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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Submitted by Mary M. on Tues, 9/02/2008 – 10:47am. With ID fraud on the rise, the assumption is you’ll lose money which can be claimed back. But Simon Bunce lost his job, and his father cut off contact, when he was arrested after an ID fraudster used his credit card details on a child porn […]
The number of reported data breaches has been soaring, with the figure from the first six months of 2008 some 69 percent higher than the number from the identical period last year. Among those were little-known recent breaches of Facebook, H&R Block and BearingPoint. The report from the non-profit San Diego-based Identity Theft Resource Center […]
Insurance benefit letters sent to wrong addresses by Blue Cross and Blue Shield reveal claim histories, open door to ID theft.