By Stephen Bucaro

You step outside to find your car has been repossessed and a foreclosure notice posted on front door of your house. All because of delinquent loans "you" made. Or police come to make an arrest because "you" used a fake prescription. Can't happen to you?

Think again. All an identity thief needs is a copy of your credit report. This document contains your birth date, Social Security number, place of employment, salary, credit card numbers, and details about all of your financial transactions, savings and investments.

Using your identity, thief can take your assets, leave you in debt, and commit crimes in your name. After damage is done, it may take years, if ever, to clean up your records. Credit companies like to hang on to information like glue, they won't just delete it.

Lenders are not interested in your identity theft claim. They want to protect their own interests first. They would rather clear up identity theft question after they take your assets. And everybody police arrest claim they didn't do it. Someone else who stole their identity committed that crime. They would rather close case quickly than get involved in a complicated identity theft case.

How to Protect Yourself

1. Guard your personal information. Don't provide your Social Security number, or any financial information, to anyone without knowing why they need it.

By Stephen Bucaro

With stock market in steep decline, people are looking for safe places to invest their savings. Many banks and investment companies are pushing annuities. Annuities offer a higher interest rate than CD's, but are they safe?

You could view an annuity as a tax deferred CD. You don't pay taxes on interest until you start drawing from annuity. But there are some important differences between an annuity and a CD.

An annuity is a product offered by an insurance company. With giant corporations like Enron, Kmart, Worldcom, and United Airlines going bankrupt, can you guarantee that insurance company won't fold, leaving you with nothing? Insurance companies are insured by re-insurers, like General Re. But it seems no matter how large a company is, you can't be sure it won't fold. The bankruptcy of a large insurance company might cause re-insurer to collapse along with it.

Bank CD's are insured by Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) for up to $100,000 per bank. The FDIC is a branch of U.S. Government, who, as you know, are people who print money. If they go bankrupt, we'll have more to worry about than just losing our savings!