The Oracle of Omaha shares our pain!
It is not surprising that many well known personalities are targeted not only because of their vast wealth, but because dumb criminals actually believe that the wealthy enjoy so much excess that they wouldn’t notice a few missing coins.
The spotlight shines brightly enough to cast a shadow over the financial affairs of many in the public eye. That spotlight however, hasn’t necessarily blinded them.
Oprah, American Idol finalist Ruben Studdard and even Herman Munster have all made the identity theft headlines in the past couple of years. Enter Warren Buffett.
A story in the March 2008 issue of Fortune Magazine cites the latest instance of a high profile identity theft victim. For those who don’t know, Buffett recently passed Bill Gates as the richest man in the world, with a net worth around 62 billion dollars.
According to the account, the Berkshire Hathaway CEO recently checked his credit history and discovered that his FICO score was slightly lower than the U.S. median. The less than stellar FICO score was attributed to a supposed “impostor” who may have compromised Buffett’s credit record.
Apparently, Mr. Buffett’s credit report cites 23 missed payments on a loan held by an HBSC branch in Nevada. The total loan amount was a whopping $294.00. Buffett claims the account was never his. Nice try Warren.
Fortune reporter Telis Demos indicated that a recent study found that 25% of credit reports contain serious errors.
Although most of us will never share the financial spotlight with money making titans like Oprah and Buffett, we do share the same vulnerability.
Fortunately for Mr. Buffett, he didn’t ignore his credit history, he actually looked at it.
The rest of us would do well to follow that sage example.
