Identity Theft Awareness

2017 was a record year for data breaches (the most common way personal information is stolen).  According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, there were 1,339 breaches reported, compromising over 174 million records, about 21% higher than last year's record number.  Half of these breaches were in the business sector, including the Equifax breach, accounting for 91% of the exposed records. While the Equifax breach exposed very private data on 50% of the US population, not much of this has surfaced in fraud use.  Why not? Likely because the theft was a foreign government that sponsored the theft, and they are still sifting through the data for the low-hanging fruit (members of Congress or Senate, famous people, etc.), but within a year, it will surface.  Hey, people can't change their birthday or Social Security Number easily.  That is why I've encouraged people to get professional help to monitor their personal data. By the time you discover it yourself, you are victimi

#idtheft It comes around periodically. A scam where a senior citizen gets a phone call from either a young person claiming to be a grandson, or someone who says they are an attorney representing the grandson, saying that the grandparent needs to wire some money to bail out the grandchild. Because of social media posting, it isn't difficult for the scammer to get enough personal information to make the scam believable.  Many seniors get taken for thousands of dollars with this scam.  If you get such a call, investigate! Don't promise to wire any money until you can talk to the parents.  Maybe not even then.  Don't become a victim. Another telephone scam that hits seniors is someone representing Medicare or the IRS calls to say that someone has fraudulently used the senior's information, then asks to verify the Social Security Number.  Understand that these agencies never call.  You will get a letter instead.  Always refuse to cooperate, then call the real agency direc

PayPal recently bought a payment company TIO Networks, only to find there was a data breach that exposed 1.6 million TIO customers, including customer names and addresses, social security numbers, and login credentials. PayPal immediately shutdown the TIO operations until it could analyze and rectify the breach.  PayPal says its own customer data is not affected, because the two networks are separate. A related article:   https://www.zacks.com/stock/news/284875/paypals-newly-acquired-unit-tio-networks-suffers-data-breach #idtheft Identity theft

A new scheme to steal identities has arisen: submit a "Hold Mail" request through the USPS website, then go by and pick it up later.  #idtheft Often there are letters offering lines of credit -- banks, department stores, etc. -- especially at this time of year.  With the mail being held, you won't get those offers or even know they came.  The thief picks up the mail, fills out the applications with a different address, gets the cards, and charges away. By the time the creditor gets the bill properly to you, you owe tons of money.  Or your credit is shot for not paying your bill. The postal service acknowledges this happens, and is very easy to do. Services like IDShield (http://idtheft.nscky.com) and Lifelock will watch for change of address and new accounts and alert you.  Otherwise, you might never know until too late. Related article: http://abc30.com/new-identity-theft-scheme-scammers-use-us-postal-service-to-steal-information/2828711/