No debit card theft around here in my little town

I really didn't think it was happening in my small area of the world. Until I talked today with my brother that manages a small community grocery store that is part of a larger chain.

Lately I have only heard about identity theft and debit card theft from the news. I hadn't heard of any cases near or around my own small city, until today.

I was talking with my brother today who manages a small community grocery store that is part of a major chain. He was telling me that they had got hit by debit card thieves stealing debit machine key pads. Luckily they guy was caught as he tried to sneak the machine back in.

I'm not going to mention my little city, which has a population of only 125,000, this gives you an idea on how small it is. Or am going to mention the grocery store either because my brother does not want it known and asked me not to.

According to the FBI, identity theft is one of the fastest-growing U.S. crimes with over 10 million victims. Studies show that about one in five families has been a victim and someone has their identity stolen every 4 seconds in the U.S. (Scary stuff)

This got me to thinking about identity theft protection service that monitors your accounts and for suspicious activity or for new accounts being opened in your name. IDFreeze protects you by placing what is referred to as a "security flag" on your credit reports at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. I also thought I had better see what's in my credit report and look at my history for problems or errors. After I saw this I signed up with a credit reporting agency to monitor my credit.

This is how thieves steal your debit card information.

Someone goes into a store and looks for a cash register that has no one working at it, then they see it the debit key pad is left on the counter where they can easily get at it. When no one is looking they steal the portable pad that you swipe your card on and then take it outside.

They put their own computer chip in it which records all the information for as long as it is in there. After this they wait for their opportunity to sneak it back in and replace it with the new computer chip in it. After a certain length of time they go through this all over again and get their chip back with all your accounting information. You have now been hit by identity thieves stealing your debit card information.

The new store policy now for this grocery chain is to take down all debit pads when their is no cashier at the till, problem solved.

What bothers me is if this happened in a small country town (they call it a city) how wide spread is it in major cities with large populations.

This is a right guaranteed to all Americans under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003. Once the security flag is on your credit report, third parties making decisions based on your credit reports must double-check your identity first.

My credit rating could be destroyed for a long time if ever I was a victim. Sometimes you won't find out for 6 months to a year on your own, until you apply for a credit card or mortgage and they say that you have too many bad accounts.

This got me wondering about protecting myself. I found a service that only charges a small fee of under 14 dollars. This is a small price to pay if it saves you from a major financial disaster, go here to read more about this credit monitoring service. You can control access to your personal credit information with easy online tools and were featured in the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Time and CNNMoney.com. I think you will be glad you did.