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 […]
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 […]
Republican presidential candidate John McCain made Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, otherwise known as “Joe the Plumber,” famous during the October 15 debate with Democrat Barack Obama, and in subsequent television advertisements. Since then, numerous personal details have been disclosed about this working class Ohio guy who did not want pay higher taxes on income over $250,000 […]
A college student who with her boyfriend stole the identities of friends and neighbors was sentenced Friday to five years in prison and ordered to pay more than $100,000 in restitution. Jocelyn Kirsch, a former Drexel University student, and then-boyfriend Edward Anderton used the money for expensive salon visits, exotic vacations and fancy dinners. Federal […]
Deutsche Telekom’s German mobile phone subsidiary T-Mobile lost a disk containing personal information about 17 million of its customers in early 2006, the company said Saturday. Silent about the data loss for more than two years, the company published its version of events on Saturday following a report in German news magazine Der Spiegel that […]
Ten thousand users of LinkedIn, a social networking site for professionals, were recently targeted in a “spear phishing” email scam trying to lure them into downloading a malicious software attachment. In a blog post Wednesday, Brian Krebs of the Washington Post, who first reported the story, said recipients of the email were addressed by name, […]
Submitted by Philip G. on Friday, 10/10/2008 – 8:17pm. Last year in late November I was the victim of identity theft, my SS#, DOB, Mother maiden name, Discover Card number and security check were comprised and used to change address information at Discover Card’s web site. I was called in early December from Discover Card […]
Submitted by Brian P. on Tues, 9/23/2008 – 12:07pm. The first I knew about it was a phone call. My girlfriend admonished me for succumbing to the temptations of Facebook, a website whose poisoned fruits I had previously said I found unappealing. I stood accused of two crimes: a lack of willpower and a failure […]