Identity Theft Protection Services

How to Avoid Identity Thieves

Written on January 28, 2010 – 5:06 pm | by admin

Knowing how to avoid identity theft is one of the most important steps any individual can take today to ensure their financial security and good credit standing. Failure to learn how to avoid identify theft can result in financial loss, credit rating reverses and a tangled mess that can take years to unravel.

Store your financial information, such as bank account numbers and credit card accounts, in a secure, locked location which strangers or visitors to your home or office cannot easily access. Only share your account numbers with legitimate businesses in order to conduct financial transactions. Do not automatically give any financial account information on an application just because you are asked for it.

Guard the confidentiality of your social security number. Identity theft experts who gain access to this number literally have a key to unlock plenty of other financial details about you in order to do major damage.

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Tags: Avoid Identity, Identity

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Identity Theft of the Deceased? Steps You Can Take to Prevent Identity Theft of Deceased Family

Written on January 28, 2010 – 3:32 am | by admin

I have seen an 5-year-old’s identity used by criminals for financial gain, and I have seen an 85-year-old’s used for the same – I have also seen someone no longer living whose identity was stolen to use for criminal purposes. All of these were unfortunate and taxing on the families dealing with the victimization of a loved one by identity theft. However, I feel the “grave robber” identity thief scenario to be one that is somewhat more disturbing; one who steals certainly stoops to a low level, but robbing the dead takes on another baseless level of moral turpitude. In any event, identity theft in particular is highly troubling to many because of the feeling of helplessness as far as preventing it from occurring, whether for the living or the deceased.

Specifically, I would like to examine the identity theft of a deceased family member. Regardless of the fact that one is deceased, postmortem identity theft injures the living, especially dependents who are relying upon the estate for their support.

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Tags: Identity, Identity Theft

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Police Warn of Potential “Alarm” Scam

Written on January 26, 2010 – 3:02 am | by admin

Robert Siciliano Identity Theft Expert

Call them con men, grifters, scammers, or thieves. Or simply call them liars. Lying is what they do best. They stare you in the eyes, do it via email or over the phone and lie through their teeth. They do it casually and with such conviction that we have no reason not to believe them.

A Police Department investigated a suspicious activity report after a resident contacted police about an “alarm company” calling and offering a free home security system for people in their neighborhood.

Someone representing “Maximum Security” said the company was giving away five home security systems.

The “representative” would ask if the resident had a security system in the home, at which point the resident said he was not comfortable discussing the home’s security system. Which or course is the appropriate response. In this case, after the resident made it a difficult sales call and the sales person hung up on him. This prompted a call to the police.

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Tags: Scam

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1.2 Million Notified of Data Breach

Written on January 25, 2010 – 12:20 am | by admin

Lincoln National has begun notifying 1.2 million customers of a possible data breach, according to a letter posted to the New Hampshire Department of Justice’s Web site. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority was given a username and password combination that let anyone access Lincoln’s portfolio information system.

“This username and password had been shared among certain employees … and employees of affiliated companies,” Lincoln National’s letter states. This is in violation of the company’s security policy. The portfolio system is used by the company’s subsidiaries, Lincoln Financial Securities and Lincoln Financial Advisors.

This system contains names, Social Security numbers, account numbers and balances, dates of birth and e-mail addresses, data that could be misused by identity thieves if the password should fall into the wrong hands.

Victims will be notified by mail and offered free credit monitoring.

Tags: Breach, Data Breach

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What Exactly Is Identity Theft

Written on January 24, 2010 – 2:27 pm | by admin

You’ve heard of it before most likely but are you really sure what identity theft is? It’s when someone besides you gets a hold of personal information and uses it without your knowledge. They may use your social security number to get credit cards established for them. Or they can use a credit card to make purchases. Consider using one of the identity theft protection services to help prevent identity theft in the first place.

No matter how they do it, it can lead to you having bad credit, because the chances of them paying for what they got are nil. Meaning you will be stuck with huge bills, or telephone or other bills in your name. One’s that weren’t really yours but were set up by another person by using your information.

There are many ways that they can come up with your social security number; the most likely is through loss of your wallet. Or perhaps you threw away papers that had your number on them. If it wasn’t destroyed you never know who can get that trash. Pulling u

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Tags: Identity Theft, Theft

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APWG 2009 Q3 Report Shows Highest Level of Phishing Attacks Ever

Written on January 24, 2010 – 4:06 am | by admin

The Anti-Phishing Working Group released their fraud report for Q3 2009. They found a record number of phishing reports, unique phishing websites, brand-domain pairs, and hijacked brands.

Customers of financial services companies were the most targeted.

The full report can be found here.

Tags: Level Phishing, Phishing

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