Posts

Showing posts from 2012

One Million Social Security Numbers Stolen in Utah

   Utah -- and therefore all of us -- has a problem.  In early April, it was announced that the Health Services department had been hacked, probably by someone in Eastern Europe, and nearly one million Social Security numbers and corresponding data were stolen -- that's one in six Utah residents. An article: http://tinyurl.com/7k7v8wh    As bad as that sounds, the worse thing (to me) is that many of these are children -- Children's Health Insurance Plan (CHIP) recipients .  A child's Social Security number can be used for many years before it is discovered.    Why might this be bad for the rest of us?  The weakness in security that led to Utah's hack may be in other states' systems.  Certainly, the ease with which the thieves broke into Utah's computers will encourage them or other thieves to try to break into other systems.    I'm just glad I've got LegalShield's Identity Theft Shield.  No plan protects 100%, but with the ID Theft Shield, I'

Do you have a good password?

Password maintenance is a pain.  Anyone active on the network knows how difficult it is to keep track of passwords.  The temptation is to keep the same password for everything and keep it simple.  I've found that a service called Lastpass.com is a way to manage passwords with one login.  It helps, but isn't perfect. Did you know that the most common password is "Password1"?  (Oops -- did I just guess your password?)  Read this very interesting article on the topic of password complexity. The Lastpass.com site I mentioned above allows you to generate very complex passwords for your various sites, then it keeps track of those complex passwords for you.  Pretty handy, really, unless you need to manually enter those passwords.  An alternative I've used is to create a password that has something static and something that varies, but both are easy to remember yet hard to guess.  Let me explain. Take a phrase that describes something about you, such as "I hat

Identity theft sweep brings attention to tax season security concerns

Image
JSOnline, a Wisconsin "paper" included this article March 5, 2012.  I'm including the full article. =============== Tax time has a reputation for being almost universally stressful. As the looming April deadline closes in, Americans are concerned with getting their taxes done correctly and on time. As financial information starts to fly between individuals, tax preparers and the IRS, concerns about personal security are rising. In late January, the federal government conducted a nationwide sweep to crack down on identity theft and tax fraud before the 2012 tax season. The timing of the effort was meant to stem the rising tide of fraudulent tax activity, which involves using stolen identities to file for tax refunds. In 2011, the IRS found as many as 260,000 identity theft fraud attempts, up from 49,000 in 2010. While the IRS is taking action to help taxpa

Lexington Police Arrest Man for ID Theft

Police arrested a man at a Lexington motel and charged him with 19 counts of identity theft Monday night. According to a police report, detectives located Jabari N. Cowart, 22, at the La Quinta Inn on Stanton Way during an identity theft investigation. Police say Cowart had 19 separate names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth in his possession. The police report also indicates detectives located a second person on his way to meet Cowart who was in possession of 40 more names. Investigators say Cowart planned to use the information to file fraudulent tax returns. Police charged Cowart with identity theft, trafficking stolen identities and possession of marijuana. Link to article

Watching Your Credit

Image
Did you know that you can get a free credit report every 12 months from each of the credit bureaus? (Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union.)  You can request the report by going to annualcreditreport.com.  Just be careful, because the bureaus will try to steer you into monthly monitoring or other costly services you may or may not want to have. I'd recommend that you stagger these reports every four months so that in a year you have one from every bureau (ex: get Equifax in Jan, Experian in April or May, Trans Union in Aug or Sept). Why is this important, you might ask?  Things happen to our credit in the course of a year that might not be accurate, or may indicated a potential identity theft in progress.  Even if you have monitoring enabled, a monitor may not be able to pick out what is legitimate and what is bogus.  And it is possible, even likely, that things reported to Experian may not show up on Trans Union's report, depending upon the reporting agency. Take a look

Teenager Sentenced for Card Skimming

Image
Tracy Kitten of www.bankinfosecurity.com writes 1/11/12 about a teenager working at McDonald's used a card skimmer to commit identity theft.  Link to article HERE . ========================== A 17-year-old was slapped with a 60-day jail sentence after he was busted for skimming credit and debit details while working the drive-thru window at a McDonald's restaurant in Olympia, Wash. This insider scam highlights a card fraud trend the industry needs to watch, experts say Card-skimming expert and fraud consultant Jerry Silva says the case highlights just how easy it is for insiders to perpetrate card fraud, especially in a retail environment. "It truly is remarkable," Silva says. "Even if we protect the ATMs and POS devices, insider fraud like this will take place due to the ease with which criminals can get their hands on the appropriate devices. This is an industry that clearly needs an elegant and innovative solution (not EMV) that can at least make it a

Five Tips To Protect Your Smartphone from ID Theft

Here is a pretty good article by Brian O'Connell of thestreet.com, written 1/10/2012.  Article link HERE . =========================== Identity fraud thieves are increasingly targeting smartphones as a gateway to grabbing consumers' private financial data.  If you don't act to safeguard your smartphone from I.D. thieves, you could be taking a big risk, but some preparation and a little bit of help from financial services companies are good places to start protecting yourself. With smartphone use growing by 40% last year from 2010, the potential for increased identity theft activity will rise too. To guard personal data on your smartphone: Make sure your bank's firewall is strong. Don't sign up for mobile banking unless you have assurance from your financial institution that it can protect you against viruses and security breaches. Consider the Zeus virus, which recently haunted Android phone users: Hackers were able to use the virus to access Droid users'

Case of Denver mistaken-identity arrest

Can you be arrested for stealing your own identity?  That's what happened to  Stephen Tendell  of Denver, CO.  He reported his identity as stolen, his mother found the culprit, and police arrested the thief.  But they booked him under Stephen's name.  When the thief didn't show up for the trial -- duh -- the police arrested Stephen!  What a nightmare, according to Stephen's mother, that is still going on. A little advertisement is in order here: if Stephen had owned a LegalShield combo ID Theft and Legal Plan , our investigators would have cleared up the on-going ID theft record snafus, and the Colorado provider law firm would have helped him get the criminal charges rectified.  For a mere $26.95/mo, his nightmare could have been avoided or at least minimized. Click HERE for the article, along with another example of mistaken identity in Denver.

How To Review Your Credit Report For ID Theft

Perhaps you've received a credit report from one or all of the credit bureaus.  It can be somewhat intimidating to look at it!  How do you tell if there is something you need to check out?  The information at THIS article by Kroll Fraud Solutions (who services the LegalShield Identity Theft product) may give you some good tips.

Teen accused of stealing identity of White House cabinet member

By Richard Elliot of WSBTV, Atlanta, GA, 1/5/2012 A Douglas County teenager is facing felony charges after investigators said he stole a senior White House official's social security number and used it to apply online for a credit card. But, those investigators said, the teen had no idea whose social security number he was using. Austin Townsend, 17, is charged with identity theft after the case was investigated by both the U.S. Secret Service and the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, according to officials. Federal agents declined to name the identity of the victim, but said only it was a "senior-level cabinet official." "He wanted a Discover card and apparently got on the computer and started Googling different areas and ended up with a particular social security number," Douglas County Chief Deputy Stan Copeland said. "He was not Googling any particular person. We don't think he had any knowledge (of who it was)." Townsend's attorn

5 Minute Tips To Prevent Your Identity From Getting Hijacked

This is an article by Justine Rivero, Credit Advisor at CreditKarma.com. It appeared in a January 4, 2012, issue of Business Insider . -David ========================= It’s a $37 billion crime that affects 1 in 25 Americans. Consumers are more susceptible to identity theft and fraud than they realize, and the stakes are sky-high if you don't secure your personal information and financial accounts. Identity theft and fraud costs the average consumer $631 in out-of-pocket expenses as well as an average 33 hours spent to resolve the issue, reports Javelin Strategy & Research. Before thieves sink your bank and credit accounts, take these steps to protect your identity that take just a few minutes to implement yet can ultimately save you significant time and financial loss. [Go to this link for the full article with the tips. -David]