The lives of America’s military men and women are at risk everyday while they serve in Iraq and Afghanistan. Apparently, their identities are on the line, too.
Chris Ogle of New Zealand bought a second-hand MP3 player for $9 while visiting an Oklahoma thrift store last year. He never could get the darn thing to download songs from the Internet, maybe because it already held so many U.S. military files. (more…)
Reading this blog is one way to learn more about identity theft and how to protect yourself from it. But if you belong to an organization whose other members are interested in learning more, you can take advantage of the new LifeLock Speakers Series.
“The series has been designed so that individuals with similar interests can come together and learn about the latest identity theft trends, the inherent risks associated with the crime, as well as the types of proactive measures all consumers should take in order to minimize their risks of becoming a victim,” said Mike Prusinski, LifeLock’s Vice President of Public Affairs.
LifeLock provides this service free of charge as part of their mission to reduce the number of identity thefts. The US Department of Justice has called identity theft the number one crime in the United States, surpassing drug trafficking. Every three seconds another American becomes an identity theft victim. (more…)
Identity theft stories don’t get much freakier than this one from Annapolis, MD. And, making it worse, the guy responsible is out on bond and probably reprising his act.
OK, here’s the story of the identity theft crime allegedly committed by Thomas Calvin Eichelberger:
Last September Eichelberger entered into a job contract with a man we’ll call Bob (because, trust me, “Bob” doesn’t want anyone linking him to this story). Afterwards, they stopped by a gas station where Eichelberger bought Bob a cappuccino. After he drank the coffee, Bob said he started feeling lightheaded, but the two went on to have a few drinks at a local restaurant and then went back to Eichelberger’s place where they had a couple more drinks and Bob got sick.
When Bob comes to, he finds himself naked on Eichelberger’s bed while his host sits clothed in a chair looking at him. Bob hung around a little longer, found a camera under Eichelberger’s bed and got sick again. Can you guess what was on the camera? Good guess! The camera held pictures of Bob and Bob’s naked butt. (more…)
Last year someone used my husband’s identity to buy almost a thousand dollars worth of Star Wars light sabers online. After filing the police report, canceling the card and doing battle with the bank, I began researching identity theft services.
The first thing I did was go to LifeLock.com because I’d seen their commercials. (I have insomnia, so I see a lot of their commercials!) Besides giving out his Social Security number (a lot), their CEO Todd Davis goes on (a lot) about all the wonderful things LifeLock does.
Is LifeLock that good? I visited the websites of a half dozen other ID theft services. I checked them all out with the Better Business Bureau. I read the reviews. I compared prices. In the end, I chose LifeLock. (more…)
If you’ve been thinking about how to mitigate your chances of becoming an identity theft victim, but don’t want to pay a lot of money for an identity theft program, LifeLock discounts are the answer.
Though it’s true you can place fraud alerts and obtain your credit reports without assistance or fees, it’s also true that you get what you pay for. (more…)
I saw a news story today about a guy in Muncie, Ind. who’s been getting calls about late payments on his new Jeep Cherokee.
Yeah, I know, millions of people get calls like that every day. This guy’s calls are a little special, though, because he doesn’t own a Jeep Cherokee, but a favorite relative of his, Cory S. Kortman, just got a new Jeep Cherokee! Small world, huh? (more…)
If you’re considering identity theft services, visit LifeLock.com to learn more about their strategies. Use the Life Lock promotion code “Defense”to get the lowest available price. LifeLock provides identity theft services to more than 1 million Americans. Read on to find out why you would benefit from it, too.
Employers know a lot more about you than you know about them. Anyone with access to your human resources file has your name, address, phone number, date of birth, Social Security number, place of birth, credit history, work history, salary history and physical description.
But who are these people who hold all that information about you? (more…)
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…)
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:
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…)
