RFID Speed Pass Can Lead to Identity Theft

Oh, the conveniences we have in life. Now, you don’t even have to actually swipe your credit card for a machine to capture your number so you can make your purchases. Thanks to a technology called “radio frequency identification” or RFID, you can simply place your “Speed Pass” near a reader and get on with your day.

While this saves you a little bit of time, it can also pose a problem. Recently, a television station in Memphis filmed an investigative story and found that with a portable scanner costing less than $100, an individual could simply walk around the neighborhood and pick up credit card information from passersby’s pockets or purses– no pick pocketing required. The device simply recorded the information from the nearby RFIDs.

There is little evidence that identity thieves are going through the trouble of purchasing RFID scanners, but this story does bring up a good point. As technology advances, there are greater – or at least different – risks associated with it. With every change you make to how you operate in the credit world, you need to think about how you need to change the way you protect yourself from identity theft – whether this means purchasing an identity theft protection plan or simply being more cautious in your day to day life.

If you have an RFID, it’s fairly simple to protect the information on it at this point. You can purchase a commercially available sleeve for it to block the radio signal when you’re not using it, or you can simply wrap it in aluminum foil. Keep a close eye on your keys when out in public. If someone gets a hold of them, he or she can not only take your car, but can also take charge of the attached credit card account. The latter is actually likely to be easier to do and harder to detect.

Approximately 7,500 Patients Contacted After Security Breach

DeKalb Medical Center in Decatur, Georgia is currently notifying approximately 7,500 patients who may possibly been affected by a recent theft at the Hillandale facility. Patients who had been seen at DeKalb Medical Center in 2010 between July and October may be affected, and include the 7,500 patients that are being notified by letter of the recent stolen data.

Because of this incident, DeKalb Medical Center is providing those affected with free credit report monitoring, as well as identity theft protection and restoration services for free, and has opened up a hotline to answer questions to those who have concerns. Individuals wanting to know more about this incident are encouraged to call 855-294-2545 for more information.

Lovely Faces Shows How Fragile a Virtual Identity Can Be

If you don’t know by now that Facebook and other social networking sites can be a virtual gold mine for identity thieves, Paolo Cirio and Alessandro Ludovico are doing their darndest to convince you. The two men, a media artist and a magazine editor in Italy, respectively, are responsible for a “dating site” called Lovely Faces.

To create the profiles for this website, the two essentially stole the personal information of 250,000 Facebook users so that they could list and categorize each individual under one of six categories, such as “sly” and “easy going.”
The point, according to the creators, was to show how people make snap judgments based on not really knowing someone.

Getting the information proved pretty simple for them. They used an automated bot to capture publicly available details from one million Facebook profiles over several months. The two even commented, “If we start to play with the concepts of identity theft and dating, we should be able to unveil how fragile a virtual identity given to a proprietary platform can be.” The proprietary platform refers to Facebook, since the information on there is essentially owned by the company.

Anyone who has their Facebook profile set to public, or uses the “suggested” security settings, which open up at least a third of their profiles to “everyone” is essentially asking for trouble. When using the site, you may not realize that everyone can constitute millions of people. While it’s unlikely millions of people are interested in what you’re doing this weekend, it only takes one thief out of the millions of regular people to make off with your information.

Always make your profile as private as possible and do not “friend” people you don’t know –e ver. It’s super easy to create a fake Facebook account, and the cute girl or guy you add may really be an identity thief in disguise. Remember, they are good at that whole disguising thing.

Past Customers of Norfolk, Nebraska Store at Risk for Identity Theft after Auction

The Kitchen Place, a store located in Norfolk, Nebraska, recently held a bankruptcy auction to liquidate goods. During this auction, file cabinets and boxes of personal records of employees and past customers were found and available during the bankruptcy auction. This information had Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, bank accounts, and other personal, financial data that could be used for identity theft if left in the wrong hands.

Individuals shopping the bankruptcy liquidation auction had access to these records, and some had bought items that included this paperwork, which was later found in a random, nearby parking area, dumped by someone who had purchased an item and clearly didn’t consider the importance of the paperwork they were leaving behind. This means that thousands of customers and many employees are at risk for identity theft if the paperwork had been accessed and inappropriately used for fraudulent activities.

Situations like this show the importance of having credit report monitoring protection at all times to ensure that your personal data is safe from fraud and identity theft. Many online companies offer identity theft protection services that can save you time, money, and stress of redeeming your name after such an incident may occur.

Back From the Dead – A Strange Identity Theft Case

Some identity theft cases are indeed strange, but not many are as odd as to feature a man coming back from the dead. This is exactly what happened to British citizen, Paul Woodhouse, who recently discovered not only that his long lost brother, Roy, thought dead is indeed alive, but also that his brother had been using his identity since the 1960s – using it to obtain a fraudulent passport following an arrest. Paul had not heard from his brother since 1967.

In fact, it wasn’t Paul who even realized that his identity had been stolen. The mystery was discovered because Roy confessed it to immigration officials when he was detained in Hawaii on an undisclosed crime. He had been living there for over 15 years. The officials took months trying to determine for sure who Roy really was so that they could get him real papers, which would allow him to return to the UK.

It’s amazing that it took over 40 years for this crime to be detected, and it’s even more amazing that Paul is willing to readily forgive his half brother and is simply overjoyed that he is alive. While Paul doesn’t seem to have suffered any credit trouble due to the theft, it’s likely that he has an extensive criminal record on file in the United States.

This situation is one that identity theft protection may have not been able to help with, due to the fact that it transcended the Atlantic. However, it brings to light just how difficult it can be to catch an identity thief, even one who had been operating in a pretty obvious fashion for several decades. Had this crime occurred solely in the U.S., it would have been easy for an identity theft protection plan to alert Paul to changes of address associated with his personal information. Some plans also have a criminal record search feature that would have proved invaluable.

While Paul is finally having his identity restored, it’s troublesome to think of what could have happened. It’s somewhat lucky that his half brother had a tendency toward committing crimes instead of toward making expensive purchases.

Stolen Information from Medical Facility May Be Used in Filing Fraudulent Tax Returns

DeKalb Medical Center’s Hillandale facility in DeKalb County, Georgia is currently undergoing an investigation with the United States Secret Service after there has been talk of stolen personal information. It is believed that some 7,500 patients of the Hillandale facility are are risk for identity theft after this incident. There have been cases reported in Georgia and Alabama of medical information being used to file fraudulent tax returns.

Because of the commitment of DeKalb Medical to it’s patients, they are providing one year of credit monitoring services to those who have been affected by this possible data breach, allowing them identity theft counseling and restoration services if needed due to this incident. This is a standard procedure when security and data breaches occur. If you have any questions regarding this incident, you are encouraged to call 855-294-2545. You may also wish to contact the IRS at 1-800-908-4490 to ensure a fraudulent tax return has been filed.

Memorial Health System in Colorado Springs Investigating City Nurse Who Accessed Medical Records

The medical records of thousands of Memorial Hospital patients have been accessed by Lori Niell, a city nurse who had apparently been accessing the database for “personal reasons.”

Niell claims to be a psychic, and officials feel as though she was accessing the database of medical records in order to benefit her psychic “career.” These records, which include personal information that is encrypted and password protected, were accessed by Niell and was the cause of her being let go from the job by her supervisor.

Niell admits to using the database for personal reasons, but claims that there are others within the same field that use the medical system for personal reasons as well. She claims she used the database to find the phone number of a long-lost friend, and to find out if a client of hers heeded her warning to seek medical treatment. She claims that she never intended to use the information for identity theft.

If you are a patient of Memorial Health Systems and are concerned about the protection of your identity, it is crucial that you consider identity theft protection services to monitor your personal and financial accounts to ensure there has been no misuse of information or data against your good name.

Stolen Credit Cards Used to Buy Apple Products

Who doesn’t love products from Apple Computers? The iPod, the iPhone, and the ubiquitous iPad? The members of one crime loved them so much that they bought products and gift cards at Apple stores in 12 states and the District of Columbia using stolen credit card information over the course of the past three years. They were then able to resell them in Brooklyn to the tune of over $300,000 in profit.

This group of 27 individuals, who were recently indicted, got the credit card information, including both numbers and names, by purchasing it from online traffickers. These traffickers were able to get this information from victims of identity theft. That brings to life one of the most important aspects of an identity theft protection plan.

With an identity protection service, it is possible to have the online black market records searched to see if your information is present on them. If it is, you can have your credit information changed before there is a problem. How it worked out, though, is that many of the victims of this crime may still not know that their information was compromised, especially if they don’t read their statements carefully and they don’t check their credit reports.

Members of the ring have been charged with conspiracy and grand larceny, as well as other crimes, so it is likely that this particular one is not long for this world. However, a member of this ring had already branched off and formed his own similar ring. What does that tell you? Chopping the head off the dragon does not mean that it can’t live to fight another day. What you have to do is fight back.