to learn the importance of that personal information and not give it out unless they’re absolutely clear about who they’re dealing with and it’s clear why that person will need that information.”

    Identity theft including credit rating misuse can be pretty lucrative for fraudsters. In addition to your regular ‘scam’ fraudsters may also tack on a request for personal details, which signifies an attempt to misuse those details in the future, possibly for identity theft purposes. Requests for full names, dates of birth etc may leave victims vulnerable to identity theft.

    Fraudsters may also ask these questions:

    • With whom do you bank?
    • For how long?
    • What is your credit card number?
    • What is your driver’s licence number?

    If fraudsters have a person’s full name plus who they bank with, and what their driver’s licence number is they have the basic building blocks for an identity theft attempt. They can call the bank and have some kind of identity information on which to proceed with accessing bank accounts AND accessing further credit in your name.

    Sometimes you may not know you have been a victim until after you apply for credit and are refused.

    By that time, it is a struggle to recover your good name. For an identity theft victim to have a chance at removing bad credit history, you must prove you didn’t initiate the credit in the first place. This can be difficult if the scam happened months or years before.

    What to do if you are a victim of a scam

    1. Contact the Police immediately. Don’t be embarrassed or dismiss it because you don’t think the amount was significant enough. It is only through identity theft being reported that data gets collected and appropriate preventative measures eventually get put in place.

    2. Contact your Bank. They should be able to flag your accounts so that no credit can be obtained in your name.

    3. Contact the credit reporting agencies that hold your credit file. In Australia, this is Veda Advantage, Dun and Bradstreet and TASCOL (if in Tasmania). You should inform them that you may be at risk of identity theft and they may have a plan of action for protecting your credit file.

    4. At this time, you should also order a copy of your credit report. If there are any inconsistencies on your credit report – change of address, strange credit enquiries and instances of credit you don’t believe you’ve access, then you may already be a victim – and should do all that’s possible to follow up on each account so as not to accrue defaults on your credit file that should not be there.

    5. If you find you have defaults that shouldn’t be there, take steps to remove them. Although it seemed so easy for the fraudster to use your good name in the first place, you are now faced with proving the case of identity theft with copious amounts of documentary evidence in order to get the credit listings removed from your credit file.

    If you have neither the time nor the knowledge of Australia’s credit reporting system and credit legislation that you may need to fight your case yourself, you can seek the help of a professional credit dispute firm.

    Visit www.mycralawyers.com.au for more information on identity theft and bad credit or call us on 1300 667 218.

    The latest information about scams and tips for consumers can be found at the ACCC’s ScamWatch website, and you can also subscribe to alerts there:  www.scamwatch.gov.au.

    Talk to us about disputing your credit report

    Image: Stuart Miles/ www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net

  • Identity theft risks high for pre-retirees

    Media Release

    Identity theft risks high for pre-retirees

    27 July 2012

    Baby boomers scrambling to secure their future before retirement are prime targets for fraudsters who are dangling a whole host of carrots to lure their savings and a national credit repairer warns they are also candidates for credit fraud.

    CEO of MyCRA Credit Rating Repairs, Graham Doessel says victims of the latest very elaborate investment scams could also be at risk of identity theft and having their good name used to take out credit.

    He says pre-retirees who fall victim to scams lose their nest egg, and could also have their identity hijacked and potentially credit taken out in their name, which can rob them of the ability to obtain credit in the years when they will need it most.

    “Many people in this age group also generally have a good clean credit rating, and if fraudsters are prepared to go to elaborate lengths to get them to part with their cash, what’s to say they haven’t set up fake identities and taken out credit in their name as well?,” he says.

    Investors were earlier this month hit with the news of an elaborate scam involving overseas investments.

    The Australian Crime Commission and Australian Institute of Criminology reported that more than 2600 Australians have lost in excess of $113 million to these investment frauds, but it is believed there is a high level of under-reporting and the extent is far greater.

    They warn that the scam is incredibly sophisticated and has fooled even experienced investors with elaborate back up data, including fake websites and publications and fraudsters even issuing online press releases in the hope of extracting major dollars from their victims.

    Australians have been targets for this fraud because of high levels of superannuation and retirement savings. The Australian economy is also known to have been less affected by the global financial crisis than other nations.

    Mr Doessel says if criminals gain access to information like names, dates of birth and addresses they can build a profile with enough information to request duplicate identity documents – enabling them to take out loans, credit cards, even mortgage properties in their victim’s name.

    “Fraudsters are never so kind as to pay the credit back -meaning the identity theft victim is hit twice – financially ruined and with no ability to borrow for 5 to 7 years,” he says.

    The Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows 514,500 Australians were victims of scams in 2011, with 44,700 people citing actual identity theft in the same year.

    Credit reporting agency Veda Advantage also recently reported in its Australian Debt Study that one in five Australians have had their identities stolen or had their personal or financial data illegally accessed.

    Matthew Strassberg, a Veda senior advisor said: “Whilst credit card fraud is a common form of identity crime, many people do not realise that with only a small amount of personal data, an identify thief could take out a second mortgage on a house, or open up a new line of personal credit and purchase items in their name or under a false identity.”

    Mr Doessel says pinpointing identity and credit fraud early can be difficult.

    “Fraudsters often change contact details, and many victims don’t know they have been scammed until they apply for credit and are refused,” he explains.

    He says sometimes there can be some early warning signs of identity theft, and people should watch out for these occurrences:

    1. Strange unaccountable withdrawals on credit or personal bank accounts. It may not need to be a big amount to indicate fraud. Many criminals do ‘test’ amounts to begin with before extracting more significant amounts.

    2. Phone calls or emails from what often appear to be legitimate companies, asking for money or personal details. If you have given bank details or personal information in this way either online or on the phone there is a high chance it was a scam. Verify with the company in question.

    3. Can’t log in to social networking or bank accounts.

    4. Bills or letters of demand sent to you for accounts you don’t know about.

    5. Missing mail – particularly credit card statements which could indicate someone has overtaken your accounts. In this case no news is not good news.

    6. Credit refusal due to a bad credit rating.

    If people feel they may be vulnerable to identity theft, they should alert their creditors, and also alert credit reporting agencies, who may be able to ‘flag’ their accounts to prevent fraudsters accessing credit in their name.

    Mr Doessel says if a credit check reveals any “surprise bad credit” through possible identity theft victims should act immediately to notify Police.

    “This crime is not very widely reported. But it is only through people reporting it that any real statistics get collated. Likewise, if people want to try and repair their credit rating following identity theft, the first thing I tell them is to make sure they have a Police report,” he says.

    For more information on restoring a credit rating following identity theft, contact MyCRA Credit Repairs on 1300 667 218 www.mycra.com.au.

    /ENDS.

    Please contact:

    Lisa Brewster – Media Relations Mob: 0450 554 007 media@mycra.com.au

    Graham Doessel – Director Ph 3124 7133

    Ph 07 3124 7133 www.mycra.com.au www.mycra.com.au/blog 246 Stafford Rd, STAFFORD Qld

    MyCRA Credit Repairs is Australia’s leader in credit rating repairs. We permanently remove defaults from credit files.

     

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    Image: photostock/ www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net

     

  • Banks, telcos to have access to better id theft prevention through document verification (DVS)

    Identity theft…what can we do to prevent it and in doing so protect our credit rating from misuse? We look at how it occurs, and what the Federal Government is doing to help minimise the instances of identity fraud through implementing a better system of verifying important personal information.

    By Graham Doessel, Founder and CEO of MyCRA Credit Rating Repairs and www.fixmybadcredit.com.au.

    How do identity thieves go about taking credit out in your name? If they have enough personal information about you, such as your full name, date of birth, and heaven forbid your mother’s maiden name – fraudsters can forge identity documents, or request new ones in your name, which then gives them access to funds via your clean credit rating. This credit is left owing and you are stuck with a mountain of debt, and a bad credit rating you probably don’t even know about until you go and apply for credit yourself and are refused because of defaults you didn’t initiate.

    This doesn’t occur as regularly as other types of personal fraud – but it occurs more than you might think. Current statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2010-11 Personal Fraud Survey estimates that a total of 1.2 million Australians, or 6.7% of the population aged 15 years and over, were a victim of at least one incident of personal fraud in the 12 months prior to interview. Within these figures, 0.3% of the population had been a victim of specific identity theft. This amounts to 44,700 Australians. These were the people who admitted to being duped. Identity theft is one of the most under-reported crimes, due mostly to embarrassment from the victims. It is also extremely difficult to Police, with it often being initiated from overseas crime syndicates. So prevention in this case is often better than the cure.

    For those of you who have been following our updates on identity theft prevention, you may remember the government’s introduction of The Document Verification Service – a national service which allowed government agencies which took it up to verify documents. In May the Attorney-General announced her plans to roll the DVS out into the private sector we blogged about this then in the article Identity theft prevention in budget 2012. She spoke yesterday of the intended service, and said it will be available for the private sector from 2013.

    Yesterday Computerworld published an article Identity crime in sights of Australian Attorney-General detailing the Attorney-General Nicola Roxon’s comments about the DVS during the Security 2012 conference in Sydney.

    She told delegates the move will save businesses money by reducing unnecessary manual processes, data collection and record keeping.

    “It will also help to support law enforcement agencies such as the Australian Federal Police [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][AFP] in their efforts against identity crime,” she said.

    The DVS was introduced as an electronic online system used by government agencies to check whether a proof-of-identity document that has been presented by a person applying for a benefit or service is authentic. If a document matches information held by the issuing agency, a positive response is returned. The service does not store personal information, but allows verification only.

    “Requests to verify a document are encrypted and sent via a secure communications pathway to the document issuing agency,” Ms Roxon says in a statement on the AG website.

    A spokesperson from the Attorney-General’s Department said that it expects to be able receive applications for private sector access to the DVS from the end of 2012.

    “This would allow the private sector to commence verifications of documents from September 2013, possibly earlier,” the spokesperson told Computerworld.

    The Federal Government set aside $7.5 million in this year’s Budget to extend the DVS to the private sector from 2013-14.

    “The DVS will provide a tool to help reduce the incidence of identity fraud and improve the integrity of consumer identification used by the banking and finance, telecommunications, aviation and maritime security industries,” read the Budget 2012-13 documents.

    Perhaps the introduction of the DVS into the private sector will encourage those government agencies which have failed to take up the service to implement it.

    Last year prior to the private sector introduction, the DVS was criticised for its inadequate take up amongst government identity issuer and user agencies. At the time we blogged about it (Can official documents be forged to commit identity fraud?), agencies such as Centrelink, the Department of Immigration, and state road authorities and birth and death registries, were not connected to DVS.

    Images: photostock/ www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

  • How to dispute a bill and keep a clear credit file

    What many credit repairers don’t want you to know…There’s a wrong way to dispute your bill. The wrong way can lead to bad credit history – leaving you unable to obtain credit for 5 to 7 years. Here is how you should dispute your telephone, internet, energy or basically any bill which you disagree with before it ruins your credit file.

    By Graham Doessel, CEO and founder of MyCRA Credit Repairs and www.fixmybadcredit.com.au.

    Customers who refuse to pay a bill because they believe it has errors are making a grave mistake that could harm their ability to get credit in the future.

    One of the most common mistakes people make which leads to bad credit history is not paying a disputed bill by the due date.

    Creditors make mistakes with billing all the time, otherwise however infallible they may like to think their system is, otherwise there would be no need for professional credit repair.

    It can be really difficult getting the matter resolved with some creditors. But no news is definitely not good news.

    Where many customers go wrong, is assuming just because they have spoken to someone on the phone about the bill, they are no longer obliged to pay it by the due date.

    Under current credit reporting legislation, an account which is more than 60 days late can be listed by the creditor as ‘unpaid’ on the customer’s credit file. This is regardless of whether the customer believes there are errors in the details of the bill or with the payment amount.

    Many clients dispute the offending bill with the company and made the mistake of leaving the bill unpaid well past the due date while waiting for correspondence from the company. Many are not aware they have incurred a default anyway, until they apply for credit in a different circumstance.

    These defaults remain on a person’s credit file for 5 years. Under current legislation, defaults generally don’t get removed from a credit file, but can be marked as paid if they have been paid.

    Currently, defaults – even those that are marked as ‘paid’, will prevent you from obtaining a home loan with most lenders. In fact, even having a few too many credit enquiries can be enough for an automatic decline.

    So it’s really important we don’t leave ourselves open to having a default listing slapped on our credit file, ruining our good name.

    Here is the process people should take when disputing a bill in Australia:

    1. Contact the bill provider as soon as you receive the bill and attempt to resolve the discrepancy.

    2. Make a note of the date of all conversations, the name of each person you speak to and the nature of the discussion with each. Note any resolutions that were reached and ask that those be emailed or sent to you in writing.

    3. If the credit provider fails to honour the discrepancy, advise them you will be contacting the appropriate ombudsman.

    4. If the due date for the bill approaches and the issue has not been resolved, pay the bill by the due date. You can always seek reimbursement at a later date, but this will prevent a default for that bill being listed on your credit file.

    5. If there is still no resolution, take the matter further, usually with the appropriate Ombudsman.

    So don’t assume anything or take someone’s word for it, get it in writing and preserve your clear credit file.

    If you already have bad credit history from a bill dispute that went wrong – it may not be all lost. The best way to fix your credit score is to seek professional credit repair.

    Australian credit reporting legislation allows for you to resolve any inconsistencies on your credit report. But the problem with attempting to dispute errors on your credit file with creditors yourself is two-fold. Without knowledge of the legislation, people almost invariably get caught in legal ‘loop-holes’ which see the default, writ or Judgment left on the credit file, or at best see the listing marked as ‘paid’.

    Both of these results DO NOT fix your credit rating because lenders still consider even a ‘paid’ listing as bad credit history. Secondly, by negotiating with creditors, people can also accidentally ‘alert’ creditors to any mistakes the creditor may have made in the initial method of credit reporting – allowing them to fix up their mistakes and negate the need to remove the credit file default which was placed in error.

    Good professional credit repair gives you the best chance at fixing your credit.  A credit repairer can help you get a free copy of your credit file, and go through the bad credit history with you. They can then use their knowledge of credit reporting legislation to see where any errors in credit reporting were made, and help to enforce the legislation that creditors are bound to comply with.

    If they are successful, you not only get help with removing errors from your credit file, but many times you are able to start off with a completely clean credit rating.

  • Australia still one of most unaffordable places to live?

    A housing survey reveals Australia as completely unaffordable…so how come so many people are so eager to fix their bad credit report and get in to the property market in Australia?

    By GRAHAM DOESSEL CEO of MyCRA Credit Repairs and www.fixmybadcredit.com.au.

    The Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey has continued to place Australia amongst its most unaffordable places to live, with our country held as the second most unaffordable housing market.

    325 urban markets were featured in the survey, from the United States, UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and Hong Kong. It rates housing affordability, based on the Median Multiple – that is, the median house price divided by the gross annual median household income of specific urban markets, for the 3rd Quarter of the previous year.

    Featured in Broker News, the survey pinpointed Sydney as the third costliest city in the world – dropping it one spot from last year.

    But overall affordability is still looking grim for Australia on a world scale, according to Demographia.

    “While Hong Kong is the most severely unaffordable housing at a staggering 12.6 Median Multiple (the highest ever recorded within the history of the Surveys) – Australia with its abundant land supply has the most pervasive housing affordability problem (5.6 MM); followed by New Zealand with a small population of just 4.4 million (5.2 MM); the United Kingdom (5.1 MM); Canada (3.5 MM); Ireland with its housing bubble collapsing (3.4 MM) while the United States overall is affordable (3.0 MM),” Demographia says.

    Australia’s national unaffordability ratio came down from 6.1 times in 2010 to the still ”severely unaffordable” ratio of 5.6 times. They claim reduced house prices helped slightly improve the rating.

    So are we struggling to keep our heads above water in this country? That point is interesting.

    Certainly our homes are expensive, and it is a struggle for many people to break in to the housing market. Coupled with the tight lending criteria of banks, including requiring a squeaky clean credit rating, who could be blamed for thinking we live in a very unaffordable country?

    The Australian Property Forum argues differently. It says the Demographia survey should be ‘debunked’ and is not an accurate reflection of Australia’s affordability scale:

    “But almost half a million families and individuals bought homes in Australia last year. So while housing may be unaffordable to some (has it ever been otherwise?) plenty of people do seem to be able to afford to buy houses. So how come so many people are buying houses in a country that Demographia claims to be completely unaffordable? APF says.

    APF says there are substantially different factors impacting the housing markets in each country:

    * Differences in tax rates and cost of living pressures across various countries make a comparison of spending power based on gross income meaningless.

    * A better measure of a household’s ability to afford property would be to consider household discretionary income and total wealth. This would include non-wage income (such as income from interest, shares or other investments), and wealth stored in other assets (such as shares or equity in existing property) that may be liquidated or borrowed against in order to fund a new property purchase

    * Rental income (and real income from any other investments including savings interest) should be included, along with any liquid assets or easily leveraged assets such as equity in existing property. The reality is that people can and do use those forms of wealth to buy property.

    * The official median house price figures that Demographia use for Australia are sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. However these ABS figures only include freestanding houses. They don’t include units or townhouses, meaning that Demographia are overstating median house prices in Australia compared to the other countries assessed in their survey (countries where units and townhouses are included when calculating the median house price).

    So what is the real measure of affordability?

    I am sure millions would suggest housing is unaffordable for them, particularly in our capital cities where the dream of home ownership has become a distant memory for many first home buyers.

    But in reality, people are still managing to purchase.

    Every day, we see hundreds of people desperate to buy homes. Who CAN afford to buy, but who are held back not by affordability but by their bad credit history.

    I guess the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

    For more information on credit repair before buying a home, contact us on 1300 667 218 or visit the main site www.mycra.com.au.

    Image: vichie81 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net