Limited Financial Liability

Financial Identity Theft

We normally think of financial loss when we think of identity theft.  This is not by accident when you consider all the media commercials we view produced by financial institutions.  Probably the first most famous was Citi Bank’s spoofs of the likes of an elderly woman speaking in a hefty man’s voice, or just the opposite, a middle aged man speaking like a “valley girl.”  These “entertaining” commercials started the public awareness campaign designed in part to inspire the public to watch their financial records for suspicious activity lowering the financial institution’s losses.  We applaud the awareness it brought to the public, however we do not consider any type of identity theft a humorous matter.

Financial identity theft can be one of the easiest to correct if caught early.  Monitoring you financial records activity and your credit reports is the best way to discovery financial identity theft.  You are protected by law if a fraudulent transaction occurs to a maximum $50 if you dispute the transaction within 2 days. Between 2 days and 60 days your maximum liability is $500.  However if you do not dispute the fraudulent transaction before 60 days, you have been robbed.* We highly recommend you monitor your financial statements as they are received and that you monitor your credit reports on a regular basis.  We can help you remember when it is time to receive your next free credit report if you sign up for our self-monitoring email reminder system.  You can sign-up on the Consumers page.

* We are not attorneys and this is not legal advice. It is true to the best of our knowledge.  Please seek legal advice from an attorney to find out your liability and your rights as these laws are constantly changing by statue and from court rulings, so you must determine your own situation from your attorney.