Identity Theft

Getting your identity stolen could mean getting arrest warrants

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Having your identity stolen can be one of the most stressful things that you will ever have to go through. It’s right up there in the stress stakes with bereavement and divorce believe it or not. If someone steals your identity they can potentially ruin you financially. They can also get you an arrest warrant in some cases. The best way to combat the arrest warrant problem is to make sure that you discover them early and deal with them before the situation gets out of hand.

One of the main reasons, in my opinion, for the apparent increase in identity theft is the Internet. It’s a great tool and I couldn’t do without it but with it’s many benefits it has brought a few problems. One of these problems is the ease with which someone can get hold of your personal details and use them to impersonate you. The more information that exists on the Internet and the more transactions that are made all increase the risk of this happening.

You can take simple common sense precautions to reduce your risk of information theft but you can’t eliminate it altogether. The more information that is stored digitally the more the risk. Especially when government officials seem to be so prone to loosing disks with your details on.

How does criminal identity theft get you an arrest warrant?

Imagine that a thief has gained access to enough of your personal information to be able to impersonate you. The thief then goes and steals a car or holds up a store and gets caught. The thief gets a good lawyer, persuades the court to let him/her out on bail and then simply disappears. The court then issues a warrant for your arrest because the thief has been using your identity.

The above is a made up situation and you might say that this should never happen. The police should have verified the thief’s identity but do they always have the time to do that? especially if the crime was committed in a different area.

Sort out arrest warrant problems quickly

When you have an arrest warrant your best course of action is to get it sorted as soon as possible. this applies whether you actually committed the offence or not. The police don’t care whether you are guilty, it’s not their job. It is their job to arrest you and they will do it when you least expect it. Make sure that you discover your arrest warrants before the police come to arrest you.

Author: Steve Gee

Why did Allan Warrington have the cops banging on his door at 3am one Sunday morning?

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Allan Warrington is a accountant for a large firm of consultants where he has worked for 10 years. He’s a quite sort, hard working and good at his job. He keeps himself to himself although he does like to let himself go occasionally. I expect that you do too. Allan has never been in trouble with the law – he hasn’t even ever had so much as a parking ticket in all of his life. So why did the police have an arrest warrant for him and why did they practically break his door down that morning?

Have you had your identity stolen?

It all started 3 years ago when Allan left his wallet in a coffee bar one lunchtime. He had put it on the table and left without picking it up. Have you ever done this? I know that I have. He realized what he had done as soon as he got to work and decided to go back for it right away.

When he got to the table he had been sitting at, the wallet was gone of course. Luckily it had been handed in to the staff who had put it under the counter for him. Allan was very relieved to get his wallet back and made a quick note to himself to never do that again. Then he forgot about it – until 3am that morning.

Your wallet only has to be out of your sight for a few minutes for someone to get all the information that they need to steal your identity and this is what had happened to Allan. They took his credit card numbers, his drivers licence details, his address and any other information that they could find. He even had some receipts for ATM withdrawals that the thief could use to verify his account with.

Identity thieves can get you into a lot of trouble with the police

Somehow the thief had managed to get a duplicate copy of his drivers licence and opened a credit card account in his name but this was no ordinary thief. He didn’t go on a spending spree right away like you might imagine. Instead he used Allan’s identity as a get out of jail card when he finally got caught for one of his many crimes.

The thief had been caught committing a serious crime but nevertheless he was granted bail and let free. Of course that was the last the police saw of him so the court issued a Bench Warrant for his arrest. Except that he had given the authorities Allan’s name when he was arrested so the police were now looking to arrest him and not the thief.

Allan’s story is fictitious but it does happen and it could happen to you.

The cops can serve an arrest warrant on you at any time

Unless the crime is very serious it may take some time before the police catch up with you. They might arrest you if you get pulled over for a traffic violation. They can do a check on you and find the warrant. If not then the police will search you out when they are ready which could be some time later.

Find out about warrants for arrest before the cops knock on your door

You will usually get much better cooperation from the authorities if you take steps to deal with any arrest warrants before the police come to arrest you. This applies whether you committed the crime or not. But if you didn’t commit the crime then how do you know that you have a warrant?

It’s easy to do an online background check on yourself

The simplest way to keep one step ahead of the law is to make regular checks on yourself using an online public records database. There are web sites that allow you to quickly search through arrest records and other publicly available records from all over the country. This is good because you never know where the crime might have been committed or where the arrest warrant is issued. When you discover that you have a warrant then you can seek legal advice and set about repairing the damage that the thief has caused you.

Author: Steve Gee