Identity Theft: Three Important Words for Consumers!

Identity Theft: Three Important Words for Consumers!

LAKEWOOD, Colo., Feb 10 /PRNewswire/ -- VIDEO PROFESSOR CEO and founder John Scherer has three important words for consumers. "Contact your legislators," says Scherer.

In noting National Consumer Protection Week, Scherer wants to remind consumers everywhere there's one group of people who could care less about consumers; people who want to steal your identity.

"Legislatures in many states have Identity Theft Legislation of various types on their current agendas," says Scherer. "Let your elected officials know that you not only want protection against ID Theft; let them know you want stiffer penalties for convicted offenders."

Scherer, known to millions of Americans as the VIDEO PROFESSOR knows full well the impact of Identity Theft. He was a victim himself.

"Frankly," says Scherer, "I don't know what's worse; the crime itself or trying to prosecute the criminals. I just heard the story of a North Carolina couple. Identity crooks took them for 45-thousand dollars in bogus credit card charges and the system is doing nothing to help them. Nothing. It's shameful."

Scherer and his company, which produces a nationally known line of award- winning computer tutorials has added a new product: ID Theft Protection.

"The first thing you have to do is protect yourself," says Scherer. "If you can't, make sure the laws in your state protect you in recovering your losses and making sure the person who did it to you is put away for a long, long time."

In Scherer's case, there was a conviction. Michelle Kurz, who already had long list of prior felony convictions, was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

"When she was sentenced," Scherer says, "the judge told her she'd be serving hard time for her crime. Those were his words exactly."

Kurz however, is serving her sentence in a minimum-security facility in Pueblo, Colorado and is eligible for parole in just over three years.

"Here's one of the problems when these kind of crooks are caught, prosecuted and sentenced," says Scherer. "Because it's not a violent crime, judges tend to be more lenient. Stealing a person's identity may not be violent," he says, "but it certainly is vile."

"Government agencies, the Better Business Bureau and the news media are doing a terrific job alerting people to the dangers of Identity Theft. These crooks rummage through your hard drive as easily as they rummage through your trash can," says Scherer.

"We joined the fight by providing a lot of free resources at our own website www.videoprofessor.com with valuable and free information available to all consumers. And if the visits to our website are any indication," he says, "people are paying attention."

But Scherer says the system has to help the people it's in place to protect.

"It does none of us any good, if people who literally steal your life from you, serve a few months and then are released to do it all over again. They're predators, plain and simple. Just look at the stories about ID Theft rings run from inside prisons!"

So the VIDEO PROFESSOR has this final piece of advice. "Call, write or e-mail your legislators. Tell them you want tough enforcement of the law, and tough sentences to keep Identity Thieves behind bars where they can't hurt society anymore than they already have."

Good advice indeed from someone who learned the harsh realities of Identity Theft himself. And someone who is fighting back.

About VIDEO PROFESSOR

Based in Lakewood, Colorado, VIDEO PROFESSOR has been the leader in comprehensive self-paced computer software tutorials for over 18 years. The core of VIDEO PROFESSOR's learning initiative is to provide home users as well as corporate professionals with valuable and user-friendly learning solutions for today's most common software titles. In addition to pioneering the future of easy-to-use online tutorials, VIDEO PROFESSOR currently ships over 250,000 CD-ROMs every month and has helped over 5 million households learn the computer skills they need to remain competitive in today's computer driven marketplace. The complete VIDEO PROFESSOR library is also available on-line to stream direct to computers. For information on VIDEO PROFESSOR's full line of "What You See is What You Do" tutorials, please visit our Web site at http://www.videoprofessor.com/.


Source: VIDEO PROFESSOR

CONTACT: Brian Olson, Director of Marketing Communications of VIDEO
PROFESSOR Inc, +1-303-232-1244 ext. 380, bolson@videoprofessor.com

Web site: http://www.videoprofessor.com/


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