Identity theft is on the rise with one in five Australians likely to, or already being victim of credit related fraud including identity theft.

Recently a report was commissioned that outlined the depth of the Identity Theft problem in Australia and the figures are alarming.

There was more than $2 billion lost in identity theft related crimes in 2005.  We are awaiting more recent figures but for now the outlook is not pretty…

This is a warning to every Australian, internet user or not, to be careful with their private and personal information.

Too many inocent Aussies are being ripped of without even knowing about it until it is far too late..

There were approx. 7% or 1.2 Million Australains falling victim of personal mail theft and that is frightening, as often your mail will contain enough information to use your identity to apply for credit cards, get ‘replacement’ identification or even remortgage your home..

“Credit card crime is especially prevalent, with almost 10% of Australians surveyed falling victim to someone either stealing or skimming their credit card. People aged from 25 to 49 years are the most impacted by mail theft.” it was recently stated.

Your Credit File is like your ‘Credit Passport’ and should be treated with as much respect.  You should always know what is on your credit file and why it is there.

MyCra.com.au offers a paid service where clients can get a copy of their credit file within 3 business hours and have their credit files repaired upon review.

This has been Graham Doessel and this has been my comment

You can reach Graham Doessel at (Aust) 1300 667 239, or at www.mortgagenow.com.au

Graham is the founder and CEO of Mortgage Now, Pro Legal (www.prolegal.net.au) and has involvement in a number of charities and other associated businesss, all designed to give you a hand when you’re in trouble.

This video goes for a little over an hour but is a must see if you are interested in the next big thing to come from Google.

This will replace email, MSN and other hosted solutions all in one….

I watched and thisk it is super cool and reccommend you all watch it as soon as you can.

I will be implimenting Google Wave as soon as I can (on my websites) to make communication with my friends, family and clients a whole lot easier.

Please let me know what you think once you have watched as well.

Until next time, continue to enjoy…..

…..yourself.

Graham Doessel can be contacted at Mortgage Now, 246 Stafford Road, Stafford, Qld.  4053 | Telephone 1300 667 239 | www.mortgagenow.com.au | info@mortgagenow.com.au

Mortgage Now is Australias largest exclusivly nonconforming mortgage broker and has been placed as a finalist in the Australian Mortgage Awards Best Broker of The Year (nonconforming) for 2008 and again in 2009.  In 2006 Mortgage Now was placed as a finalist in the Telstra Business of the Year Awards.

Be Aware, If You Have A Facebook Account, You Might Be Next.. Be Careful..

The following story was copied from and belongs to:

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/security/robbed-by-facebooks-enemy-in-the-camp-20090908-ff5q.html

Robbed by Facebook’s enemy in the camp

Natasha Cann … victim of a Facebook scam.

Natasha Cann endured the Father’s Day from hell on Sunday when hackers broke into her Facebook account and proceeded to scam her closest friends out of significant amounts of money.

The 34-year-old professional who works for BHP Billiton in South Australia - and used to work in IT for the military - thought her account was locked down but the painful reality hit her on Sunday night when a friend phoned her from Singapore.

The friend had just received a Facebook message, purportedly from Cann, saying she had been seriously assaulted and robbed at gunpoint in London and urgently needed money to get home.

The message, which was sent to all of Cann’s 400 friends, asked for an initial amount of $10,000, which had to be wired in cash as soon as possible to a Western Union account.

“They were alleging that I only had my passport on me and that I couldn’t get to a bank or anything - that Western Union would be the only way,” a distraught Cann said in a phone interview.

Cann immediately contacted Facebook asking it to disable her account but Facebook only got around to doing it about 12 hours later, by which time one of Cann’s friends in Western Australia had already transferred $1000 to the scammers.

Cann tried publishing warning messages on her Facebook wall from her partner’s account before her account was disabled but these were quickly blocked by the scammers, who changed her password and the email address linked to her account.

She said she had received just 11 calls from friends about the matter and is worried about how many others had sent money to the scammers.

Furthermore, the scammers could now use the personal details gleaned from her friends’ pages to conduct targeted attacks on them.

Since Facebook is her main avenue for contact with a lot of her far-flung friends, she didn’t have email addresses or phone numbers that she could use to warn most of them.

“It’s horrendous in that it’s people I know and that I care for who could just be scammed out of a great deal of money - they’re preying on people’s good nature and good intent to make sure that I’m OK,” said Cann.

“The chap that rang from Singapore was about to jump on a plane to London and we have friends in Greece that were about to fly over as well.”

The scammers even contacted the friend who had given the $1000, saying the money wasn’t enough and that more was necessary.

Cann is frustrated that Facebook does not provide contact numbers for users to call in these situations and took so long to respond to her emails.

She believes Facebook should have contacted her friends quickly, telling them her account had been compromised and at the very least provided an online system for her to disable her account instantly using a secret question or other security measure.

Cann filed a report with South Australian Police yesterday but is not hopeful that they will be able to do anything to bring the overseas scammers to justice.

Sean Richmond, senior technology consultant at the security firm Sophos, said Cann’s story was “not terribly uncommon”.

He said Facebook was in a tricky position because introducing new security measures allowing people to disable their accounts instantly in the event of an attack could simply open up a new avenue for hackers.

But Richmond said that, unlike banks, who cover customers’ losses to credit-card fraud, Facebook does not suffer financial penalties when its users are defrauded.

“Facebook has not got a whole lot of incentive to do things super fast because they’re not the ones that are suffering,” he said.

Facebook would not comment on the specific issues and suggestions raised by Cann. Instead, it provided a generic statement pointing people to its security page and an email address for users to report abuse.

Until next time, continue to enjoy…..

…..Good Things

Graham Doessel can be contacted at Mortgage Now, 246 Stafford Road, Stafford, Qld.  4053 | Telephone 1300 667 239 | www.mortgagenow.com.au | info@mortgagenow.com.au

Mortgage Now is Australias largest exclusivly nonconforming mortgage broker and has been placed as a finalist in the Australian Mortgage Awards Best Broker of The Year (nonconforming) for 2008 and again in 2009.  In 2006 Mortgage Now was placed as a finalist in the Telstra Business of the Year Awards.

As Australias Largest exclusively NonConforming Mortgage Broker, this is one of the most common situations we hear about.

Clients call up and explain their situation - they have had unexpected expenses, lost a job or a range of other equally unavoidable circumstances.. means they have been unable to keep up with their home loan payments.

What should they do?

In most cases, it is what should they have already done.

As soon as you know you won’t be able to make the payment on time, you should contact your lender and let them know you are in a little trouble.  There are often a number of options available to you from simple things like :

• delaying the payment  by a week
• applying for hardship relief
• getting a moratorium on the payments

Everyones situation is very different but there are a number of standard options that can be accessed to get you through.

Other things to consider prior to getting into trouble:

• income protection insurance
• mortgage protection insurance
• unemployment insurance
• save a minimum of 3 months mortgage payments for a rainy day
• make your payments weekly instead of monthly and you will always be ahead
• setup an offset account

Everyones situation is different and at Mortgage Now ( www.mortgagenow.com.au ), we will work with your situation to find you a loan even if you are behind in your payments and been toldd no bu everyone else.

You can reach Graham Doessel and his helpful team on 1300 667 239 for a one on one no obligation chat

$10,000,000,000.00 to be injected into our Australian economy,

(that was TEN BILLION DOLLARS ! )
 

How much of it will hit YOUR pocket?….

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Below is my comment on a story from Lending Central.  See the full story here…

Graham Doessel CEO Mortgage Now www.mortgagenow.com.au September 30, 2008

I agree with Ms Neilsens comments about the need to do more and the fact that some segments of the market are finding it harder to borrow funds BUT…

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I just commented on a similar story

http://www.lendingcentral.com/2008/09/29/is-the-nightmare-over-cautious-optimism-about-swans-4bln-proposal/#comment-431

My concern is still the same. Conforming Mortgage Brokers are having more and more trouble placing their nonconforming clients in suitable products.

We are run off our feet at the moment

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 I recently posted this comment below about a story I read on www.lendingcentral.com

The full article can be found here

http://www.lendingcentral.com/2008/09/29/is-the-nightmare-over-cautious-optimism-about-swans-4bln-proposal/#comment-431

What help will there be for the nonconforming market segment?

In the past 12 months there has been a marked reduction in the numbers of lenders and the products they sell.

 This all comes back to less choice for the consumer and some of these Mums and Dads are really Hurting!

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eSuga.com is about to launch its long awaited affiliate program with a wopping 25% commission FOR THE LIFE OF THE CLIENT!

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Hi, this is Graham Doessel founder and CEO of Mortgage Now,
Firstly, let me say thank you to all of my Mortgage Now Clients for your enquiries and support, and please remember that Mortgage Now will be here to help with all your financial needs, now and into the future.

As you have helped both me and Mortgage Now become the largest exclusive non-conforming brokerage in Australia, and my personal selection as a finalist in the 2008 Australian Mortgage Awards as non conforming broker of the year, it’s time for me to give something back.

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