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pretexting

Posted on: 26th Jan, 2007 04:21 pm
what pretexting covers and is there any law which can be used against pretexting?
Hi Nio,

Welcome to Mortgagefit forum.

It is the use of any false statement and impersonation for obtaining your financial information, like bank balance. After getting your personal information a pretexter sells it to others who use it to take credit in your name or steal your personal assets.

Colin
Posted on: 26th Jan, 2007 04:28 pm
There is an act known as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act which prohibits such practices. According to this law soliciting others to act as a pretexter is also prohibited.

If any company or individual is practicing pretexting then a case can be started against them and their business operations can be stopped.
Posted on: 26th Jan, 2007 04:38 pm
please provide some more information on how pretexting works, what I can do to protect myself and if I become a victim what steps I can take.
Posted on: 26th Jan, 2007 04:48 pm
Such people use various techniques to get the information. They can call and ask you questions pretending to be from some survey firm.

After getting your personal information they contact the financial institutions you have your account with and ask for information such as your SSN, credit card number. They may get such information by telling that they have lost the checkbook and want information about his account.

You can take some very simple measures to prevent such frauds.

# Do not give out any of your personal information to a person/organization whom you do not know.
# Go through policies of financial institutions you have account with on how they share your information. You will then be aware of any possibility of pretexting.
# If you find anything wrong in a account statement immediately report it to the institution.
# Check your credit report regularly to catch any entry which you think should not be on your report.

David
Posted on: 26th Jan, 2007 05:11 pm
In case such a fraud occurs to you, close that account in which fraud has occurred and open new account with new personal identification number and password. Contact all the 3 credit bureaus and ask them to immediately flag a fraud alert for your file. Also contact FTC & file a complaint, their number is 1-877-ID-THEFT.

Kelly Tunstall
Posted on: 26th Jan, 2007 05:25 pm
Yes, pretexting is quite popular these days. It occurs when someone tries to access personal non-public information without having any authority of doing so. This involves impersonating the account holder by phone, mail, email or by using a phony website or email to gather required data.

However, this kind of illegal practice can be curbed by the provisions of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Under the purview of this law, financial institutions take all precautions to protect the customers and their information.

James
Posted on: 29th Jan, 2007 01:37 am
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