Did you know...Recent News
Stay informed on the latest identity theft stories and news of what advocates like LifeLock, law enforcement and elected officials are doing to protect consumers from becoming victims of identity theft.
January 26th, 2013 IRS Battling Rising Identity Theft
With the start of the tax filing season just around the corner, the IRS is on alert for rising cases of identity theft and tax fraud. Many taxpayers can become victims if they are not careful about protecting their... Read More
January 25th, 2013 Identity Theft's Taxing New Trend: Scammers Are After Your Tax Refund
Along with the rapid rise in identity theft has come the explosion of a specialized and sophisticated form of theft: tax identity theft. During the 2011 tax processing year, roughly 940,000 tax returns were filed... Read More
January 24th, 2013 How to Protect Your Bank Account When an Identity Thief Steals Your SSN
More than 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year, according to the Federal Trade Commission, and with advancements in banking and web technology, those numbers are growing. Read More
January 20th, 2013 Beware of ID thieves filing your tax return
Identity theft is the type of crime that’s easy to dismiss. Until it happens to you. Just imagine, you have filed your tax return and are eagerly awaiting your refund. It’s money you desperately need to pay some... Read More
January 10th, 2013 ID Theft: 2013 Top Trends
2013 will also be a year when consumers and organizations face other challenges, such us addressing growing concerns surrounding medical ID theft, government ID theft and the links to financial fraud, as well as... Read More
January 9th, 2013 Banks crack down on cyber-based account takeovers
In the first half of 2012, just 9 percent of cyberattacks, involving Trojans, phishing and other electronic attacks, resulted in funds leaving banks, according to the survey of 95 financial institutions and five service... Read More
December 10th, 2012 How a Neighbor Stole Your Identity
The boiler-room image of tech geeks pounding on keyboards and hanging out in chat rooms scouring for identities they can steal and capitalize on isn't the characterization of your average ID fraudster, according to a... Read More
December 9th, 2012 How a Neighbor Stole Your Identity
In the latest missive of consumer-beware warnings comes this: The thief who stole your identity could live right next door ... or in your own home. Many of the more than 10,000 identity-fraud rings—yes, 10,000—in the... Read More
November 26th, 2012 Where Identity Thieves are Now Living
While you are out shopping, dining, traveling and celebrating this holiday season, you should keep this not-so-jolly fact in mind: there are thousands of your fellow Americans working to steal your identity. And here's... Read More
November 25th, 2012 Beware! It's Open Season for Identity Thieves
Whether a customer's shopping preferences run more toward Black Friday or Cyber Monday, one thing is for sure: the holidays are open season for identity thieves. While monitoring individual credit is important... Read More
November 24th, 2012 Macy’s Parade stuffed with personal documents
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade viewers were surprised to find shredded police report information with addition to the normal parade confetti. Confetti collected by spectators near 65th Street and Central Park West... Read More
November 15th, 2012 Kill the Password: Why a String of Characters Can’t Protect Us Anymore
You have a secret that can ruin your life. It’s not a well-kept secret, either. Just a simple string of characters—maybe six of them if you’re careless, 16 if you’re cautious—that can reveal everything about... Read More
November 6th, 2012 Why Data Theft Experts Recommend Paying in Cash
Using brash ingenuity, criminals out to steal your personal data are tampering with the checkout machines in department stores, supermarkets, gas stations and even your doctors' office. Their prime target: your debit... Read More
October 26th, 2012 New ID theft scam: Luring people to fake IRS website
Identity theft scamsters are using the fake website to lure people into giving personal information that could be used to steal their money or identity. The pseudo site pretends to be IRS e-Services online registration... Read More
October 21st, 2012 Hacking Hotel Locks in Seconds With Cheap Tools
Tourists trust hotels for a safe nights sleep. See why hundreds of thousands of tourists are vulnerable to theft of the worse kind. Read More
October 10th, 2012 Medicare won't issue new IDs to identity-theft victims
More than a quarter-million Medicare beneficiaries are potential victims of identity theft and hampered in getting health care benefits because the government won't issue new IDs, according to an investigation report. Read More
September 21st, 2012 Cracking Your PIN Code: Easy as 1-2-3-4
If you lost your ATM card on the street, how easy would it be for someone to correctly guess your PIN and proceed to clean out your savings account? Quite easy, according to data scientist Nick Berry, founder of Data... Read More
September 13th, 2012 Avoiding the Pitfalls of Medical Insurance Fraud
If you've ever had your wallet stolen, you know the pain of losing cash and the annoyance of having to replace photos, frequent buyer and discount cards. The panic, however, really sets in when you imagine your credit... Read More
August 22nd, 2012 Facebook Has Been Hacked. What Will You Do?
The hacking of Facebook accounts is a good reminder that all of us are vulnerable to account theft. Here are the steps to take if you think your Facebook account has been hacked. Read More
August 20th, 2012 Why passwords have never been weaker
The ancient art of password cracking has advanced further in the past five years than it did in the previous several decades combined. At the same time, the dangerous practice of password reuse has surged. The result:... Read More
August 6th, 2012 How Apple and Amazon Security Flaws Led to My Epic Hacking
In the space of one hour, my entire digital life was destroyed. First my Google account was taken over, then deleted. Next my Twitter account was compromised, and used as a platform to broadcast racist and homophobic... Read More
July 27th, 2012 Five-minute Facebook security checkup
In just a few minutes you can tweak the social network's default privacy settings to ensure you're sharing posts and photos only with the friends you intend to share them with. Read More
June 28th, 2012 IRS struggles to keep up amid surge in tax fraud
The IRS identified roughly two million tax returns that were potentially fraudulent last year, a sharp increase that has the agency struggling to keep up. The agency's fraud detection system identified more than one... Read More
June 20th, 2012 Beware Identity Theft While on Vacation
Vacationers often leave clues to their absence: having lights on all day and night, leaving their garbage cans out for extended periods or not stopping mail collection. Any of these can alert burglars and other criminals... Read More
June 13th, 2012 A New Crime Wave of Identity Theft: Is Your Child in Danger?
In the last three years, there have been 57,000 cases of child identity theft reported to the Federal Trade Commission. Criminals can hack home computers in search of tax forms with a child's Social Security number. They... Read More
June 1st, 2012 Hackers Not Attracted to Small Businesses? False
Small business owners may think the size of their company precludes them from being targets of identity theft, not realizing they are more at risk than the larger companies. Read More
May 30th, 2012 NJ Lawmakers hope to stop ID theft via copiers
A bill aimed at preventing identity theft through digital copy machines used in banks, doctor's offices and other businesses is headed to the New Jersey Senate. The measure requires hard drives of digital copy machines... Read More
May 16th, 2012 5 ways criminals use Facebook
Cyber crimes have been occurring for some time, but the presence of social media has made many crimes much easier to commit. In social networks people make “friends” without knowing the person and make... Read More
May 14th, 2012 Your Deceased Relative Could be a Victim of Identity Theft
Your lost loved one’s financial identity could come back to life in a most unsettling way – 2.5 million deceased Americans' identities are misused every year, according to ID Analytics, an ID theft risk... Read More
May 10th, 2012 Cyber crooks' latest target: Frequent flyer miles
Travelers should be wary with upcoming vacation plans about what experts say is the latest twist in identity theft scams - stealing your frequent flyer miles. Membership numbers and passwords must be provided and a... Read More
May 8th, 2012 Identity-Theft Victims Given Short Shrift by IRS
Both officials called tax-related identity theft a growing problem. According to IRS statistics presented by Tigta, over 640,000 taxpayers were affected by it in 2011, more than double the 271,000 affected in 2010. The... Read More
May 5th, 2012 Identity Theft: 'Kids Don't Know They're Victims'
According to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America. Many identity theft victims are children and, because children don't usually have reason to check their credit... Read More
May 2nd, 2012 5 things you need to know about identity theft
So what should you know to protect yourself? CBS News business and economics correspondent Rebecca Jarvis shared the five things you need to know about identity theft on “CBS This Morning.” Read More
April 27th, 2012 Used Hard Drives Are Gold Mines for Identity Theft
With the amount of personal data many people keep on external hard drives and USB sticks, one would hope they'd take care to wipe these crucial devices clean before donating or selling them. According to the United... Read More
April 24th, 2012 Grave Robbing: 2.5 Million Dead People Get Their Identities Stolen Every Year
Being a victim of identity theft is always a frustrating ordeal, but millions of Americans have to face an even more troubling scenario: Finding out that a criminal has applied for credit in the name of a deceased family... Read More
April 13th, 2012 Tax Refunds Delayed By Rising Identity Theft
Identity thieves are increasingly filing false tax returns to get their hands on refund money. It's not only costing the government billions in stolen refund money — it's slowing down legitimate returns for others. Read More
April 10th, 2012 ID thieves target the young
Preventing an adult’s identity from being stolen is often hard enough, but what about detecting when a child’s ID has been pilfered? In terms of finances, young children are typically blank slates, identity security... Read More
April 9th, 2012 Flaw in popular mobile apps exposes users to identity theft
A security flaw that exposes iOS and possibly Android smartphone users to identity theft has been discovered in mobile apps for Facebook, Dropbox, and LinkedIn. Smartphone owners would be well served to take extra... Read More
April 7th, 2012 Identity theft involving children is a growing crime
ID theft is a growing crime, especially involving children. In the past five years, the Utah Attorney General’s online Identity Theft Reporting Information System has received more than 3,000 reports of ID theft —... Read More
April 2nd, 2012 Identity Theft, Fastest Growing Crime in America
The Federal Trade Commission reports that identity theft has been the NUMBER ONE consumer complaint for TWELVE consecutive years. The WI DATCP has now added it their list as the source of the fastest rising group of... Read More
March 30th, 2012 Bogus 'smishing' messages tell lies
Click on the link and you’ll wind up on a site that asks for your name, email, birthday and cell phone number. Don’t do it! There is no iPhone5. This is just a devious attempt to snag your personal information. Read More
March 27th, 2012 Can you put a price on kids' ID?
According to the Federal Trade Commission, there is a market for this: 19,000 child identity theft complaints were reported in 2009, the most recent data available, up 217% since 2003. What's more, a study done by the... Read More
March 24th, 2012 Why ID Thieves Love Social Media
About 12 million Americans got hit by identity fraud in 2011, a 13% increase from a year earlier, thanks to consumers' growing use of social-media websites and smartphones, plus a sharp jump in security breaches... Read More
March 21st, 2012 For identity theft victims, paying taxes is a nightmare
The IRS has acknowledged that identity theft tax fraud — stealing someone’s Social Security number to file a fake tax return and collect a bogus refund — is one of the most complex issues it deals with. Read More
February 29th, 2012 Identity Theft A Growing Concern For Businesses
You've heard of identity theft — someone using a person's credit information or a Social Security number for ill-gotten gains. Well, experts say similar crimes are also affecting businesses. Business identity theft... Read More
February 28th, 2012 FTC: ID Theft Again Tops Consumer Concerns
Identity theft was the top complaint filed by U.S. residents to the Federal Trade Commission in 2011, with Internet-related fraud also a top concern, the agency said Tuesday. Read More
February 23rd, 2012 Rise in identity fraud tied to smartphone use
Nearly 12 million Americans were victims of identity theft in 2011, an increase of 13 percent over 2010, according to a report released on Wednesday by the research firm Javelin Strategy & Research. Read More
February 16th, 2012 Identity theft, phishing top IRS's "dirty dozen" tax scams
Identity theft and phishing top the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) list of "dirty dozen" scams, which tend to peak this time of year as millions of Americans gear up to file their tax returns. Read More
January 23rd, 2012 Sharing Passwords Is Romantic, But Not Without Risk
In a new expression of intimacy, young people increasingly exchange passwords to various online sites, email and instant message accounts, Facebook pages, even sometimes bank accounts. Read More
January 14th, 2012 BBB names top 10 scams of 2011
The Better Business Bureau investigates thousands of scams every year — from the latest gimmicks to schemes as old as the hills. This year, the BBB divided scams into nine major categories and picked the top scam in... Read More
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