February « 2011 « id theft fraud prevention

February 25, 2011

ID Theft Protection – Learn Why ID Theft Protection is Critically Important For Your Business

Filed under: Legal — Tags: Benefit, Financial Details, Financial Information, Hackers, Id Theft Insurance, Insurance, Insurance Protection, Intruders, Losses, New Accounts, Personal Data, Personal Information, Scope, Spyware Programs, Viruses — admin @ 4:32 pm

Madison Conley asked:

Stealing another person’s identification information with nefarious intentions is a crime. Usually, offenders commit this crime to get a benefit, or a service or credit account. Because of the huge losses that may be incurred due to such identity thefts, people and businesses all over the world are forced to take ID theft protection measures. Since there are different methods available, you have to employ the most appropriate one that suits your needs.

You should decide the risks that have to be covered by the method employed. For instance, if you do your business through the Internet and your computer, you must protect your personal data and system from being accessed by such hackers or criminals. If your personal information is used for obtaining a loan or similar purposes, you can take ID theft insurance that offers protection.

The foremost thing you should adopt for ID theft protection is to use highly secure websites. You should remember the fact that all websites are not protected and encrypted. But the websites that have such a protection are very particular about letting their users know about this protection.

As soon as you submit your personal and financial information to these sites, they make it a point to encrypt such details immediately. This protects your information from being stolen by evil-minded hackers and intruders. But, if you provide your personal and financial details to a site that is not protected like this, you provide a scope for such hackers to infringe upon your details.

Secondly, you must keep the security of your computer up to date for having foolproof ID theft protection. Many viruses and spyware programs are there. Malware may steal your personal information and pass them on to mischievous elements.

These evil minded hackers indulge in such activities for fulfilling their avaricious ends. They may open new accounts using your credit. They may use utilities at your cost or may even try to have bank accounts in your name. They may indulge in several other criminal activities. You should have suitable ID theft protection software so that all your information is encoded on your computer and these hackers can not access them.

You should realize the utmost importance of identity theft protection and hence you must protect your ID as well as your computer. Your personal information is something precious and hackers may spoil your reputation by misusing it.

Jeffrey

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February 24, 2011

Impact of Mobile ID Fraud on the future landscape of the mobile platform

Filed under: Good Stuff — Tags: Id Fraud, Landscape, Mobile Platform — admin @ 10:32 pm

asked:

Ruby

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February 23, 2011

ID Theft Protection As a White Collar Crime

Filed under: Legal — Tags: Bank Account Numbers, Consumer Complaint, Credit Bureaus, Credit Reporting Agencies, Experian, Federal Trade Commission, Information Solutions, Investigation Fbi, Major Credit Reporting Agencies, Precautionary Measures, Protective Measures, Social Security Number, Theft Victim, Unscrupulous Individuals, White Collar Crimes — admin @ 2:12 am

Matthew Stanton asked:

We are living in the information age today but one of the drawbacks of easily accessible data is that your personal information may be just lying out there waiting to be snatched by identity thieves. Identity theft has grown to be pervasive and is now one of the dominant white collar crimes today.

The Federal Trade Commission reports that identity theft is the largest consumer complaint and the fastest growing crime in America. In 2007, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported that identity theft affected 9.91 million Americans. In addition, there are probably many more cases that went unreported. Identity theft has accounted for $52,600,000,000 in losses in 2007. Most identity theft victims never know their identity has been stolen until they get phone calls and letters from collections agencies or even the IRS telling them they owe money.

ID theft victims usually experience that fixing the problem can be a nightmare. On average, victims spend up to 600 hours and thousand of dollars in expenses just to prove they are innocent. Worse, contrary to judicial practice, most creditors consider the ID theft victim guilty until they prove otherwise.

The problem is that many people do not take ID theft seriously and do not take the necessary ID theft protective measures. There are many precautionary measures you must do in order to protect yourself from ID theft. The first thing you should do is to check your credit reports at least once a year from all three credit bureaus in order to make sure you do not have accounts you do not know about. The major credit reporting agencies include Equifax, Experian Information Solutions and TransUnion.

In addition, you should shred or burn papers with credit card or bank account numbers, Social Security numbers, etc. These documents may fall to unscrupulous individuals and the personal information might be used to commit ID theft. You should also avoid putting your Social Security number on anything, unless it is legally required. Some checks have the issuers Social Security number on them and some drivers license routinely use Social Security number. This is a big mistake. You should check with the local DMV and bank to see if they offer another option.

In todays information age, physically stealing mail and papers is not the only way to get information.One of the disturbing trends that identity thieves use is phishing. This is a criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive financial and personal information by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Phishing uses spam, email or pop-up messages to deceive Internet users into disclosing credit card numbers, bank account information, Social Security numbers, passwords, and other sensitive information. These e-mails appear to come from a legitimate company, usually a financial institution or credit card issuer, urging you to immediately reply with personal information so your account is not deactivated.

Vigilance is the key to ID theft protection. Always file a police report promptly after discovering ID theft as you will need it in disputing fraudulent charges.

Lillian

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February 21, 2011

Recovering From Id Theft

Filed under: Legal — Tags: Chemotherapy, Complexity, Credit Report, Customer Service Representatives, Emotional Impact, Emotional Strength, Federal Trade Commission, Financial Information, Fraud Investigators, Identity Theft, Information Gathering, Institutions, Lawyer, Paced Technology, Proper Authorities — admin @ 7:54 am

Tina L Douglas asked:

Gone were the days when only tangible properties get stolen. With the fast-paced technology, practically anything can be taken away from anyone – dead or alive. Yes, the dead is not exemption.

So, you’re identity has been tampered. So, your credit standing is now a mess. So, what do you do next? Where do you ask for help? Recovering from identity theft is comparable to regaining strength after a series of chemotherapy. The financial as well as emotional impact could be great. The process involves information gathering, reporting, follow through, resolution and continual monitoring.

1. Information Gathering – Collate all information pertinent to what was stolen from you. Keep in mind that everything should be properly documented, even your simplest conversation with anybody – the time of call, who you spoke with, what was discussed and agreed upon. Get a record of all the fraudulent financial information. Freeze the credit or bank account involved. Obtain a copy of your credit report. Get a hold of a receiving copy of anything that you send out to anyone, even the report you provide the local police department.

2. Reporting – You need to contact quite a number of institutions to assist you with the unfortunate event. Proper authorities include, but are not limited to, the Federal Trade Commission and the local police department, your bank or credit company’s fraud investigators, your lawyer, and more importantly, you support group. You will need a lot of emotional strength as you go through a very lengthy process of reclaiming your own identity.

3. Follow Through – Ensure that you have spoken to the right people. More often than not, the issue of identity theft gets worse when one settles with reporting the concern to front-liner support such as customer service representatives. These individuals may log your concern but they are not experts on how to treat the complexity of your case. Whenever possible, ask for the company’s fraud expert.

4. Resolution and Continual Monitoring
Be in constant communication with your lawyer. You hired him not only to help you regain what was lost, but also to defend you. When identity is stolen, it’s a big issue of trust. So take note to hire the lawyer whom you personally know and would at least attest to your real personality.

Bear in mind that everything should not stop the moment you have regained your identity and cleaned up all the mess. It is a must that you protect yourself by doing preventive measures such as subscribing to credit monitoring services. These services monitor the activities of your accounts and would alert you the moment any changes happen. You can then validate them as they happen instead of waiting for something big to explode in your face. Prevention best serves as your shield.

Roberta

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February 20, 2011

Say Hello to Medical Id Bling

Filed under: Quick Profit — Tags: Hello, Medical Id — admin @ 2:10 am

asked:

Christopher

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February 15, 2011

Medical ID Theft Spawns New Compliance Requirements

Filed under: Legal — Tags: Ama, American Medical Association, August 1, Bad Debt, Compliance Requirements, Creditor, Federal Trade Commission, Ftc, Health Care Providers, Infraction, Medical Associations, Medical Care, Medical Practice, Monetary Penalties, Red Flag — admin @ 7:13 am

Matt J. Morris asked:

Identity theft is the number one crime in America. Medical identity theft, where individuals receive medical care using stolen false identities, is widely considered to be the fastest growing type of this crime. An increasing number of people are falling victim to this crime and are having their lives turned upside down, while being forced to spend hundreds of hours to clear their good name. The cost to business has most recently been estimated at nearly $50 billion dollars per year.

In response to this growing problem the Federal Trade Commission is now requiring an ID Theft Red Flag Program be in place for any medical practice that does not collect complete payment at the time it provides services to its patients. Any practice that is billing insurance on behalf of its patients, where the patient is ultimately responsible for the payment, is now being considered a “creditor” by the FTC, and falls under these requirements. The deadline for laving a program in place has been moved back to August 1, 2009, as the FTC found many industries still unaware of their obligations under this rule. It is at that point that the FTC will begin to enforce civil and monetary penalties per infraction.

Although the American Medical Association (AMA) and other medical associations have argued that they should not fall under this rule, the FTC recently responded with a nine page letter making it clear they would not be granting an exemption to these requirements for health care providers.

The purpose of these requirements is to minimize the risk to individuals that have had their information stolen for the purpose of identity theft. While having to comply with a new law may at first seem frustrating, practices will be reducing their liability and minimizing the expense of providing services where payment would otherwise go uncollected. Medical identity theft can often go unnoticed, mixed in with a practices’ bad debt from services that are unable to be collected when the actual patient is unknown. Third party payors can also demand a refund from physicians if identity theft is discovered after the payment has been applied. Ultimately, the financial cost of this growing problem is most often born by the practice, and good policies and staff awareness can reduce that cost.

The “Red Flag Rules” requires practices to develop an identity theft program that contains written “reasonable policies and procedures” to:

Identify relevant patterns, practices, and specific forms activity that are “red flags,” Detect these patterns, or “red flags”; Respond to those detected to prevent and mitigate identity theft; and Ensure the program is updated periodically to reflect changes in risks. In administering such a program, a practice would need to: Illustrate approval of the program from its board or board committee; Appoint a designee(s) as a red flag officer; Train staff on awareness, red flags, and appropriate responses; Exercise oversight of service provider arrangements.

While some health care practices have begun to check identification prior to providing services this will now be a necessary step for all providers that have patients covered under this rule. The identity theft red flags that need to be identified in a policy fall under these categories: Suspicious documents; Suspicious identifying information; Unusual or suspicious activity related to patient; and/or Notices from patients, victims of identity theft, insurance investigators, law enforcement, about possible identity theft.

Training of staff is a very important element to this program as not only new procedures will need to be adopted, but also a new awareness among staff needs to be created to adequately follow policies. Most employees within the health care industry know very little about this problem and will find it difficult to identify the red flags, follow proper reporting requirements, and recognize the appropriate responses if their thinking and behavior has not been impacted by this training.

Proper training should also impact behavior related to how information is handled, and go a long way towards data theft and breaches that are increasingly common. This is especially true when 61% of current data breaches are a result of administrative error.

According to Betsy Broder, the Assistant Director, Division of Privacy and Identity Protection at the Federal Trade Commission, the FTC will be looking for “reasonable efforts” at this initial point of enforcement. According to Broder, “What we’re looking for is good faith efforts on their part to develop programs.”

The FTC has stated they do not believe the requirements will impose significant burdens for most providers. Given the risk-based nature of the rule’s requirements, programs can be flexible and tailored to the degree of risk faced by a particular provider. While it is essential that all the components above are included, they may be more or less extensive based upon the risk factors involved.

Gladys

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February 14, 2011

Is the Internet a Major Factor? Identity Theft

Filed under: Yahoo Address — Tags: Identity Theft, Internet Identity — admin @ 1:53 pm

asked:

Michael

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February 12, 2011

What Type of ID Theft Product Would You Want to Offer Your Clients?

Filed under: Legal — Tags: Analogy, Authorities, Fire Department, Id Theft, Instruction Book, Insurance, Insurance Company, Knobs, Monitoring Service, Proof, Reimbursement Services, Resolution Services, Service Monitor, Victim Services, Water Hose — admin @ 12:57 am

J. M. Smith asked:

Let’s start with this analogy. You’re a home owner and the fire department calls you to tell you of a new service they offer in case you were to experience a fire.

The first service is complete monitoring. The fire dept will monitor your house 24/7 and let’s say they discovered one early morning your home had a fire while you slept. Their monitoring service would then call your home alerting you to vacate because they have detected a fire. Although this would be a great service and potentially life saving you still have the fire to put out.

Having a monitoring service for ID theft is great and better than nothing but if you become a victim what about the work it takes to report it to all the necessary authorities.

The second service they offer is an upgrade. Let’s say now they would not only monitor your home but they would also send out a truck. When the truck arrives they pull up to the house, someone gets out and gives you an instruction book. They’ll show you how to hook up the water hose, turn all the right knobs and how to direct the hose to the fire for correct positioning.

Silly, but this is like ID theft resolution services. You become a victim of ID theft and resolution services will walk you through the steps to clean up the mess or put the fire out. It’s still your time on your own with guidance. Some folks literally have to carry with them the rest of their lives proof that they have been a victim.

The third service they offer will monitor your home, send out a truck but then also pay you back for the damages you have. Well, since you really didn’t know what to do with the equipment and although the fire dept. helped out;You experienced more damage than had the fire dept. been able to put it out themselves and not only that, their service is underwritten by some insurance company so you could still have the potential of being denied.

ID theft reimbursement services are just that. They are are underwritten policies that you still pay a small premium too every month. They know the FTC’s stance on your timeline of responsibility to notify them if you become a victim. Also, who walks you through the process? What’s that persons experience? and do you have the time away or at your place of employment to make all the necessary calls? The average victim spends an average of 600 hours to fix the problem. That’s 15 40 hour work weeks. Will your employer allow you the time off?

Here’s the fourth service. The fire dept. will monitor your home, call you if they detect a fire, send out a truck as fast as they can and instead of walking you through the process they put out the fire and not with rookies but veterans and when the fire is out they begin to build back what was damaged to it’s original condition before the fire with the best and most experienced contractors in the area. Complete restoration to it’s original condition before the fire.

This is the type of ID theft service you need. A complete wall of protection.

Again, back to time. I would rather sign one form and have a professional do the work for me. In fact if you knew the team of experts were hired by the Kuwaiti Gov’t to find Saddam Husseins assets, or hired to protect the Pope, or hired to run Enron, the number one financial forensic experts in the nation and risk consulting management company doing the homework for you to restore your Identity and in partnership with another 34 year old NYSE to help with the legal issues that you would need, how comfortable would you feel now? All for less than a bottle of water a day.

Oh yeah, the other services don’t even mention the legal consultation you would also need if you become a victim from the other forms of ID theft. Try calling that big social security number company when your sitting in jail for criminal ID theft on Christmas Day or after working hours. All these other services only talk about financial ID theft and leave out the whole picture.

So what type of service do you want your clients to have from the fire dept?

Dorothy

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February 7, 2011

A Complete Wall of Protection With Your ID Theft Coverage

Filed under: Legal — Tags: Bank Of America, Bank Of America Corp, Breaches, Credit Card Processor, Cyber World, Diego State University, Drivers License, Dsw Shoes, Government Records, Lexisnexis, License Numbers, Medical Id, San Diego State University, Social Security Numbers, Timewarner — admin @ 9:53 am

J. M. Smith asked:

Everyone seems to have the answer to this epidemic; Million dollar coverage’s, insurance for reimbursement, resolution to walk you through the process and promises of 100% guarantees that you’ll never become a victim.

Where do you begin to weed out all of the junk from the good?

Let’s start here in answering some of these questions and you decide. I think it’ll become pretty obvious to see how to get protection that will work to save you time and money.

You’ll need to start first by knowing that you cannot and will not prevent yourself from becoming a victim. It is extremely dangerous for anyone to display their social number in public. I could take that number right now and go to just about any medical clinic and get medical treatment using that social. Most of these clinics don’t ask for ID, neither do they run the social and verify that the social matches the ID. That’s medical ID theft.

Be aware of the 100% guarantee that you will never become a victim. Your information is already irretrievably out there in cyber world. Just about every where you shop has information about you and if you have a credit report your data has already been sold.

Consider these breaches:

1. CardSystems Solutions Inc. a major credit card processor. At risk: 40 million people.
2. Seisint, a unit of LexisNexis that compiles information from government records and holds personal data about most American citizens was repeatedly attacked. Hackers gained access to U.S. account holders’ social security numbers, names, addresses and drivers license numbers in 59 break-in attempts over two years. At risk 310,000
3. DSW Shoes, data lost from more than 100 stores stolen. At risk 1.4 million.
4. San Diego State University. At risk 178,000
5. ChoicePoint. At risk 145,000
6. CitiFinancial. At risk 3.9 million
7. TimeWarner. At risk 600,000
8. Bank of America Corp. At risk 1.2 million

The list goes on and on. I could write for a couple of days on these breaches. The idea here is to show you how your information is irretrievably out there. It doesn’t matter what you do with your information, it’s what these companies are doing with it. Think you can still be covered 100%?
Here are ten things anyone can find out about you:

1. Your current and previous address (from the US postal service and credit bureaus)
2. Any criminal convictions (from court records)
3. Whether you have a professional license (from licensing agencies)
4. Whether you have filed lawsuits or been a defendant in a lawsuit (from court records)
5. If you’ve had speeding tickets, drunken driving convictions, or other marks on your record (DMV)
6. What cars, trucks, boats and planes you own (from state motor vehicle records)
7. Whether you have filed for bankruptcy or had liens placed against your property
(from court records)
8. What you have pledged as collateral for bank loans
(from Universal Commercial Code usually in county recorders’ offices)
9. What pieces of real estate you own and how much you paid (from county tax records)
10. Whether there is a warrant out for your arrest (from court records and police agencies)
Some of this information is published in your local newspaper and much of this information is at no cost, it just takes a little time. To a thief it doesn’t matter the time he takes because he’ll get paid.

Ok, so if your information is out there and you can’t protect yourself then what do you do?
You slow the thief down. I’m not going to cover that right now I just want the facts out to show you that you are not guaranteed 100% that your ID is protected. Once you understand that, you can then start to ask these other questions.

If you do become a victim what should you do?

I believe there are three things that are essential to your being 100% covered.

The first of these is that you have a complete restoration service available. Not a service that will walk you through the process. I say this because the average victim will spend over 600 hours to repair the mess. That’s 15, 40 hour work weeks. I don’t have that much time and most probably your boss isn’t going to let you sit there at the office making calls to fix your problem. Many victims never do clean up the mess and just when they think they are safe and have the problem taken care of they find out from some other source the information is still there.

There are some people who will have to carry with them the rest of their lives a piece of paper stating their victimization as proof to law enforcement if arrested or detained. A good restoration service will assign an agent to your case and begin the process on your behalf to clean up and clear your good name.

Know this, reimbursement services may reimburse you for the money lost but do not reimburse for time spent. You’ve heard, time is money and just because you get reimbursed you could spend your life or well over 600 hours clearing your good name.

Also know that reimbursement or insurances generally want you to file a claim and if you have ever had to deal with filing claims with insurance companies you know that could be a nightmare. They also know that you as a victim have to report the ID theft within 60 days or you could be held 100% liable. Read the FTC’s report “ID Theft Take Charge”.

So while restoration services are good they still don’t completely cover you or you could even say while reimbursement or insurance services are good they still don’t completely cover you.

Second you need a monitoring service. Once again time is money. Unless you want to monitor your credit everyday and spend your time doing this I suggest pay the monthly fee usually $10.00 a month will do this for you. Actually a good restoration company will also monitor your credit for you as well. I suggest the restoration company that monitors Experian. Why? Because Experian does a daily download of address changes.

Now here’s the kicker. This is by far the third part of the coverage no one ever talks about and is in my opinion the most important.

Ask yourself this question. If you are arrested or detained because of criminal ID theft, do you think you might need access to an attorney? Let’s say it’s a holiday or after normal working hours and you’re pulled over and told there are warrants for your arrest. Wouldn’t you like to talk to an attorney either on the spot to keep you from being arrested or at the county jail?

Why doesn’t anyone talk about the third part? Because they don’t know.

So here is what most folks do. They see a lot of advertising on ID theft; they get scared because of some ad on T.V or some program on a celebrity show. They think it’s the best decision with little or no research and call the company advertised. Again, generally a reimbursement or insurance service is good but then the victim finds out they need an attorney and most attorneys are over $200.00 an hour. Try this one on for size. If you’re arrested try calling your insurance company you have ID protection with and see what advice you get. And that’s if they’re open after hours and even if it is within normal working hours what type of legal advice are they going to offer you? That’s right, none.

An attorney will almost over 90% of the time be needed if you fall victim to this crime. Think about this. The first thing everyone says to start the process of notification is filing a police report. If I have to file a police report I want an attorney’s guidance. If I’m arrested I want access to an attorney and I don’t want to pay $200.00 or more an hour and I want it 24/7 because ID thieves are at work 24/7, right?

Don’t let this ID theft stuff get complicated. Just ask the right questions and do your research. Here is the complete wall of protection, Restoration, Monitoring and Legal. Any of these left out and you could be in trouble.

Barry

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February 4, 2011

Id Theft and Credit Card Fraud

Filed under: Legal — Tags: Courage, Credit Card Fraud, Credit Card Payments, Credit Fraud, How To Prevent Identity Theft, Internet Browsers, Internet Explorer, Issuance, Legal Documents, Passing Moment, Recession, Safe Web, Social Security Numbers, Thieves, Thinkers — admin @ 8:18 am

Tina L Douglas asked:

We are in this period that due to recession, there are increasingly high demands for credit card protection due to fraud. Identity thieves now are becoming more ambiguous and cunning each passing moment. This is especially true to the online thieves. Not being seen by those who they are attacking gives them more courage to commit this crime.

Luckily for us, there are more ways than one to prevent ourselves from becoming a victim of these thieves. A little intelligence and sound judgment with increased awareness of this treacherous tactics can make us excellent thinkers on how to prevent identity theft.

Before going to the battle we must know who our enemies are and how are we going defeat them. You may think that a credit card fraud and identity theft is the same. Credit card fraud means stealing the credit card info of another person to purchase products and services. Identity theft means stealing a person’s data like social security numbers and pose as the owner of this data. Identity theft has been used to illegally aid them in issuance of legal documents such as passports, driver’s license and this is widely used by terrorists as well.

There are a lot ways in which we can check if we are secured online, while we are doing our online shopping or signing up to a certain website. There are internet browsers that provide information on whether the website is safe and secured. Firefox, like Internet Explorer, displays an icon that serves as an indicator if you are on a safe web page.

There are a lot of prominent websites that accepts credit card payments using encryption technology. This means that the data that you enter like your credit card number will be unreadable to anyone except for those who are processing the data. This means that your credit card info will not be hacked once you entered it and it will remain unreadable to them.

It is advisable not to open any suspicious emails or an email that comes from people you don’t know and more so answer them. Most of them will lure you to give them your credit card info for whatever purpose that it may serve them.

Identity thieves also use “phishing scam” and they send emails to unsuspecting targets and asking them to go to a website to input credit card info. These criminals then get the CC and personal information and use it for themselves.

In receiving phone calls, it is advisable not to entertain any calls that ask for your personal or credit card info. This is clearly a scam. The rule of thumb is, if you didn’t make the call, and then you shouldn’t be giving out any information. Callers can disguise as someone you know and there are people who have talent in convincing other people to give out whatever information they will need. So be very careful.

It’s not that hard to protect ourselves from these fraudulent acts, we just need to be organized, like keeping personal data, credit cards and tams in safe place. Don’t just leave it anywhere, don’t keep it out of your sight. If there are changes in your account, notify the right company immediately. And for your billing statements, receipts that have your credit card number shred it if you don’t need to keep it.

If for some reason your card was misplaced, lost or even worst stolen, call their 24 hour hotline. By always being on your toes and being proactive, we can all address the issue of credit fraud and identity theft, and not become a victim.

Stephen

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February 3, 2011

How to Protect Yourself From ID Theft

Filed under: Legal — Tags: Address Changes, Bank Statements, Chat Rooms, Consumer Complaint, Credit Applications, Drivers Licenses, Exercise Extreme Care, Financial Statements, Id Theft Protection, Intervals, Paperwork, Proliferation, Social Networks, Thieves, Web Id — admin @ 5:28 am

Dale G Davidson asked:

Every year nearly 15 million Americans become victims of ID theft. Identity theft is now the number one consumer complaint made to the Federal Trade Commission. Studies indicate that over $900 and one hundred and sixty-five hours are spent in restoring accounts after ID theft.

In order to minimize the chances of being caught, identity thieves churn accounts very often, use as much or as little as quickly as possible and move on to next account. Accounts can be bought on-line for less than a dollar in forums and chat rooms across the web.

Id thieves are lurking.

Id thieves are becoming even more sophisticated, so even more stringent protection is required. With the proliferation of social networks where a public profile is required, it has become necessary exercise extreme care when issuing personal information.

Your identity which is the only thing that is really yours, can be stolen and used in a variety of ways, including drivers licenses, job and credit applications. Some of the basics in ID theft protection include shredding financial documents and paperwork with personal information and removing Social Security cards when they are not needed. Because we now live in a digital age, where all information can be transformed and stored in digital format, we should be fully aware and remember that although security exists, your information is still accessible to others.

Protect Your Credit Report

Inspect all financial statements and monitor your credit report regularly. Look for any irregularities or address changes or unrecognized charges that indicate that your account may be subject to takeover.

Monitor your credit card and bank statements for unrecognized transactions.

One of the advantages of online access to your accounts is that it can be done any time. If you can, frequently check your accounts online, this should give a slight edge over identity thieves.

Credit and financial statements are mailed at regular scheduled intervals.

Become aware of the intervals and if a particular statement does not arrive within the expected period, contact the financial institution as this could indicate some interruption or record interception.

Monitor your credit report.

Your report includes your Social Security Number, employers and all debts, even those that are closed. Besides helping you detect account takeover, credit report monitoring can alert you to new and unauthorized accounts that have been opened in your name.

Other uses of Stolen Identity

Your Stolen Identity can also be used for other non-credit uses such as job applications,or the purchase of services such as cable and telephone. These incidents make ID theft a bit harder to detect as they require access to public records.

Thwart the thieves

Your Social Security Earnings and Benefits Statement should be ordered annually. Inspect the statement for unrecognised employers – This may indicate that your identity is being used by someone else for a job. Look for unrecognised benefits outlined in the statements from your health insurer..Although there may be no payments required, unrecognised benefits may indicate that your identity is use somewhere to the advantage of receiving benefits.

Seek assistance

Crime is a full-time job and protection should also be implemented on a 24-hr basis. There are automated services that implement 24-hr protection, so that you can continue your activities worry free. Services available today include real-time monitoring of your records for irregularities and coverage for any expenses involved in recovering your identity.

Everyone is at risk of identity theft. Everyone with a credit card, a bank account, a driver’s license or a Social Security Number is at risk. Everyone who uses the Internet is at risk. Young children, students and adults of all ages are at risk. Take steps to protect yourself from ID theft. Your identity is perhaps the only thing that you can really own.

Some of the ID theft that occurs, has been observed to occur with the collusion of inside workers, either knowingly or unknowingly. Thieves are developing clever way to get your information, so you it is now even more important that you protect yourself at all times. Your identification is the only thing that you really own.

Melissa

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February 2, 2011

ID Theft Methods

Filed under: Legal — Tags: Clearing Houses, Criminal Enterprise, Criminal Organization, Databases, Digital Identities, Ebay, Financial Institutions, Identity Theft, Keyboar, Keystroke Loggers, New York Times, Payment Processor, Tens, Trick Users, Usernames And Passwords — admin @ 2:18 pm

Dale G Davidson asked:

According to a story reported in the New York Times, one identity theft ring stole upwards of 30000 identities and made tens of millions of dollars during a two-year period by reselling merchandise bought with fraudulent credit cards.

The success of this criminal enterprise was due to the fact that an employee of the company that had access to consumers’ digital identities was bribed and sold the information to the gang of thieves, who then opened fraudulent accounts.

The transfer of personal information in digital form has made us more vulnerable.We need to become more vigilant when transferring personal information.

Your digital identity can be stolen in a number of ways.It can be stolen from the databases of financial institutions such banks,ISP’s retailers and data clearing houses. There is very little you can personally do to prevent an employee of your ISP from selling your information to anyone.

Identity thieves are clever and adopt sneaky methods into tricking the unsuspected into revealing personal information.

Some things of which you should be aware

Spoofing
Identity thieves set up fraudulent websites that look identical to the real thing and trick users into enter logon information usernames and passwords which is recorded and used to access your account at the real website.

Phishing
Phishing attacks start with an email message that purports to be from your bank, credit card company, ISP or e-commerce sites such as eBay or Payment processor such as PayPal. The message often requires that you address an immediate problem with your account and includes a link to what appears the web site sign-in page. The site, however is a fake that is hosted on servers that belong to the criminal organization, where you unknowingly enter your login info. From there you may be re-directed to the real site or be presented with an error message while your information is recorded.

keystroke loggers
keystroke loggers are programs that keep track of every key you press on your keyboard. This information is sent to a remote attacker, who scans for useful bits of data such as passwords and account numbers. Keystroke loggers can also come with a list of websites such as banks and e-commerce sites and start recording as soon the corresponding URL is entered into the browser.

Mail Theft and Dumpster Diving
Thieves steal the mail out your mailbox and financial information is retrieved from your trash.

Shred all unwanted documents that contain personal and or financial information
Get a shredder to shred personal documents before putting them in the thrash.

The pain of being a victim of id theft can be arduous and prevention is much better than the cure.

Stanley

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February 1, 2011

Natural Beauty Through Mineral Makeup

Filed under: Notorized — Tags: Mineral Makeup, Natural Beauty, Natural Makeup — admin @ 2:12 pm

asked:

Kimberly

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