Credit reports offline for overseas troops

[unhappycamper]

Credit reports offline for overseas troops
By Steve Mraz, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Tuesday, November 6, 2007


If you’re an American serving outside the United States, don’t plan on going online to get your congressionally mandated free yearly credit report.

When you visit www.AnnualCreditReport.com, you’ll get the following message: “The AnnualCreditReport.com Web site is only accessible through ISPs (Internet Service Providers) located within the United States and its territories.”

While the situation does create an inconvenience for Americans overseas, the restrictions are valuable because most of the incursions for identification theft and fraud come from foreign IP addresses, said Norm Magnuson, a spokesman with the trade association for the consumer reporting industry.

“We’re trying to provide that security blanket so their information doesn’t go floating out into the ether and get captured in eastern Europe or Africa — where there is a prevalence of ID theft and organized rings,” he said.

The Consumer Data Industry Association has received a list of some foreign IP addresses from the Department of Defense that are allowed to access the Web site, Magnuson said. But what are other responsible American consumers serving overseas to do?

Being denied access to your free yearly credit report via the Internet isn’t necessarily a bad thing, according to one financial expert. While the Internet is convenient, submitting information online could expose you to hackers. In a bizarre way, attempting to prevent identity theft by checking your credit report online could make you more susceptible to identity theft.


Rest of article at: http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=50060

[mainegreen]

1. Use an american based proxy?