The big identity-theft bust¹ last week was just a taste of what's to come. Here's how to protect your good name

上周对个人身份信息窃贼突然进行的大搜查只是后续行动的一种小试牛刀的尝试。下面介绍的是该如何保护你的名字安然无恙

HERE'S THE SCARY THING about the identity-theft ring that the feds cracked last week: there was nothing any of its estimated 40,000 victims could have done to prevent it from happening. This was an inside job, according to court documents. A lowly help-desk worker at Teledata Communications, a software firm that helps banks access credit reports online, allegedly stole passwords for those reports and sold them to a group of 20 thieves at $60 a pop. That allowed the gang to cherry-pick consumers with good credit and apply for all kinds of accounts in their names. Cost to the victims: $3 million and rising.

下面是有关上周已被联邦特工粉碎的盗窃团伙偷盗个人信息的令人惊慌的事例：估计受害人有4万人之众，而他们中间的任何人根本无法采取任何防范措施来阻止这种盗窃行为的发生。据法院档案记载，这是一种监守自盗行为。据说，一家帮助银行在线访问客户信誉报告的软件公司——远程数据通信公司——的一个低级help-desk服务系统工作人员盗取了这些报告的密码，以每个60美元的价格卖给一个由20个小偷组成的团伙。这样，该盗窃团伙就从那些消费者的名单中精心挑选出信用好的人，然后以他们的名义申请各种账户。受害人付出的代价：3百万美元，而此数仍在继续攀升。

Even scarier is that this, the largest identity-theft bust to date, is just a drop in the bit bucket. More than 700,000 Americans have their credit hijacked² every year. It's one of crime's biggest growth markets. A name, address and Social Security number--which can often be found on the Web--is all anybody needs to apply for a bogus line of credit. Credit companies make $1.3 trillion annually³ and lose less than 2% of that revenue to fraud, so there's little financial incentive⁴ for them to make the application process more secure. As it stands now, it's up to you to protect your identity.

甚至更令人震惊的是, 迄今为止最大的个人信息窃盗案的告破仅仅是冰山之一角。每年有70多万美国人的银行存款被疯狂盗取。这是最大的成长性犯罪市场之一。一个名字、一个地址和一个社会保险号——这些东西在网上很容易找到——是想申请假信贷限额的任何人所需的全部东西。信贷公司每年赚1.3万亿，其中2%的收入被骗子诈取，因此，几乎没有任何金钱的刺激来促使他们把申请过程做得更安全一些。按现在情况看，保护自己的信用安全完全是你自己的事。

The good news is that there are plenty of steps you can take. Most credit thieves are opportunists, not well-organized gangs. A lot of them go Dumpster diving for those millions of "pre-approved" credit-card mailings that go out every day. Others steal wallets and return them, taking only a Social Security number. Shredding⁵ your junk mail and leaving your Social Security card at home can save a lot of agony later.

好消息是，有许多可采取的步骤供你选择。多数信用卡窃贼是投机取巧者, 而非组织严密的团伙。他们当中的许多人常去翻垃圾桶，去寻找数百万件事先批准、且已过时的信用卡邮件，而其它人则去偷钱包。到手后他们只留下社会保险号，把钱包返还给失主。粉碎垃圾邮件、把社会保险卡留在家里可减少你许多事后后悔莫及的痛苦。

But the most effective way to keep your identity clean is to check your credit reports once or twice a year. There are three major credit-report outfits⁶: Equifax (at equifax.com), Trans-Union (www.transunion.com) and Experian (experian.com). All allow you to order reports online, which is a lot better than wading⁷ through voice-mail hell on their 800 lines. Of the three, I found TransUnion's website to be the cheapest and most comprehensive--laying out state-by-state prices, rights and tips for consumers in easy-to-read fashion.

但保护你的信用卡不被盗取的最有效的方法是检查你的信用报告，每年一至两次。有三个主要的信用报告查询网址：Equifax (equifax.com)，Trans-Union (www.transunion.com)和 Experian (experian.com)。你可在这些网址上在线订购信用报告, 这比通过他们提供的800条专线进行令人痛苦的语音邮件炼狱式查询好得多。在这三个网站中，我发现TransUnion的网站收费最低，且内容包罗万象——以一种便于阅读的方式为消费者列出了各项价格、权利和提示。

If you're lucky enough to live in Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey⁸ or Vermont, you are entitled to one free report a year by law. Otherwise it's going to cost $8 to $14 each time. Avoid services that offer to monitor your reports year-round for about $70; that's $10 more than the going rate among thieves. If you think you're a victim of identity theft, you can ask for fraud alerts to be put on file at each of the three credit-report companies. You can also download a theft-report form at www.consumer.gov/idtheft, which, along with a local police report, should help when irate⁹ creditors¹⁰ come knocking. Just don't expect justice. That audacious help-desk worker was one of the fewer than 2% of identity thieves who are ever caught.

如果你有幸住在科罗拉多州、佐治亚州、马里兰州、麻萨诸塞州、新泽西州或佛蒙特州，那么，依照法律，你就有权每年享受一次免费报告，否则，这样的报告每次就要花去你8 到14 美元。要尽量避免使用要价70美元的全年信用报告监控服务；这笔费用比窃贼之间目前实行的价码还要高10美元。如果你认为你是信用卡被盗案的受害人，你就可要求将欺诈警报在这三家信用报告公司存档待查。你也可从www.consumer.gov/idtheft网站上下载一种窃盗报告表格。这张表格与地方警察局的报告一起，在怒气冲冲的债权人来找碴儿时，能派得上用场。别指望有什么公正。那位胆大妄为的help-desk服务系统工作人员就是不到个人信用信息窃贼2%的很少几个伸手被捉的盗贼之一。