Archive for November, 2008

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Man uses wife’s identity to buy cars worth $183,000. Too bad she didn’t have LifeLock

Wednesday, November 26th, 2008

A man was arrested just outside Harrisburg, Penn., and charged with forging his wife’s signature on loan applications and insurance papers so he could buy six cars with a total value of more than $183,000, according to an announcement by Attorney General Tom Corbett.

Everett Frank was already imprisoned at the Pennsylvania State Correctional Institution at Camp Hill when agents from the Attorney General’s Insurance Fraud Section arrested him on the car-buying charges.

He was also already estranged from his wife, Michelle Frank. Neither situation is expected to see much improvement in the near future. (more…)

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Posted in Identity Theft | 5 Comments »

LifeLock keeps pace with identity thieves’ tactics

Tuesday, November 25th, 2008

Four men were arrested yesterday for their part in an audacious and sophisticated international identity theft scheme that scammed at least $2.5 million from dozens of banks.

They are accused of tapping into the home equity loan lines of credit of homeowners with plenty of credit available. The homeowners’ personal information was obtained from co-conspirators overseas, from public records or, in some cases, from gullible bank employees. (more…)

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Posted in LifeLock | 2 Comments »

The cost of LifeLock: What’s the value of your good credit?

Monday, November 24th, 2008

How much is your good credit worth? If an identity thief wrecked your credit without stealing a single penny, how much money does owe you?

That’s the question facing Brevard County Prosecutor Joseph Downing this week when he hears the identity theft case David Welch filed against Kevin Landivar. (more…)

Posted in LifeLock promotion code | 4 Comments »

Stupid criminal stories: Idiot identity thief texts detective for help

Friday, November 21st, 2008

You accidentally dial the wrong number, calling an old boyfriend by mistake. You compose an e-mail complaining about your boss, and somehow send it to your boss instead of a sympathetic coworker.

No, it’s never pretty when these things happen, and, when we make mistakes like this we usually feel like idiots. Fortunately, there’s always someone just a little bit dumber to make us all feel just a little bit better about our own mistakes. Meet Peter Pardo. (more…)

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Posted in Identity Theft | 2 Comments »

Stupid criminal stories: Charged with ID theft and tax crimes, St. Paul man says he was “practicing”

Wednesday, November 19th, 2008

If you read a lot of identity theft stories, they might all start to sound the same. But every once in a while you run across one with a refreshingly different twist. It’s the “stupid criminal” element that sets this one apart.

Johnny Opara, of St. Paul, Minn., has been charged with seven felony tax crimes and one case of identity theft, according to the Minnesota Department of Revenue.

Some of Opara’s victims say they hired him to prepare their taxes, but he never filed them. In other cases, Opara, 55, allegedly filed taxes for people who hadn’t hired him and knew nothing about his activities. (more…)

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Posted in LifeLock discount | 2 Comments »

UF dental school data breach: 330,000 more people REALLY hate going to the dentist now.

Tuesday, November 18th, 2008

Nobody likes going to the dentist: the whine of the drill, the scraping of metal against bone, and metal against flesh—who likes that? Well, for more than 300,000 people who get their dental work done at University of Florida, there’s another reason to hate going to the dentist. (more…)

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Posted in Data breach | 1 Comment »

Express Scripts offers $1 million reward for identity theft, extortion information

Monday, November 17th, 2008

Express Scripts announced two weeks ago that extortionists had contacted them and threatened to release personal and medical information on their clients if they failed to meet the criminals’ demands. Express Scripts contacted the FBI instead, and refused to cave to the extortionists’ demands.

Well, the story has taken more than one interesting turn since that initial announcement. (more…)

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Posted in Data breach | 1 Comment »

Financial Identity Theft

Friday, November 14th, 2008

Financial identity theft is on the news, in the newspaper, and a topic of conversation wherever you go. It seems everyone you talk to either knows someone who’s been a victim, or has been a victim themselves.

Findings on the impact and scope of financial identity theft:

  • So far, 15 million Americans have been victims of financial ID theft. With a national population of 300 million, that means 1 in 20 has been hit.

    • (more…)

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Posted in Identity Theft | 1 Comment »

Voter registration laptops stolen, leaving 25,000 vulnerable to identity theft

Thursday, November 13th, 2008

It’s just the nature of the beast. In a democracy, not everyone will be happy with the results on the day after a presidential election. But in Charlottesville NC, Republicans and Democrats alike are disgusted and afraid for their futures.

Not because of the election results, but because someone stole two laptop computers that contained names, addresses, dates of birth and Department of Motor Vehicle customer numbers for every registered voter in town. (more…)

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Rick Case Acura ID thief leaves new car owners with extreme buyer’s remorse

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008

Dayton Diaz admitted in court that he provided another man with the names, addresses and Social Security numbers of roughly 75 customers from the car dealership where we worked.

Until September, Diaz was sales manager at Rick Case Acura in Plantation, Fla., which gave him easy access to the information. He sold that information to Fitzroy Carter for $9,000, or $120 for each set of information. Carter then used the stolen identities to buy $130,000 worth of computers. (more…)

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Posted in Data breach | 2 Comments »

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