The Five Data Comparisons That Excel Charts Make

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Charts allow you to visually compare data in five basic ways, which means that your first step in determining the appropriate chart type is often simply to consider what data comparison you want to make.

Identifying the data comparison you want to make

Suppose, for example, that you've collected detailed product sales revenue data for a golf equipment manufacturer. Using a chart, you might decide to look at this data in any of the ways summarized in the paragraphs that follow:

Part-to-whole Compares an individual data point value to the sum of a data series. Comparing
sales of a particular golf club set to total sales, for example, is a part-to-whole comparison.

Whole-to-whole Compares individual data point values to each other or data series to each
other. Comparing sales of a starter men's golf club set to a starter women's golf club set, for example, is a whole-to-whole comparison.

Time-series Compares data point values from different time periods to show how values
change over time. Showing monthly sales over the last year, for example, is a time-series comparison.

Correlation Compares different data series to explore correlation between the data series.
Comparing industry-wide sales to the average age of the population, for example, is a correlation comparison.

Geographic Compares data values using a geographic map. Comparing sales by country,
for example, is a geographic comparison.

Picking the right chart for a given data comparison

Once you decide what data comparison you want to make, it's generally quite straightforward
to identify the appropriate Excel chart types and sometimes even to identify appropriate
chart sub-types. Here are some rules you can follow:

1. To make a part-to-whole comparison when working with just a single data series, you
might choose a pie chart. (Pie charts plot only a single data series.) You might choose a
doughnut chart or area chart if you're working with more than one data series.

2. To make a whole-to-whole comparison, you might choose a chart that uses horizontal data markers, such as a bar chart or one of the cylinder, cone, or pyramid chart sub-types that uses a vertical data category axis and data markers. You might also choose a doughnut chart or radar chart.

3. To make a time-series comparison, you would typically choose a chart that uses vertical data markers, such as a column chart, a line chart, or one of the cylinder, cone, or pyramid chart sub-types that uses a horizontal data category axis and data markers. You might also choose the stock chart if you're performing technical analysis of security prices. (Time-series charts typically use a horizontal data category axis because of the Western convention of using a horizontal axis to denote the passage of time.)

4. To make a correlation comparison, you might choose the XY (scatter) chart if you're working with two data series or the bubble chart if you're working with three data series. You might also choose the surface chart if you want to explore trends in two dimensions.

5. To make a geographic comparison, you would probably use Excel's Data Map tool (refer to the Excel online help) or, possibly, the surface chart.

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The Five Data Comparisons That Excel Charts Make

Image : http://www.flickr.com

Charts allow you to visually compare data in five basic ways, which means that your first step in determining the appropriate chart type is often simply to consider what data comparison you want to make.

Identifying the data comparison you want to make

Suppose, for example, that you've collected detailed product sales revenue data for a golf equipment manufacturer. Using a chart, you might decide to look at this data in any of the ways summarized in the paragraphs that follow:

Part-to-whole Compares an individual data point value to the sum of a data series. Comparing
sales of a particular golf club set to total sales, for example, is a part-to-whole comparison.

Whole-to-whole Compares individual data point values to each other or data series to each
other. Comparing sales of a starter men's golf club set to a starter women's golf club set, for example, is a whole-to-whole comparison.

Time-series Compares data point values from different time periods to show how values
change over time. Showing monthly sales over the last year, for example, is a time-series comparison.

Correlation Compares different data series to explore correlation between the data series.
Comparing industry-wide sales to the average age of the population, for example, is a correlation comparison.

Geographic Compares data values using a geographic map. Comparing sales by country,
for example, is a geographic comparison.

Picking the right chart for a given data comparison

Once you decide what data comparison you want to make, it's generally quite straightforward
to identify the appropriate Excel chart types and sometimes even to identify appropriate
chart sub-types. Here are some rules you can follow:

1. To make a part-to-whole comparison when working with just a single data series, you
might choose a pie chart. (Pie charts plot only a single data series.) You might choose a
doughnut chart or area chart if you're working with more than one data series.

2. To make a whole-to-whole comparison, you might choose a chart that uses horizontal data markers, such as a bar chart or one of the cylinder, cone, or pyramid chart sub-types that uses a vertical data category axis and data markers. You might also choose a doughnut chart or radar chart.

3. To make a time-series comparison, you would typically choose a chart that uses vertical data markers, such as a column chart, a line chart, or one of the cylinder, cone, or pyramid chart sub-types that uses a horizontal data category axis and data markers. You might also choose the stock chart if you're performing technical analysis of security prices. (Time-series charts typically use a horizontal data category axis because of the Western convention of using a horizontal axis to denote the passage of time.)

4. To make a correlation comparison, you might choose the XY (scatter) chart if you're working with two data series or the bubble chart if you're working with three data series. You might also choose the surface chart if you want to explore trends in two dimensions.

5. To make a geographic comparison, you would probably use Excel's Data Map tool (refer to the Excel online help) or, possibly, the surface chart.

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Two Accounting Mistakes Business Owners Should Never Make

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As a business owner, you know that there are plenty of accounting tasks and duties that you should take care of. Your accountant makes suggestions. Your banker maybe specifies particular requirements. Heck, even your bookkeeper may regularly be pointing out things you need to take care of. Here, however, rather than pointing out things you should do, I'll point out two things that you should never do.

Misrepresent Your Financial Affairs

You should never misrepresent your financial condition and your business's financial performance. You may think that you would never do this, but let me tell you how it always seems to start. You go to the bank for a loan (perhaps a home mortgage). The bank loan officer looks at your business's profit & loss statement and then tells you that you're not making quite enough money or that your debts seem a bit high.

It appears that a fair number of business owners go home, mull things over, and then think, "What if I made more money?" Asking and answering this question leads quite naturally to a careful review of the accounting software data, and suddenly the business owner has re-categorized a series of business transactions as personal expenses. This has the nice effect of increasing the business profits. When the bank loan officer looks at your profit & loss statement, the loan is approved.

This may seem like a harmless solution, but misrepresenting your finances subjects you to two extremely serious risks. First, by misrepresenting your finances, you've committed a felony because you fraudulently obtained your loan. In a worst-case scenario, the bank can probably force you to repay the loan immediately. Many of the laws that normally protect you if you're a borrower don't protect you if you've fraudulently obtained a loan. (In a bankruptcy proceeding, for example, you probably can't escape repayment of fraudulently obtained loans.)

Another serious risk you run by misrepresenting your finances occurs if the IRS audits your return. If the IRS agent sees that expenses you claimed as business deductions on your tax return are later described as personal expenses on a Profit & Loss statement, the IRS can probably disallow the business deductions. If you assured the bank that $3,000 of travel expenses were for a personal vacation, you'll need to do a lot of backpedaling to convince the IRS that the $3,000 was really for business travel.

Borrow Payroll Tax Deposit Money

Never borrow the money you've deducted from an employee's payroll check for taxes, and never spend the money you've set aside for the payroll taxes that you owe as the employer. If for any reason you can't repay the money, the IRS will pursue you with merciless vigor.
If you get to the point where you can't continue business without dipping into the payroll tax deposit money, don't compound your problems by getting into trouble with the IRS. It doesn't matter what you want to use the money for. If you can't make payroll, can't get a supplier to deliver goods, or can't pay the rent without borrowing a bit of the payroll tax deposit money, you simply can't make payroll, receive the goods, or pay the rent.

If you did borrow the payroll tax deposit money, you would be stealing from the IRS. And when the IRS finds out, the IRS may padlock your business some afternoon, thereby putting you out of business; seize any valuable personal assets you own, including your home; and garnish your wages if you get another job. In short, the IRS will do anything it legally can to collect the money you should have paid.

Because of all this, I can't imagine a situation in which it makes sense to borrow the payroll tax deposit money. If things are so bad that you can't go on without taking the payroll tax deposit money, it's time for you to consider drastic action--perhaps closing the business, filing for bankruptcy, laying off employees, or finding an investor.

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How Do I Track Income And Expenses?

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Tracking Income

You track business income using the check register or account register. All you need to do is use a category that counts income. To do this, record a deposit in the usual way and then categorize the deposit as sales, revenue, or sales income. Note that each deposit transaction records a single sale. Note, too, that the Category field for each transaction records the category as Sales.

The one shortcoming when you use Money to record sales in the manner just described is that you count sales only at the point of deposit. You don't count sales when you provide the goods or services. This means you are using a cash-basis accounting convention for sales revenue. In many cases that works just fine, but you should be aware that this is an imprecise method of measuring your sales.

Another problem with cash-basis accounting is that you can't track those amounts for which you have invoiced customers but for which you haven't been paid. These amounts, commonly called accounts receivables, can be very significant. A fundamental record-keeping task a small business should regularly undertake is to review these accounts receivables and follow up on any of them that are past due.

Tracking Expenses

To track expenses using Money, all you need to do is use an appropriate expense category when you record an expense. Note that the Category field
records each of these transactions as an expense.

As in the case with income transactions, the problem with using this cash-basis approach is that expenses get recorded only when you enter them in the register. This approach may work, but it has shortcomings. For example, by recording bills and expenses only when you write a check, you don't keep a record of the outstanding bills you owe your vendor.

What should I do if I outgrow the Money program?

If your business grows in either size or complexity, you will eventually want to move up to another small business accounting program-something that provides a richer set of tools and features.
Fortunately, you have many good choices for small business accounting software. The most popular program is QuickBooks, or its big brother, QuickBooks Pro. The QuickBooks programs are full-featured, small business accounting programs, which means they do just about everything that a small business needs. Both are also quite easy to use. If the QuickBooks programs have a weakness, it is that their ease-of-use also makes it easy to make accounting errors and to erroneously change data.

Another more powerful and more complicated program is Peachtree Complete Accounting. The Peachtree Complete Accounting program is probably the favorite of certified public accountants simply because the program forces you to adhere to a more rigorous, methodical, and safe level of financial record keeping. Unfortunately, and this is really the flip side of its robustness, the Peachtree Complete Accounting software is also more difficult to use.

The decision to use one or the other of these programs depends largely on the accounting skills of the person using the package. If you do not have much accounting training, you would be better off with one of the QuickBooks programs. If you have more accounting knowledge, and you have the time to be trained, you would be happier in the long run using Peachtree Complete Accounting.

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The 5 Hiring Best Practices For Every Small Business

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You probably don't need a reminder, but it's already the 4th quarter of 2006. The year is more than 75 percent up. So have you accomplished 75 percent of your important productivity, sales and revenue goals?

If you have, congratulations. If not, what are you doing to make this your best year ever?

Whether you still have the motivation to meet your potential this year or you've given up and are waiting until 2007 to take the necessary steps, this article contains the quickest and easiest way to improve the productivity, sales and profitability of your organization.

Stop Waiting Until All Else Fails:

I'm sure you've tried just about everything this year to increase the profitability of your company from updating technology to modifying marketing to reorganizing your systems. All in attempts to improve the motivation, teamwork and productivity of your people.

Chances are, none of these costly endeavors have been as successful as you'd like. The main reason is you still have the same ineffective people operating the new technology, servicing your clients and running your systems.

Your competitors that have become the most respected, productive and profitable businesses in your market have realized a very important fact. Productive systems do not make you profitable... productive people do.

Hopefully you'll be able to realize this before every other attempt to increase your productivity and sales has failed, drained your revenues and left you felling helpless. To meet your important goals, don't wait any longer and replace your unreliable, unmotivated, unproductive team members with TOP Performers.

The 5 Hiring Best Practices:

To grow your business and meet your important goals, you're going to need TOP Performing employees in every position. Not just someone above average that meets your expectations half or most of the time, but someone that will become five to eight times more productive than average employees. Studies have shown, that's what the TOP Performers in a position are.

To fill your team with the most productive employees, here are the five hiring best practices:

1. "Active" Recruiting Strategy Don't wait for TOP Performers to find you because they wont; unless you are already one of your market's leaders. Classified ads, general web boards and employment agencies are all "passive" recruiting strategies and will give you "passive" job seekers. To attract the best employees in your industry, you're going to need to actively recruit.

2. Legal Job Descriptions If you haven't developed job descriptions for every position in your company, you're setting yourself up for a lawsuit. No, they aren't required by law, but they are usually your second line of defense in a trial (first is a file on every employee). In hiring, they will also help you present to candidates exactly what is required to get a job in your company.

3. Productivity Standards with "Job Success Patterns" Whereas job descriptions are the basics, "Job Success Patterns" are the specifics. In these you present to candidates what is required to keep their job once hired; or your productivity standards. More specifically, what makes your current TOP Performers so successful in regards to their skills, internal motivators and natural behaviors and then making these the minimum requirements for employment.

4. Lead, Behavioral Based Interview Questions If you ask the same questions your competitors are asking, you'll get the same answers they are getting too. Mainly because most organizations ask the same 10 interview questions that your candidates have learned how to answer in books, courses and through agencies. Lead, behavioral based interview questions start with "Describe a time...," and "Give an example of..." and end with something job related.

5. Pre-Employment Culture, Team & "Job Match" Assessments Since "luck" is not one of the five hiring best practices, you need to do all you can to remove instinct and emotion from your hiring decisions. As much as you may hate to admit it, your instincts have been wrong in the past and they will be wrong in the future. Most of the fortune 500 and virtually every market leading organization (no matter the size) uses assessments because studies have shown they can increase your hiring success rate of TOP Performers by up to 500 percent.

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Loan Modification Vs FHA - Hope For Homeowners Program - Comparative Analysis!

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Current Housing Market Status:

In the last 3 or 4 years, a large number of homeowners have been trying to complete a "loan workout" with their current mortgage lender to lower the interest rate and improve the terms of their loan. Many lenders have chosen not to accept any new terms, rather, let the property go into foreclosure.

Because lenders have an overwhelming number of properties in foreclosure, they are starting to accept loan modifications via their loss mitigation departments. The time is ripe for consumers (who own homes) to take action and request that their loans be modified towards better terms and a lower interest rate they can afford, if they have high interest rate sub-prime loans or are at risk for foreclosure.

Since, the rate of foreclosures is increasing, everyday, the federal government, congress and the president have approved and signed a new bill which will allow homeowners to take advantage of a new "FHA - Hope for Homeowners Program" designed to save more than 400,000 homeowners from foreclosure. This program will go "live" on October 1st, 2008.

The new FHA loan program will assist homeowners who are currently in foreclosure, close to foreclosure or those who have high interest rate mortgage loans like those called sub-prime loans. The program is different than a loan modification in several ways.

The following is a bulleted layout of the deference's between completing a loan modification and getting approved to do a FHA -Hope for Homeowners program.

Loan Modification:

1. You can recast your current loan into different terms, with the hope to benefit from a lower interest rate, which is fixed rather than an adjustable interest rate.

2. The costs of the loan modification are rolled on the "back-end" of the loan, which will increase the amount of money you owe.

3. The loss mitigation department may choose to keep the amount (that you own on your loan) higher than your current home value. Or they may choose to lower that amount, some, but not as much as it could be to make your new payment comfortable in the long term. This could mean that you may be in financial jeopardy, in the future.

4. It's a fact, what cause your current lender to be interested in keeping your loan on their books are the servicing rights. They make money servicing your loan over the term of the amortization schedule. The problem is that many lenders have filed for bankruptcy or just got out of the business (due to poor credits markets) and the servicing rights have been sold to other investors. This often causes a strain, since; the servicer does not actually have your loan documents at their facility, so they rely on others to get your original loan information to them for review. This process can cause the loan modification workout to be slow, in many cases. Timing is very important, since, homeowners are not knowledgeable in the process and they often wait to late to get the loan modification process started. It is important to communicate with your current lender and get the loan modification process stated, months before your home goes to foreclosure sale.

5. If your request for a loan modification is rejected, you may want to try it again in a few months, since; some lenders don't document the loan modification attempt you made. They are often motivated by changes in the housing market and their intent changes as more and more loans go into default. It does not hurt to try again. It is smart to work with a loan modification specialist, a seasoned loan officer or an attorney who specializes in real estate, mortgage lending and loan modifications. They understand how to speak to loss mitigation department, personnel and can get a general idea of the mood and trends of your lenders loss mitigation department.

6. Many loan modification specialist work together with attorney firms to get the loss mitigation departments to act in a timely manner. Those same attorney firms work with the loan modification specialist to make sure the original loan documents are not fraud ridden. This is a good approach, yet it can cost the homeowner additional money, since both the loan modification specialist and the attorney need to be paid for their services.

7. Homeowners are required to pay the loan modification specialists and attorneys for the services, provided. Many homeowners think that the cost will be included in the new loan amount, but this is not the case. Logically, lenders are already loosing money when they agree to modify the loan terms and conditions for the homeowner, so, you can bet that they will not agree to "package" the costs of doing the loan modification into the new loan. That cost is paid by the homeowner, directly to the loan modification specialist and/or the attorney. The cost can range between $995.00 and $, 5000.00; as an average. Many loan modification specialist, senior loan officers and attorney firms can work out a payment plan, yet, many require at least 1/2 upfront before they start the loan workout. Understand, there is no guarantee that your loan modification or loan workout will be accepted. You will still have to pay your representation your agreed amount. A large percentage of loan modifications and workouts are accepted. So, it's a good bet, since, most people do not want to loose their homes to foreclosure.

8. Loss mitigation representatives, (most often) do not require you to pay for a new appraisal. Instead, they have your representative provide census track data, a BPO (broker price opinion) or a print out of valuation from title company market sales data. 9. If you are in foreclosure and costs have been incurred from posting your foreclosure sales data, attorney fees, title costs or other costs; you could be liable for those costs, if our current lender requires it (as a requirement to the loan modification).

10. Loss mitigation departments may choose to approve you for a new loan which is (another adjustable or tiered -fixed loan). Be careful. Do your homework or "talk-it-over" with your representation.

FHA- Hope for Homeowners Program:

1. The federal housing administration (FHA) has required that all homeowners who become approved for this program accept a 30 year fixed rate program. No other loan types will be accepted. You can only qualify for this program.

2. FHA will loan up to 90% of the current value of your property. This means that if you purchased your property for a higher purchase price and currently have a loan amount higher than what the value of the property is presently, you can become approved to do a loan amount at 90% of what your current house is worth.

3. If you have more than a 1st trust deed lien (subordinate liens) on your property and your property value has severely, diminished; your current lenders may take the loss when you get approved under the "Hope for Homeowners Program". Usually, the subordinate lenders loose, unless they purchase the primary lien. Most do not purchase the 1st trust deed lien. So, the subordinate lender takes a loose on their investment.

4. FHA's goal is to keep as many homeowners in their homes. They understand that it would be better to do a loan for a homeowner rather than have that property go into foreclosure, be place into the retail real estate marketplace, causing a further degrading of the housing market.

5. The FHA underwriting guidelines are currently more liberal than any other loan guidelines in the current market. FHA is more forgiving in their approach to mortgage lending.

6. The FHA underwriting guidelines have not been disclosed. As October, 1st, 2008 approaches, lenders, processors and underwriters will have a more clear idea as to what is required to get a loan approval.

7. Homeowners will (probably) be required to pay for a new FHA appraisal, as a condition for loan approval and closing. Underwriting guidelines will determine if this is true. The average costs for an FHA appraisal is ranges, $300 - $450.

8. Income to debt ratios will be determined and posted in the underwriting guidelines. Consult your loan modification specialist or loan officer.

9. The loan servicing companies that service, sub-prime loans will (probably) be more inclined to accept a loan modification, since they will want to transfer the lien to FHA, rather than keep it on their books. They have taken huge losses and have an overwhelming desire to get rid if their current problems. Have patience with these lenders, since, they do not keep your actual loan documents at their facilities. They will have to request them. Many loss mitigation personnel are stressed and will want to make a determination as to your file, fast. This is an advantage to you! Work closely with your loan officer to get the items needed for loan submission.

10. If you live in a heavily populated area like Los Angeles, Orange County, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Denver, Miami, etc., you will more than likely have a higher percentage of success with a loss mitigation department. This is because there are more homes in foreclosure in concentrated housing areas.

11. Even though we have not seen the FHA underwriter guidelines, (since they have not been delivered to the underwriters) they will be available on or before October, 1st, 2008. We can expect that the guidelines will probably focus on a person ability to make the new housing payment and not the persons credit score. We call this "ability to pay"!

12. If you're, FHA -"Hope for Homeowners Program" loan application is accepted by FHA; your current lender will still have to accept the condition which FHA places on the loan. This means that your current lender may to take a loss in equity by accepting the FHA loan buyout, offered.

13. The good news is that your current lender (already) understands that they will take a loss in equity, if the property goes into foreclosure. If they don't accept the FHA buyout, they may have to place your foreclosed property into the retail sales marketplace. This means that they may have to pay a Realtor up to 6% commission, wait for the property to be purchased, incur additional holding cost, pay a gardener, electricity and water bills. All the while, they realize that the property will probably be reduced in value even more as additional foreclosure properties come on to the marketplace. This is not a rosy situation for them, so, most will realize that it would be better to sell the loan to FHA and take less of a financial loss.

14. The main benefit to your current lender in accepting the terms of a FHA buyout is that under the FHA guidelines, they can benefit from a portion of any equity gain in the property for up to 5 years, at the time FHA buys the loan. If the homeowner chooses to sell the home within the 5 year period after the close of the new FHA loan; the lender can participate in a percentage of any equity gain. This single condition will cause many lenders to accept the FHA loan buyout. Ask your loan officer for information regarding lender participation in an equity gains.

15. Many lenders are fully; "FHA approved lenders" and will require that your loan be recast within the FHA loan department of your current lender. Therefore, ask your loan officer if your current lender (note holder) is FHA licensed. This will save you time and headaches, since; many loan officers will try to do the loan on your behalf without determining if your current lender wants the new FHA loan on their own books. This may be a condition for an FHA loan approval, by your current lender. If our current lender is already an approved lender, they might as well sell the loan to FHA, direct, correct?

16. Third party cost like, attorney fees, loss mitigation fees, foreclosure posting fees, etc., will be absorbed by your current lender under the FHA - Hope for Homeowners Program. You will not incur these fees under the program. The lender will take this loss, too.

17. As part of the Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008, 1st time homebuyers are encouraged to purchase homes between April, 2008 and July 2009. They can receive up to $7500 dollars in tax credits from the federal government. This program has been established to speed up the housing recovery by getting people to purchase homes. Additionally, it will cause home sellers to purchase homes, as well, since they are often "move up" buyers. This program is part of the overall attempt to correct the bad housing market.

18. Credit Score vs. Your Ability to Make the Payment: These two factors will be outlined in the underwriting guidelines. I would expect that the ability to pay will override the credit score issue, since, most people having problems making their housing payments, already, have degraded credit scores. Consult your loan officer for details.

Summary:

Loan Modification:

Consumers, now have several options to preserve home ownership. If one option does not work try the other. Remember, time is of the essence, so act promptly to give your self time to use one or both options.

1. Loan modification is a good option for many, if your have proper representation and get a favorable deal. 2. You will have to pay the costs for this type of loan modification. 3. You will not have to pay for an appraisal, in most cases.

Visit this site for more information: http://www.LoanModificationContacts.com

FHA - Hope for Homeowners Program:

1. This program may be a better deal for you, if your lender is no longer in business (sub-prime lenders and prime lenders). It can still be a great benefit to you if your lender is still in business and wants to remove some bad assets from their books (understanding) you might become one of those bad assets. Your loan officer can provide this information for you.

2. Since, FHA will go to 90% of the current value of your property; you can be the real winner. This simple fact means that you will have a better opportunity to qualify under a 30 year fixed loan and your housing payment will be more affordable, then what you are currently paying.

3. You will most likely, be required to pay for an appraisal. Ask your loan officer about this, since; the underwriting guidelines have not come out, yet.

4. You may or may not have to pay for the closing cost to procure the loan. It has not been determined, who actually pays for the closing costs. It will be in the underwriting guidelines, when they come out. Ask your loan officer.

5. Credit Score vs. Ability to Pay: Underwriting guidelines will determine these two factors. FHA underwriters will probably be more forgiving and weight their approval on your ability to make the monthly housing payment. We will have to wait for the underwriting guidelines. Ask your loan officer about these two factors.

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Introduction To Identity Theft

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Identity theft is no longer an unusual occurrence. It is rapidly evolving and is quickly becoming a socio-economic inevitability. Identity theft is the fastest growing white-collar crime. It is a crime in which an impostor obtains key pieces of your personal identifying information such as your Social Security number or driver's license number and uses them for their own personal gain. Identity pirates can gather all sorts of confidential information about you by prowling the Web. They begin with the misuse of your personally identifying information such as your name and Social Security number, credit card numbers, or other financial account information. Once they have this information, identity thieves may rent an apartment, obtain a credit card, or establish a telephone account in your name.

An Identity thief can take your personal information from your mail box or your home. Identity theft is bad enough but right now it is also pretty much of a cottage industry relying primarily on techniques like dumpster diving. Identity theft laws and crack-downs, while improving, are definitely not where they should be. It's hard to pin down, because each law enforcement agency may classify ID theft differently--it can involve credit card fraud, Internet fraud, or mail theft, among other crimes.

Detecting Identity Theft & Credit Card Fraud

A key way to detect fraudulent accounts is through credit monitoring / reports. Review your credit information regularly (free annual reports are available from the Credit Reporting Bureaus) Visit your bank's, credit card issuer's or biller's web site(s) frequently to monitor regular account activity. Victims of identity theft don't normally know they've been victimized until:They are contacted by a collection agency over past due accounts they never knew they had; significant charges may show up on a credit card bill for purchases they never made; a lender tries to repossess a car they didn't know they owned; or they are contacted by the police after a crime is committed in their name. It is important to resolve fraud promptly, minimizing losses and protecting your credit record. You should ask your financial provider about zero-liability guarantees against fraud and dedicated resources to help you resolve and recover from any potential losses. Some banks will work with you if you have an account at their bank. If you are a Victim of theft, promptly notify your financial providers, begin monitoring your accounts more frequently, and place an "alert" at all three credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian or TransUnion). when someone uses your name, Social Security number, credit card number or some other piece of your personal information to apply for a credit card, make unauthorized purchases, gain access to your bank accounts or obtain loans under your name.

Problems On The Internet

Schemes known as "phishing'' use e-mail messages to lure unwitting consumers to Web sites masquerading as home pages of trusted banks and credit card issuers, corporate security specialists say. Online visitors are then induced to reveal passwords as well as bank account, Social Security and credit card numbers. The crimes ranged from the theft of a credit card number to more elaborate identity thefts used to secure loans.

Thieves have turned toward the theft of information, and specifically personal information, because with an assumed identity criminals can purchase goods and services at will using someone else's credit..

Social Security Issues

Do you use your Social Security number for identification. The identity thief uses key pieces of your information such as Social Security and driver's license numbers to obtain credit, merchandise and services in your name. Almost 50 percent of students have had grades posted by Social Security number. While there are many ways to get a Social Security Number on someone, most criminals start with a phone book. They may use your name and Social Security number to get government benefits. Theives may get a job using your Social Security number.

A new Social Security number may not resolve your identity theft problems, and may actually create new problems. Even if the old credit information is not associated with your new Social Security number, the absence of any credit history under your new Social Security number may make it more difficult for you to get credit. And finally, there's no guarantee that a new Social Security number wouldn't also be misused by an identity thief.

Fighting Back

Each of these actions places you at risk of being a victim of identity theft because each requires you to share personal information such as your bank and credit card account numbers, your Social Security number, or your name, address, and phone number.

Based on the latest findings, the Better Business Bureau, Wells Fargo, Visa and CheckFree have issued the following tips for consumers to protect themselves against financial identity fraud: Prevent access to your personal information
Replace paper bills, statements and checks with Internet (paperless) versions
Consider moving to an electronic bill payment service, such as your bank or biller's web site,
Stop sending signed paper checks through the mail.

Many of the most vicious cases, say analysts, involve corporate insiders who hijack sensitive personal information from corporate databases in order to begin picking people's pockets. Call and speak with someone in the security or fraud department of each company. Avoid using easily available information like your mother's maiden name, your birth date, the last four digits of your Social Security number or your phone number, or a series of consecutive numbers.

Be aware of how information is stolen and what you can do to protect yours, monitor your personal information to uncover any problems quickly, and know what to do when you suspect your identity has been stolen. They can steal your wallet or purse, or convince you to give out personal information. In short, any piece of paper you no longer need that contains personal information. Do you use your personal computer to buy merchandise or purchase tickets for travel, concerts, or other services. This is the same personal information that identity thieves use to commit fraud. Once they have your personal information, identity thieves use it in a variety of ways.

Fixing The Damage

Victims are spending more time to resolve identity fraud cases, which has increased from 33 hours in 2003 to 40 hours in 2006. Typically, victims don't have to pay debts incurred by another person, however that's not the point, the time, the stress, and the many sleepless nights you have to go through to clean up your record that really hurts most victims. It can take months and even years to undo the damage inflicted on the reputation of the victims and the stressful trail of destruction that takes its toll.

Prevention Is The Best Remedy

Experts say that the solution to preventing identity theft is a simple, three-step process:
Curb the use of the Social Security number as a unique identifier for business use, a measure that has been introduced in Congress and defeated several times over the past decade
Force credit-granting agencies to require more identifiers and shore up their credit card policies
Restrict all selling of personal information by credit bureaus, state and federal agencies, and marketing firms.

Preventing identity theft is not as hard as it may seem. From a personal perspective, make sure that you take advantage of technologies that enhance your security and privacy when you use the Internet, such as digital signatures, data encryption, and "anonymity" services. Companies and their management need to be more aware of how they're putting their customers at risk.

Obviously, identity theft is not only of great concern for the individual affected, but by the financial institutions that are deceived by this practice. According to the FBI, Identity Theft is the fasting growing crime in the US. And it is is costing an estimated $6 Billion.

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