Identity Theft Spring Fever to continue....

Like it wasn't enough with TJMaxx and RadioShack now we have another report that Neiman Marcus Group lost a laptop with sensitive personal information of 160,000 employees! The records stored on the stolen equipment include names, addresses, birthdates, Social Security numbers and salary information. It happened on April 11, 2007. If I was their former or current employee I would run to enroll into Identity Protection Program and monitor it daily!

When Credit Report is not enought - The Identity Theft Report

Because checking a credit report is not enough to prevent identity theft, PrivacyMatters.com, a leading online destination for credit management and identity theft protection services, presents the Identity Theft Report. As part of the Privacy Matters Identity membership program, PrivacyMatters.com now offers a free Identity Theft Report when signing up for the program at http://identity.privacymatters.com in their effort to help consumers assess whether their confidential personal, professional and financial information is exposed to the wrong eyes.
Full story here

Over 90% of Americans worry about Identity Theft

The online survey, which includes a respondent base that is comfortable with the Internet, also shows that of those, half (50 percent) said they were very concerned about identity theft. Older adults are the most concerned -- 94 percent of those age 65 and older said they worry about the possibility of their identity being compromised. Even though younger adults are slightly less concerned, 86 percent of those age 18 to 29 said they worry about identity theft. Overall, 92 percent said protecting their identity is important.
The Zogby Interactive poll of 6,703 adults nationwide was conducted March 23-26, 2007, and carries a margin of error of +/- 1.2 percentage points.

In addition to identity theft, the survey also shows respondents worry about what companies might to do with personal information gathered about customers. The vast majority of respondents (91 percent) said they are concerned that retailers, credit card companies, banks and other firms could sell their personal information for marketing purposes. Nearly as many (83 percent) said they are concerned that information provided to retailers could end up in the hands of others, either through theft or sale.

Respondents' confidence in how aggressively their personal information is protected by such companies from theft also varies -- one in three (34 percent) said they are not confident that retailers, credit card companies, banks and other firms that have detailed records of a customer's personal information are taking the appropriate steps to safeguard that information. But more than one in four (28 percent) said they believe companies are doing a good job of keeping their information safe.

Not surprisingly, 85 percent of respondents said privacy of their personal information is important to them as consumers. But that is apparently not enough to drive people to the fine print -- 29 percent said they rarely read the privacy policies from retailers, credit card companies and banks about how they will use a customer's personal information -- and another 8 percent said they never do.

If a company says they will not share or sell customer information, nearly half (48 percent) believe the company will not do so, but 35 percent said they're skeptical that companies follow through with their promises to protect consumer privacy.

Read the full story here

Medical Identity Theft

In a report last year, the World Privacy Forum found that the number of Americans identifying themselves in government documents as victims of medical identity theft had nearly tripled in just four years, to more than a quarter-million in 2005.

What is Medical Identity Theft?
Motives for medical identity theft can vary. Some thieves are seeking controlled medications. Others are seeking federal money.

Five health care providers pleaded guilty to stealing more than $900,000 in 2003 by luring hundreds of elderly Vietnamese patients to a fake medical clinic in Milpitas, where they would offer free checkups. According to prosecutors, they would copy the patients' Medicare records and then use the information to bill the government for phantom services.

Of all the forms of identity theft, misappropriation of your medical records is among the most damaging. It's not just the financial toll - if your medical identity is stolen, erroneous entries can turn up in your records, which could end up killing you.
For example, if an identity thief presents himself at the hospital in your name and is identified as having a different blood type, that blood type ends up registered in your medical history, with potentially disastrous consequences if you end up in a serious accident.

Identity Theft Spring Fever...

Can we blame spring for all these boo-boos companies make exposing our private information data? To name a few RadioShack and T J Maxx found themselves in lawsuit for Identity Theft Violations.
State of Texas suing RadioShack for identity theft violations - The Attorney General’s office of Texas has sued the retailing giant RadioShack claiming that the company violated the 2005 Texas Identity Theft Act.

The act requires the companies to shred or erase documents with sensitive information. If RadioShack is found guilty of the crime, they might have to pay up to $50,000 per violation.
Attorney General Greg Abbott has claimed that the employees of the retailer dumped more than 20 boxes which were full of documents containing customer credit applications and receipts.

What can we say? Have you heard of dumpster diving?? Use the shredder!!!!!

What's the story with TJMaxx?
More than two months after first disclosing that hackers accessed customers' financial data from its computers, discount retailer TJX Cos. has revealed that information from at least 45.7 million credit and debit cards was stolen over an 18-month period.
In a regulatory filing that gives the first detailed account of the breach initially disclosed in January, the owner of T.J. Maxx, Marshall's and other stores in North America and the United Kingdom also said another 455,000 customers who returned merchandise without receipts had their personal data stolen, including driver's license numbers.

Indian call centre security breaches exposed

Yikes, another reason to be concerned about offshore call centers. While the article below covers call centers supporting UK customers who are clearly exposed to possible identity theft, the same thing could happen any one of us in the United States!

Indian call centre security breaches exposed
Offshore industry hits back at undercover TV sting
By Andy McCue

Published: Thursday 5 October 2006

An undercover TV investigation claims to have infiltrated criminal gangs selling thousands of UK credit card and passport details for as little as £5 each from the country's offshore call centres.
The Channel 4 Dispatches documentary follows a 12-month investigation that resulted in footage of middlemen offering the undercover reporter credit card details of 100,000 customers of UK high-street banks from Indian call centres.

But India IT trade body Nasscom has hit out at Channel 4 after the TV company refused to show the organisation any of the footage before the broadcast on Thursday evening and urged the programme makers to co-operate in rooting out and prosecuting any "corrupt" call centre workers.

Full article: http://services.silicon.com/offshoring/0,3800004877,39163025,00.htm

Identity Theft Tips for Prevention and Victims

A few quick and easy things to keep in mind in order to prevent identity theft and tips if you have been victimized. Alot of this is common sense, what makes it important is that you remember to go through these steps one by one.

Source: http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=ID+theft%3A+Protect+yourself&articleId=ac05db1f-f9f9-40f6-bde9-8d6ccaddf847

Macomb Daily: Thief steals judge's identity

The world of identity theft never seizes to amaze me. Below is a local news article on a judge who was had her identity stolen twice! You'd think the judge would have sense and sign up for some idneity theft protection service such as PrivacyMatters!

Full article: http://www.macombdaily.com/stories/090306/loc_idtheft001.shtml

10 tips to protect against identity theft

What's missing from this particular tip sheet is making sure when you provide websites with your name and other information that the site is using a secure way to send your information. Look for the padded lock icon at the bottom right corner of your browswer window.

Source: http://www2.townonline.com/arlington/artsLifestyle/view.bg?articleid=557291

Protect your credit if you suspect identity theft

A fairly good article on identity theft with regards to credit and how to protect it as well.

Full article: http://www.statesman.com/life/content/life/stories/other/08/11greig.html

Breaches Put Residents At Risk for Identity Fraud

An interesting article on breaches from the Monterey County Herald regarding breaches and how it puts residents at risk.

Full article: http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/15133805.htm

Even Celebrities Aren't Immune To Identity Theft

That's right, even the high profile celebrities are vulnerable to identity theft. Sportsline briefly goes into how to be proactive about identity theft.

Full article: http://www.sportsline.com/columns/story/9569166

Avoiding Identity Theft: Part One

Good article from a local website on how to prevent identity theft and how security breaches and theft of corporate information can affect you.

Avoiding Identity Theft: Part One
Westport News
Identity theft is rampant these days. It's in the news all the time. Databases are being penetrated on a regular basis. And, even if you don't fall prey to full-blown identity theft, your credit or debit card number might end up being used for a few hundred dollars worth of merchandise on some Web site in Asia. It happens all the time.

While some crime still goes down the old-fashioned way, somebody gets your credit card number during a everyday transaction, much of it is the result of the Internet. Welcome to the future. Science fiction writers predicted many things but cybercrime was foreseen by very few. The Internet, it seems, is both a blessing and a curse.

Full article: http://www.westport-news.com/opinion/ci_4052852

Security Breaches Occur in Univeristies as well

I know it's a stretch but imagine for a moment that your information were stolen before you even had a credit history? Are students ideal identity theft victims?

In any case, I thought this was a good article from ComputerWorld and what we'll do is try to interpret these articles and share our point of view on them.

Full article: http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=security&articleId=112432&taxonomyId=17

Ohio's motor vehicles department just launched a new website allowing drivers to find out whether someone is using their name.

Source: http://www.daytondailynews.com/localnews/content/localnews/daily/071306license.html