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Illinois County Offers ID Theft / INSTANT SEARCHES Monitoring
Service
2/11/2008
Jarrod A. Clabaugh - Source of Title
Reprinted with
permission
The McHenry County
Recorder's office recently entered into a contract with Fidlar
Technologies that will allow the county's residents to receive an
alert when their personal information is viewed in the INSTANT SEARCHES database. For an annual fee of $12.99, county residents
will receive either a text message, an e-mail message or a
telephone call letting them know that someone has viewed their
private information.
The program was implemented as a way to guard the county's
constituents from identity theft and mortgage fraud. Because
county records often contain Social Security numbers, identity
thieves and other criminals often use these records to commit
crimes. As more and more counties place their records in online
databases, many industry insiders believe that identity theft will
only grow. McHenry County is currently redacting all of the Social
Security numbers from its records and has completed those dating
back to 1958. The county intends to have all personal information
redacted from the records dating back to 1839 within the next five
years.
"This is a brand new thing," said Phyllis Walters, the
recorder for the county, about the alert system in an interview
with The Courier News. "If we can keep one person from having
problems, it is worth it."
Although the staff cannot under Illinois law remove any
information from the public record, it can redact information that
appears in the online databases. The original documents without
any changes are maintained in Walters' office. Citing the havoc
wreaked on identity theft victims, Walters expressed delight with
the new fraud alert system. County residents can visit a Website
to sign up for the annual service or call an 800 number to enroll
in the program.
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