Five Chicago-area residents are facing numerous federal felony charges after they allegedly went on a maniacal three-day shopping spree through three states spending thousands of dollars at Target and Meijer stores using fake credit cards. The 15-count indictment filed by the United States Attorney in Grand Rapids lists nearly 400 transactions from April 2007, when […]
Identity theft was the No. 1 fraud complaint in a government-maintained database that keeps track of consumer gripes, according to a Federal Trade Commission. In 2007, the database received more than 800,000 complaints, with 32% of those about identity theft and the rest, or 68%, pointing to various other types of fraud, according to FTC. […]
An identity theft story can involve ANYONE. If you think that only unsuspecting housewives, too harassed by the many chores they have to get done with children in tow, would fall prey to identity thieves (i.e., getting their credit cards, checks, personal info stolen), think again. Even a celebrity can figure in an identity theft […]
For Aisha Shahid and dozens of others who went to an advertised job fair in Chattanooga and got offers of nightclub work in Atlanta, Memphis and Miami, the “dream jobs” turned out to be an identity theft scam. A man who identified himself as record company and music group president William Devon took applications and […]
story courtesy of Teri Newton I recently became one of the 9 million people to become victim to identity theft this year in the United States. Much of what I have learned in the last few weeks I share to spark outrage at what is becoming more and more common and also to share what […]
Have you ever given more than a passing glance to the dumpsters in the back parking lot of your neighborhood stores? They’re not just trash bins. For recycling devotees, they’re a treasure trove of cast-offs. For others, they’re a fertile source of raw materials that can be used to commit identify theft fraud. It stinks […]
33 million records. That’s the number of consumer records that have been exposed so far in 2008, a record year for data breaches, according to statistics from the Identity Theft Resource Center , which tracks breaches reported by U.S. organizations. And that count may only be the tip of the iceberg; without a federal requirement […]
Identity theft is an ever-increasing threat for all consumers — one that could damage your credit ratings and cost you thousands of dollars. And teenagers are among the most vulnerable. Suzanne Boas, president, Consumer Credit Counseling Service, has seen the damage first-hand. “It is frightening to think what can happen to you when someone gets […]
Ongoing research to be published in the International Journal of Liability and Scientific Enquiry suggests that there is a huge amount of sensitive data still on redundant computer hard disks. These devices are often disposed of or sold into the second-hand market by corporations, organizations, and individuals with the data intact. The report’s authors say […]
Federal identity theft convictions increased 26 percent in 2007 from the year prior, according to a Bush administration task force report on identity theft unveiled Tuesday. According to the “Identity Theft Task Force Report,” as many as 1,534 people were convicted in 2006, and a year later, 1,943 were convicted nationwide on various identity theft […]