Though Not Technically Identity Theft, Illegal Aliens Can Spell Credit Problems

An interesting identity theft case is currently headed to the Supreme Court. At issue is the fact that illegal aliens often use forged identification and Social Security numbers in order to appear eligible to work in this country. The difference between this case and a typical one regarding identity theft is that the workers, or organizations that they hire in order to obtain the paperwork they need, usually simply create Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, etc. for the workers to use out of thin air, just picking most any string of digits that will work.

The defendant in this case is Ignacio Carlos Flores-Figueroa, a Mexican immigrant who was caught using the Social Security number of one legitimate individual and the green card number of someone else in order to get and maintain a job at an East Moline, Illinois, steel plant, according to the Associated Press. So far, the courts have sided with the prosecution and have sentenced Flores-Figueroa to prison time. The appeal reached the Supreme Court in 2009.

It will be interesting to see how this case finally turns out. The verdict may be more of a high-profile one for immigration advocates than for those interested in information security, but it is sure to impact both arenas in the long run.

This case is a different take on the identity theft crime than we are used to hearing since these individuals are not in essence “stealing” information and there is some likelihood that the numbers they use do not belong to anyone. (If they do, it is often not known at the time they are issued on the fake ID forms.) However, the law of odds states that at least some of these numbers are legitimate and registered to other individuals legally.

Of course, in most cases, the undocumented workers do not mean any harm, but if the Social Security number does happen to belong to someone else and the undocumented individual gets into monetary trouble, the victim still has the same credit problems to deal with as he or she would if targeted by a thief with malicious intentions.

This situation is just one more reason why you need to protect yourself from identity theft. You never know what could happen to your personal information if you don’t keep a close eye on it. Whether the theft of your personal information was intentional or not, you need to find out if someone is “pretending to be you” as soon as possible so that you can put a stop to it.

First, check your credit report and make sure that it is clean – free of errors, whether they be in your address, the spelling of your name, or more importantly, the charges and payments made on your credit account. If it’s not accurate, correct any errors by contacting the credit bureau in question and giving a detailed description of the problems. Next, enroll in a credit monitoring service or a full-fledged identity theft protection service. Taking these steps should be enough for you to know that you’re in good shape.

Is your computer sick?

Sure it’s not crashing and it’s not giving you those dreaded error messages, but that doesn’t mean your computer’s not infected with a virus. It could be operating behind the scenes while you go about your business with you being none the wiser. So what does this have to do with identity theft? Plenty. Truth is, a lot of these viruses do more than just see what sites you visit to send you targeted advertising. Many do much more, such as taking screen shots as you type in passwords or recording your online banking activity. Then, you guessed it; this information is picked up by identity thieves.

So how do these viruses and other types of malware end up on your machine? It’s often via a plug-in people download voluntary. It can come in an email that claims to have a video or other media file that requires said plug-in to view it. Often the plug-in will contain a media player but carry the virus right along with it. Once the virus meets the hard drive, it is ready to go without any formal announcement of its presence.

This type of identity theft happens fairly often although it is not heavily covered in the media as of yet. A representative of Panda Security recently told IDG News Service that it could be on 10 million PCs right now, judging by a sampling of Americans. What is even more sobering is its report that 35 percent of the “carrier computers” had current antivirus programs installed.

So what does this mean to you? First of all, you can’t be sure your machine is safe just because you have security software. Sure, it does help prevent most common viruses from getting their fingers on your C drive. However, since new malware is created every day, thieves often are able to stay ahead of the curve, even with frequent updates to the software. The second thing to take away is don’t install random programs. If you don’t know what it is and you don’t trust where it’s from, just don’t do it. If you don’t get to see that video of a dancing hamster, trust me; you’ll live.

Lastly, this should give you a hint that you may want to look into an identity theft protection plan. Even being diligent about your downloads won’t necessarily save you, especially if you share your computer, or network, with others. It’s better to have a multi-tiered plan that is sure to keep you safe. A protection plan can keep an eye on your credit so you know right away if thieves have somehow gotten a hold of your data and are ready to start a new life, as you. It’s a lot better than finding out a year later and then realizing there’s a virus on your machine that has been feeding them names, numbers and addresses that whole time, not just for you but for everyone in your address book.

Panda found that their detection of identity-theft related malware went up 800 percent in the second half of 2008. This shows that these type of viruses are definitely a growing trend and not something you should approach empty handed.

Identity Theft at The Gym – A 2-inch Lock Can’t Protect Your Life

When you’re walking down a busy street, you keep your wallet close in either your pocket or a handbag. But what happens when you’re somewhere where it has to go out of your sight: like a ski lodge, a spa or a gym? Most people stick their personal items in a locker secured with a combination or key lock. However, a recent identity theft case proves that this may not be enough.

A while ago, a husband and wife team were arrested in Sacramento County, California, for allegedly stealing over 40 people’s personal information from their gym lockers at 24 Hour Fitness. The couple took not only drivers’ licenses, but credit cards, keys and even gym membership cards.

Of course, it is easy to tell you’ve been victimized if you walk into the locker room and your purse is missing and your lock is on the floor. But some thieves are smarter than that. Instead of physically taking your cards, they make rubbings to transfer the names and numbers to other sheets of paper or simply write them down. Another problem is that even if you cancel a photo ID, the old one is still out there and able to be used. The only way to tell it isn’t valid is by scanning it electronically.

What’s the best way to handle this? Don’t depend on a 2” lock to protect your sensitive belongings. Sure, it’s fine for clothes, unless it’s a $2,000 pair of tennis shoes or a pair of Seven jeans, which really have no place at the gym. But leave the credit cards, driver’s license, car keys and other likely targets behind the counter where employees can keep an eye on them. People are much less inclined to take something that is under a watched eye than to simply swipe it from a locker.

If you want to be even more secure, leave these items at home or at least lock them up in your car before you enter the establishment. (Well, with the exception of your keys, of course.) Hide them under the seat or in the trunk so they are not in full view. That way there is no temptation, or expectation for that matter.

If you don’t want to deal with all this hassle and think you’ll just stuff your wallet in the gym locker anyway, an identity theft protection plan may be the way you want to go. With such a plan, you can be alerted right away if a thief starts using your ID or account numbers to assume your identity for personal or financial gain.

Also, if you notice your locker has been broken into, cancel all the cards and get new ones, even if they don’t appear to have been tampered with. Think about it: why would a thief break your lock or jimmy the door if his or her intent was not to take anything? On a final note, whatever you do, don’t leave anything with your Social Security number on it in a locker, ever. Not your Social Security card, not your passport. Nothing, nothing, nothing.

Identity Theft Can Happen Even If You Do All the Right Things

Many East Coasters know of New Jersey as one of the last states in the union where full-service gas stations still exist. However, that can sometimes be a detriment. At least in one case, in Florence, NJ, gasoline customers unknowingly put their credit cards right in the hand of an identity thief when they paid at the pump.

Writer Stephanie Prokop detailed in November 25th’s Princeton Packet how an attendant at a Wawa gas station carried a hand-held scanner to steal patrons’ credit card information in his jacket pocket. His illegal activity allowed him to garner the account information for at least 40 people, according to local police.

This is just another example of how identity theft can happen to you even if you do all of the right things as far as protecting your credit information online and over the Internet. Obviously, if you live in New Jersey and drive a car you can’t just stop purchasing gas and there may be times when you don’t have enough cash on you and will have to pay with a credit card.

Plus, as time goes on, technology is getting better and thieves are getting savvier. In fact, some thieves don’t even have to use handheld scanners. Instead, they install the scanners right onto the pumps, and they can be so well hidden that consumers don’t notice when they swipe their credit cards through.

Instead of walking or taking the bus to work to avoid going to the gas station, a better way to safeguard your funds is to look into credit protection. To prevent a situation such as this one from harming your credit and eventually your options for future loans, a credit monitoring service could be the way to go, or even a credit freeze.

Credit monitoring services allow you to get updates on your credit status as often as daily to alert you to any unusual activity that is discovered. And, yes, a sudden charge of $1,000 at the local Wawa, or a much larger charge at the Cadillac dealer down the road from said Wawa, would surely be flagged as unusual. Credit freezing makes it so no one can access your credit file, such as to open new, fraudulent accounts or to raise your credit limit, without your expressed consent via a personal identification number known only to you.

If you don’t know much about identity theft protection or how to go about purchasing it, not to worry. There are sources available to you that can explain all of the ins and outs, such as this website, of course. Take your time to search through the plans available to find one that’s right for you. Identity theft protection is an important investment, one that will help to provide you, and your family, with a healthy financial future.

Identity thieves, like the gas station attendant who is currently in jail, will come and go. As some get arrested, and hopefully prosecuted, there will constantly be others to take their places. The burden of keeping safe lies with the consumer and how you take that responsibility is up to you.

Credit Monitoring: What is it and why is it important?

You may have never heard of credit monitoring, but you can bet someone has been using it on your accounts for quite some time now; be it a lender or an insurance company. Credit monitoring simply means keeping an eye on your credit file to look for changes, whether positive or negative. These companies will look in order to calculate and alter your rates according to your credit risk.

So why do you need to know about credit monitoring? Because it’s something easy you can do that can help to prevent your becoming a victim of identity theft or stop the thieves as soon as they get a hold of your personal information before they can do major damage to your accounts or your good name. So how do you go about doing this? Simple. Just sign up for one of many credit monitoring services.

Probably the most well-known are the ones that are offered by the three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. There are better ones available however such as Identity Guard and Chase Identity Protection. Once you’re registered with a service, you’ll be notified by phone or email of changes to your credit file, whether they are unauthorized or not. This way, you can either confirm, that yes, the change is legitimate, or if the change is not legitimate, can begin a dialog with the credit bureau in order to correct your information. You can also contact the organization where the identity thief altered your information and get the account canceled before the thief can run up the charges.

Even if you regularly request copies of your credit report, you should still consider credit monitoring. Think about it. You get your credit report maybe one or two times a year. You don’t want to remain in the dark for all that time in between. A credit monitoring service can scan your file on a daily basis so you know right away if any fraud has taken place. Otherwise, the thief could have months of free reign on your personal information before you even know that anything has happened.

And going back to the first point I made, credit risk. Your credit risk is going to be extremely high if an identity thief gets his or her hands on your accounts or creates new ones. That’s because thieves are not known to make on time payments, or, okay, to make payments at all after they make purchases. This could affect your ability to obtain a loan you need or even get that important job you’ve been waiting on.

Find out more about the available credit monitoring services today, before you think you need to. Then, if an identity thief dares to try to use your personal information for his or her personal gain, not only will you be ready, but you can act on it almost instantly.

United States Postal Service Worker Arrested

Allen Pitman, 54, of San Diego County, California, was arrested after detectives found numerous gift carts, debit cards, and other stolen mail, including W-2 documents and Social Security information, at his home.

It is believed that he had been stealing the mail during his four years of working for the United States Postal Service in Santee, California.

It is unknown at this time how many people were affected by this unfortunate offense. Needless to say, if you were on his route you better place fraud alerts or a credit freeze on your accounts or enroll in an identity theft protection service.

Identity thieves: Is there anywhere they won’t go?

According to BBC News, they have recently infiltrated social networking juggernaut Facebook. An identity thief, using the name Koobface, is sending messages to users trying to convince them to open up a “video.” However, when they try to view the video, a window pops up asking them to accept the newest version of Adobe Flash player. Instead of getting the program they expect, they end up with a virus that searches their machines for credit card information. The worst part is, many don’t even realize it until it’s too late.

This is not Koobface’s first foray into the social networking world. He was also spotted on MySpace in August of 2008. So why is the Web 2.0 world becoming a popular place for thieves to hang out? A lot of it is because of the built in trust factor. Since you have to log in to these sites in order to send emails, many think, erroneously, that there is some kind of a screening process that prevents people with malicious intent from getting through. Not only would this be incredibly difficult for sites that have thousands or even millions of members, but identity thieves don’t advertise their agendas when setting up accounts.

Keeping that in mind, it now becomes obvious that you are responsible for protecting yourself and cannot rely on any website to take care of it for you. Don’t worry; there are four easy ways to be vigilant:

1. Don’t open attachments on messages from people you don’t know. It doesn’t matter if they’re your “friends.” If you don’t have a personal relationship with them, just don’t do it. Tell your friend that this is your policy and to post any videos or photos to their page if they want you to see them.
2. Keep your virus protection software up to date. If you have a good program, like Norton Antivirus, it can clean up any existing viruses you have on your machine and prevent you from downloading new ones. However, if you don’t regularly update your software, some may be able to slip through the cracks. This is what identity thieves count on.
3. Use a temporary credit card number when you shop online. (Call your credit card company to find out how.) Also, never save your information on your machine or set up accounts with online stores that keep your credit card number, no matter how secure they purport to be. Data breaches have been known to happen without a company’s consent. And don’t forget to check your credit card statements each month to make sure you recognize all of the charges.
4. Consider hiring one of the many credit protection services. They can help to keep you safe even if a thief gets a hold of your private information by keeping an eagle eye on your credit report. Plus, many plans offer insurance for expenses you incur if you do end up having to go after a thief – with the help of law enforcement of course.

Tax Time Gives Identity Thieves Many Happy Returns

While many Americans think of tax time as a prime occasion when money heads out the door, identity thieves think of it in just the opposite manner. This is because tax season means W-2s and other papers with names and Social Security numbers flooding into mailboxes across the country. And if taxpayers don’t keep them, they flood right back out, populating vulnerable trash cans and recycling bins. Some people save their tax information to their computers as well, which can be a gift for hackers that break in to wireless networks to steal data. Like paying the IRS didn’t give you enough to worry about!

Don’t worry too much. There are simple things you can do to keep your tax information where it belongs:

• Check your mailbox early and often until you have all of your tax forms safe in hand. You should receive all of your W-2 forms by February 15 at the latest. If you don’t call the IRS at (800) 829-1040. Sometimes it is just an inefficient company late with mailing their paperwork, but other times it could be the result of a thief stealing or intercepting your mail.
• If you’re mailing your returns, do so at the post office or at least by dropping them in a locked mailbox. If you stick them in a traditional mailbox and put up the flag, it tells the thieves exactly where they should strike next, especially as April 15 gets close.
• Shred any tax forms that you don’t need to keep before throwing them out or recycling them. If you don’t have a shredder, hang on to them. When you have a big stack, get all the papers shredded at your local office supply store.
• For efiling, go with a reputable company. Unfortunately, there are fake sites out there designed just to steal your personal information. For a list of companies that are IRS approved, go to www.irs.gov/efile.
• Make sure your antivirus and antispyware software is up to date before you enter any tax information on your computer, whether you plan to efile or you just want to make a few calculations in QuickBooks.

You may think that taking all of these precautions is a complete waste of time, since identity theft would never happen to you. However, you should know that 8.4 million Americans were victimized in 2007 alone according to Javelin Strategy & Research. It’s likely that most of those people thought it would never happen to them either.

Tax time is a good a time as any to assess your family finances. Look into whether you can afford to invest in an identity theft protection service. You can get one for yourself, for your spouse and even for your children and some cost just pennies a day. You may find out that the question isn’t whether you can afford it, but rather with the risk ever growing, whether you can afford not to.

To an Identity Thief You Are Your Credit Card

Of course you are more than just rectangular piece of plastic, but to an identity thief you could be just that. And that credit card is all he or she needs to become “you,” making charges that may add up to thousands of dollars without your knowledge – well until you get the bill anyway.

You may think that your credit cards are safe. After all, you shred all your statements and are very careful when using your card numbers and expiration dates online. However there are plenty of other ways for your information to leak out into the wrong hands. For example, Linda Price a 59-year old housecleaner in Cincinnati, stole a credit card from an infirm client and ended up charging over $3,000 before she was discovered according to wlwt.com.  Additionally, a thief may end up with your information by using a skimmer device at a payment terminal or ATM, by looking over your shoulder when you make a purchase at a store or through a data breach at your credit card company that is completely beyond your control. The Heartland Payment Systems data breach is rumored to have compromised close to 100 million debit and credit card numbers.

Since you can’t afford to be reactive in a situation such as credit card theft, especially with limits to liability plans, it’s a necessity to take a preventative stance. One way to do this is with an identity theft protection plans especially credit monitoring services, which gives you quick notification of any changes to your credit file that were not made by you. These changes can include reports of late or delinquent payments as well as alterations to your address or contact information. This is especially important since an identity thief may have your statements sent to a new location to hopefully throw you off the scent for longer since you won’t notice strange charges on your paper statements.

This brings me to another way to protect yourself from fraudulent credit card charges. Sign up for statements online. That way you can check your balance at any time of the month and will know if it shoots up unexpectedly. If you didn’t make a big purchase, and your husband or wife isn’t planning a big surprise, you will know pretty soon that something is afoot. This also keeps paper statements out of your mailbox and recycling bin: two more favorite places for identity thieves to find what they need to stay in business.

To sign up for electronic statements, contact your credit card company or visit its website. To find out more about credit protection services, you are already in the right place. Remember that these protection plans don’t just keep your plastic credit on the up and up, but can help with all aspects of your finances — and life in general – that can become victim to identity thieves. This includes usernames, passwords, addresses, bank accounts, your credit and that all important Social Security Number. Identity theft insurance can also help to keep everyone in your family’s information safe, depending on the options you choose. That peace of mind is worth more than any sliver of plastic could ever be.

Identity Theft Happens to Children Too

Linda Raker recently received some troubling information from a collection agency, according to the Greensboro News Record, a newspaper in North Carolina. The agency sought payment for a telephone and natural gas bill. The name on the bill belonged to her three year old granddaughter. Since toddlers don’t have a habit of ordering utility service, it was easy to tell that the child had been the victim of identity theft. You may think it’s strange for this crime to affect someone so young. You may not even have known that it is possible. But sadly, it is all too common.

Pretty much all identity thieves need to go on to create a false account is a valid Social Security number. Most children have these soon after they’re born. And, according to Javelin Strategy and Research, over 1 million American children were affected by data breaches in 2006, so this gives thieves a lot of numbers to work with. A study by Debix also showed that one child in every classroom will become the victim of identity theft.

So what can you do to protect your children and grandchildren? First of all, get copies of their credit reports. This will be a bit more difficult than requesting your own, which is a good thing. That means that the credit bureaus are working to safeguard the children’s security. You will need a copy of your child’s birth certificate and Social Security card, plus your personal identification and proof of address. See the FAQ section of annualcreditreport.com for exact instructions. Each credit bureau operates somewhat differently, so it’s good to check the website for Experian, Equifax and TransUnion for updates before you make your request.

Most likely each bureau will respond that your child or grandchild has no credit history. This is absolutely what you want to hear. If the child hasn’t opened any credit accounts there should be nothing on record. The problem arises when the bureaus do find something; however, be grateful that it’s discovered and you now can do something about it.

The first thing you should do is contact the company that issued the credit and explain that it was obtained illegally. It should be obvious to the company that your child didn’t actually authorize the purchase, and hopefully a refund will soon be in order. Second, put a fraud alert on your child’s credit report. Again, each credit bureau’s website will be your best recourse for how to get this done in a timely fashion. When you talk to one bureau, the representative may tell you that they all three share information. But call the other two anyway. You want all of your bases covered just in case.

Finally, report the crime to law enforcement. Though it can be difficult to catch identity thieves at times since they often operate internationally, you’d be surprised how many are actually just around the corner. For example, in the case of Linda Raker’s granddaughter, the thief was actually a family member, which explains the access to the child’s personal information. He was charged with identity theft and obtaining property under false pretense, which may not have happened if Raker hadn’t contacted the local sheriff’s department. Consider protecting your child’s identity with one of the credit protection services listed on our comparison chart.

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