If you have the last name Smith?

Question

do you think it is possible that you are more likely to be a victim of identity theft because of the common last name? There are a lot of Mike Smiths out there and it just seems it would be easy to have your identity stolen. Any thoughts?

Answer 1

How about James Smith?  I was trying to track one down is WI once about an easement issue and discovered there were 200 of them.  His real estate company had closed (which happens when they catch up with him), but I knew what small town he was from.  So I called the only real estate office I found in that town.  When I asked if I could talk to Jim Smith she said sure, and put me through to him.

I suppose people with common names could be susceptible to fishing from collection agencies and law enforcement.  When I was in college police came knocking on the door of a fried of mine with last name Martin, but they were looking for someone else passing bad checks with different middle name.

Answer 2

No, not identity theft.  The issue with identity theft is getting ahold of confidential information, like passwords and SSN or PIN numbers.  That has nothing to do with name commonality.

Having a common name does increase the chance that you will have an error on your credit report thought.  What happens is cross reporting of accounts.  So, if the person has good payment history, it can help.  If they don't have good payment history, it can hurt and the person should contact the credit reporters and have it fixed.

Answer 3

yeah it sucks havin that common name...everytime we order pizza they call back to make and always ask is it really smith...grrr gets on my nerves

Answer 4

Yes, it's quite probable but ID is not necessarily reducted to a name only. There are other identifying factors, such as date of birth, SSN, address, phone #, etc....

Just keep an eye out on your information via annual or semi annual credit check and you'll be fine.