Hello everyone and Happy New Year. I hope that 2010 will bring you good health and much anticipated joy and desires.

Recently, I wrote an article about business identity theft in which I discussed that not only consumer identity theft has been consistently on the rise in recent years costing creditors huge financial losses, business identity theft is also a serious threat which can inflict businesses much more damage. You see, when a consumer's identity is hijacked to steal money, especially credit cards, businesses must cover the losses by writing them off on their books. Similarly, when a business identity is stolen, the business information can be used to buy things, rent office locations, and borrow money. Company identity theft can be extremely costly to businesses and ultimately to consumers as businesses will somehow recover their losses by increasing their prices and fees. As much as I hate to publicize this information, I must warn that company identity theft is a huge opportunity area to be further explored by fraudsters. If you own your business, I suggest you protect and monitor your business identity as much as you protect your personal identity because information in both areas whether business or personal can be exploited to commit identity fraud. Consider reading this business identity theft article for more information.

In the area of consumer identity theft with negative consequences for businesses, companies must attempt to educate they customers and employees by providing identity theft awareness and protection training as much as they can in order to reduce their identity theft cases and losses.

Announcement

The Identity Management Institute (IMI) provides integrated identity risk management awareness, education and certification. Learn about the Certified Identity Risk Manager™ (CIRM) and Certified Identity Protection Advisor™ (CIPA) designations by visiting the IMI certification page.

Also, consider joining the identity theft discussion forum on Linkedin for professional networking and exchange of ideas with hundreds of global professionals.

Thank You and Be Identity Safe,
Henry Bagdasarian
Founder, Editor and IMI President