Small business ID theft a growing problem

August 12, 2010 – 10:45 am

Bill and Sandy took over their dad’s company when he retired – the company their dad had built from the ground up. They’ve worked at building the company up the past few years, and it’s grown. As they’ve celebrated successes and sailed over hurdles, there was one threat that never entered their minds – identity theft.

Most small business owners don’t think identity theft would ever happen to them. Why would a thief target a small business? But you might be surprised at how valuable a small business can be to an identity thief.

Business identity theft is growing at an astounding rate. To criminals, small businesses are cash generating machines. Often, a small business owner has good credit with a large credit limit, which makes the business desirable to criminals. The computer networks and databases of small businesses are also valuable to criminals, because they can obtain the personal information of customers to commit crimes.

In Bill and Sandy’s case, they learned their business had been targeted by an identity thief when a thief was charged with forgery for fraudulent checks. Their company name was on one of the checks, but the account number was not theirs. They soon received more returned checks totaling more than $15,000, and they learned their company had been blacklisted by several check verification companies. It took months of filling out forms and phone calls to get the mess straightened out.

More often than not, a small business owner’s personal credit is tied to his business credit. And if his business credit is shot, so is his personal credit.

Don’t let this happen to you. Be proactive and call LifeLock today. You can stop identity theft in its tracks.

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