IDENTITY THEFT IN THE NEWS
9/3/2008 3:28:05 PM
Identity Theft for Employment
The Arizona Republic reports of 20 employees at the Mesa Landscaping Company were arrested for identity theft by using false social security numbers and other documents to gain employment. Click here to read more.
9/3/2008 3:05:49 PM
Identity Theft in Nursing Homes
WLBT reports of three women accused of stealing a nursing home resident's social security card and driver's license. Click here to read more.
8/27/2008 4:08:29 PM
Identity Theft Scam Targets Debit Cards
ConsumerAffairs.com reports a new scam where debit card account holders recieve phising emails that lead to fake websites asking for personal information. Click here to read more.
8/13/2008 3:40:31 PM
Wells Fargo Offers Identity Guard Services
Los Angeles Times reports a data breach occured at Wells Fargo & Co., where personal information of 5,000 people might have been seen by someone using a bank access code illegally. The bank is offering affected individuals a free one-year membership to Identity Guard. Click here to read more.
8/6/2008 11:04:50 AM
Largest ID Theft Case in the US History
Los Angeles Times reports the largest case of identity theft in the U.S. history. After three years of investigations by federal agencies, 11 people were charged of stealing more than 40 million credit and debit card account numbers from systems of major retailers such as TJ Maxx, Barnes & Noble and Marshalls. Click here to read more.
8/5/2008 2:01:47 PM
Federal Penalties Imposed by The Identity Theft Restitution Act
Next Advisor informs about the new Identity Theft Restitution Act, which if passed and signed into law, will give the federal government jurisdiction over any theft of information from a computer regardless of which state the perpetrator and victim reside in. Also, it will give identity theft victims the ability to seek restitution from identity thieves for the time and money expended to restore their credit and remedy other negative impacts of identity theft. Click here to read more.
8/1/2008 12:54:30 PM
Federal Government Unencrypted Data
GCN informs that the United States Government Accountability Office found that 70% of laptops and handheld devices used by federal agencies containing sensitive information were unencrypted. Also, no agencies had documents in place detailing plans for ongoing encryption efforts, according to the report. The sensitive data includes personal medical records, law enforcement data and records essential for homeland security. Click here to read more.
7/31/2008 4:45:26 PM
College Students Facing Identity Theft
Yahoo! Finance reports about the risk that students faced during their college years. According to the Federal Trade Commission people between the ages of 18 and 29 are most often victims of identity theft, and because of this reason college students should be vigilant. Click here to read more.
7/22/2008 9:44:09 AM
Online Job Search an Opportunity for ID Theft
WXYZ.com reports that the increasing number of people searching for jobs on the Internet has become an opportunity for identity thieves and scam artists to take advantage of people. When searching for jobs online, look for red flags that could indicate the possibility of identity theft. Click here to read more.
7/15/2008 1:27:56 PM
Data Breach of Metro Employees' SSN
The Washington Post reports a data breach of Social Security numbers of nearly 4,700 current and former Metro employees. The information was posted by mistake on the transit agency's Web site between June 9 and June 25. Letters informing about the breach were sent to all affected employees. Click here to read more.
7/14/2008 4:50:59 PM
Maryland's Traffic Infractors at Risk of ID Theft
The Washington Post informs that names, birthdays, Social Security numbers and addresses of people who have received traffic tickets in Maryland may be posted on the Maryland state Web site. The records found on the site appear to be limited to tickets issued to people who currently or at one time lived in a state that previously used the Social Security number as the default driver's license number. Click here to read more.
7/10/2008 10:06:14 AM
Coloradans at Risk of Identity Theft
The Denver Post reports that the Division of Motor Vehicles of Colorado exposed personal information of 3.4 million people. The DMV manages and transfers information over the Internet without encryption. Millions of Colorado residents are now at risk of identity theft due to flaws in the way driver's license information is handled by the DMV. Click here to read more.
7/9/2008 9:26:37 AM
644% Increase in Tax-Related Identity Theft
NYDailyNews.com reports a 644% increase in tax-related identity theft from fiscal year 2004 to fiscal year 2007. According to a report by the Internal Revenue Service, identity theft is one of the biggest problems facing taxpayers today. Click here to read more.
7/7/2008 11:40:04 AM
Data Theft of Cached Information
San Francisco Chronicle reports that personal information of search engine's users (including Social Security numbers, medical records, confidential business records) can be found on servers around the world nearly every other day. Click here to read more.
7/1/2008 11:57:31 AM
Increase of 69% in Data Breaches
The Washington Post reports a 69% increase in data breaches in the first half of 2008 compared with a similar period in 2007. A nonprofit group that works to prevent fraud found that data breaches among health-care providers and banks now account for 15 percent and 10 percent of the breaches, respectively. Click here to read more.
6/25/2008 10:11:34 AM
Housing Market Instability Ideal Environment for ID Theft
The Chicago Tribune informs that identity thieves are taking advantage of the housing market instable situation. Financially strapped house owners are considered easy marks of identity theft because they are more likely to believe almost anything to save their homes. Click here to read more.
6/18/2008 2:31:24 PM
Potential Identity Theft of Tornado Victims
KTKA.com informs that following the recent storms that devastated several Kansas communities, storm survivors may be missing important personal information or account information. While many survivors are busy cleaning up, it is important that they move quickly to protect themselves from identity theft. Click here to read more.
6/9/2008 11:31:36 AM
Data Breach at Stanford University
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that personal information of 72,000 Stanford university employees was stolen from a university laptop. While there is no evidence that any of the information on the stolen laptop has been accessed, the university said it will provide additional credit monitoring to help employees respond to the possible data breach and protect their identities from fraud. Click here to read more.
6/5/2008 10:16:55 AM
1,132 UCI Graduate Students at Risk of ID Theft
Idg.no reports that graduate and medical students of the University of California, Irvine have been affected by a data breach occurred at UnitedHealthcare, the carrier for the school's graduate student health-insurance program. Click here to read more.
6/3/2008 12:23:32 PM
Medical Identity Theft Implications
Dallas News.com informs the devastated effects of medical identity theft. This kind of ID theft allows the creation of false entries in health records at hospitals, doctors' offices, pharmacies and insurance companies, which can remain for years and may not ever be corrected, or even discovered, and also it can have deadly consequences. Click here to read more.
6/2/2008 12:15:33 PM
Software Piracy Could Lead to Identity Theft
Blogger News Network informs about the risk of pirated software and how it could lead to identity theft. There is a possibility that mailicious software (containing a keylogger) was added to steal personal and financial information. Click here to read more.