Archive for October, 2009

Child ID theft detection and protection

Monday, October 26th, 2009

Parenthood is rife with worries about school grades, summer camps, chicken pox, college savings and flu vaccines. But even the best parents overlook the threat of child ID theft—and it’s the threat that could have a biggest impact on a child’s future.

At least one child of every 20 has a file with one of the major credit reporting agencies, meaning someone has used that child’s personal information to apply for credit, according to Javelin Strategy and Research. Credit records are established using the first birth date submitted with a credit application, so ID thieves don’t have to worry about being questioned about their ages.

There are a number of reasons it’s easy and profitable to engage in child ID theft: (more…)

LifeLock reviews: My firsthand account

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

So far, so good. I’m six months into my new LifeLock membership, and so far everything has gone just like they said it would.

I received my notice that I would no longer receive pre-approved credit offers within a few days. Hallelujah! ID thieves steal mail as one of the most common methods of ID theft, and every time I pulled a credit offer with a check out of my mailbox, I worried about whether there had been others I’d missed.

Because of the work I do, I know that a common ID theft technique is to change the victim’s address to divert mail and obtain personal and financial information. LifeLock’s TrueAddress™ monitors address changes and confirms that if my address is changed, it’s because I changed it.

I received my credit reports within just a couple weeks. We’re all supposed to review our credit reports annually, and with LifeLock, it gets done. Only 36% of Americans actually follow that advice, and it’s a relief to be among the 64% who do. (more…)

ID theft risk: Dumpster full of data found in Palm Beach County

Monday, October 12th, 2009

One of the reasons the risk of ID theft is so high has to do with your employer. You don’t have any idea what happens to your personal information after you provide it to an employer. Unless, that is, you work for the staffing agency CLP. If so, there’s a good chance your personal information was in one of the boxes found in a Dumpster out back of a Florida restaurant last week.

A worker at Newport Café discovered everything necessary to commit identity theft in the boxes full of job applications, copies of Social Security cards, driver’s licenses and tax records. The job applications bore the CLP logo.

The restaurant employee contacted the local police, who, in turn, contacted staffing firm’s regional director in Fort Lauderdale. The CLP regional director, Seth Sandler, made a quick trip up to Palm Beach County and “took care of the situation,” said Corp. Michelle Vazquez of the Palm Springs police.

Until last week, CLP had an office next door to the restaurant, but Newport Café employees said they saw people moving out the office furnishings the day before the documents were discovered. (more…)

Almost 100 people charged in US and Eygiptian ID Theft Ring

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

US and Egyptian authorities have charge almost 100 people for their involvement in a identity theft ring that has stolen money from thousands of bank accounts. The FBI has arrested 50 people in the United States and Egyptian authorities arrested 47 who are all apart of the same identity theft ring.

The identity theft ring was using email addresses to attempt to trick people into logging into fake websites giving away there private account information. This is commonly refereed to as a phishing attack. The websites often look exactly like the real site but they secretly steal your login information.

At this time we do not know how the US and Egyptian people know each other or how they are connected. Perhaps they where partners or maybe they just bought and some information from each other. Whatever the case it’s shocking that this many people could be working together for this long. This case will have one of the largest defendants list of any cybercrime ever.

National Archives data breach: Hard drive with 70 million veterans’ health, service records

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

American military veterans have been put at risk again. An unencrypted hard drive associated with eVetRec—the system veterans use to access their health records and discharge papers—was sent first for repairs then for recycling without being wiped of 76 million veterans’ records.

The hard drive failed last November and was returned to the contractor that sold it to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). When the contractor was unable to fix the drive, the contractor sent it to another company for recycling. (more…)