Protecting Our Identity

Ones FICO score is a very important determinant of the ability to finance the purchase or refinance of a home. The FICO score is determined by a formula developed by Experian and takes into account many different factors. In today’s lending environment, automated underwriting has taken a predominant position in the processing of loan applications. It has become more cumbersome to address issues that do not easily fit into the formula. It is of extremely high importance, therefore, to protect one’s credit by guarding against identity theft. Once an item is shown as a negative on one’s credit report, it is very difficult and very time consuming to get it taken off. Also, while an item of bad credit is being investigated and attempts are being made to rectify the problem, the result is that the overall FICO score is reduced, and therefore reflects a greater credit risk than it should.

The protection of your identity is one of the most important functions in maintaining your financial health.?Identity theft can cause many a myriad of problems.?One major problem could be the inability to achieve the “American Dream” of homeownership.?Even if you already own a home, identity theft could cause you thousands and thousands of dollars due to higher interest rates.?In trying to refinance a home in order to remodel, for example, the interest rate could easily be 2% higher than the current market interest rate just because someone else used your credit and negatively impacted it.

There are ¡°Ten Top Tips for Identity Theft Protection¡± published by the Office of Privacy Protection, California Department of Consumer Affairs, www.dca.ca.gov. If one follows these guidelines for protection, one will be far ahead of the average person in safeguarding their identity, although no one is fully guaranteed complete immunity.

The following is a short, abbreviated list of these top ten pointers:

Tip # 1. Protect your social security number. (Don¡¯t carry your social security card with you)

Tip # 2. Fight ¡°Phishing¡±-don¡¯t take the bait. (Don¡¯t respond online to credit information requests).

Tip # 3. Keep your identity from getting trashed. (Shred information when throwing away).

Tip # 4. Control your personal financial information.

Tip # 5. Shield your computer from viruses and spyware.

Tip # 6 Click with caution!?When shopping on line, check out the website before entering your credit card number or other personal information.

Tip #7 Check your bills and bank statements right away.

Tip #8 Stop pre-approved credit offers.

Tip #9 Ask questions of anyone before giving personal information.

Tip #10?Check your credit reports-for free.

Identity theft can be devastating to a person¡¯s finances. It often leaves its victims credit and financial lives in shambles, but by practicing these simple tips you can stay one step ahead of the identity thieves, and be the only one who uses your identity.

For further information related to this article, visit http://www.nefcortez.com



By: Nef Cortez

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To protect against identity theft, it is best not to carry your Social Security number in your wallet or write your Social Security number on a check.  Before disclosing your Social Security number (SSN) to anyone, first make sure that it is absolutely necessary that they have it.  You are allowed to ask pointed questions, don’t be shy.  Ask the person if some other form of identification will suffice.  An identity thief is well on his way in stealing your identity when he has your Social Security number. 

 

 

Your state driver’s license may use your SSN as your driver’s license number and if this is so, ask to have it replaced with another number.  Your health insurance company may also use your SSN as your policy number, so ask to have it changed.  Your bank, credit union etc and the company that employs you need your SSN for wage and tax reporting purposes.  There will be times when a company will want to do a credit check on you when you apply for a credit card, loan, apartment, hydro, phone or other utility and they will want your SSN. 

 

 

Sometimes they just want your Social Security number for ordinary record keeping, so you should ask these questions:

 

 

1. Why do you need my Social Security number.

2. Precisely how will my Social Security number be used?

3. How will you protect my social Security number from being stolen or otherwise compromised?

4. What will happen if I don’t give you my social Security number?

 

 

Some company’s will not be able to provide you with a service or benefit that you desire without having your Social Security number.  If the company provides answers to these questions that are satisfactory to you, then you may be able to make a decision to share your SSN.  Ultimately, the decision is yours. 



By: Randy Vezina

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Bob squinted at the email and began to read:

“Dear eBay User, as part of our security measures, eBay Inc. has developed a security program against fraudulent attempts and account thefts. Therefore, our system requires further account verification…”

Security Measures. A threat to suspend his account to prevent “fraudulent activity”. The email went on to say that there were “procedural safeguards with federal regulations to protect the information you provide for us.”

Bob clicked the link and was confronted with an authentic looking logon page, just waiting for him to input his user name and password and confirm what ebay supposedly didn’t know.

He almost did it. The page looked absolutely authentic, and he had already been “set up” by the email message. His fingers were poised over the keyboard when he happened to glance at the URL.

There was something very, very wrong with it.

“PHARMING” TO FLEECE SHEEP

The art of “pharming” involves setting up an illegitimate website that is identical with its legitimate prototype, for example the ebay page Bob was almost suckered into using, and redirecting traffic to it.

“Pharmers” can do it in two ways:

1.By altering the “Hosts” file on your computer. The Hosts file stores the IP address of websites you have been accessing. By inserting a new IP address into the database field corresponding to a website, your own computer can be redirected to the pharmer’s website. Any information you give the bogus site is immediately hijacked by the pharmer.

2.Hijacking the DNS (Dynamic Name Server) itself. A DNS matches the names of address with their IP addresses. If this server can be coerced into assigning new IP addresses to traditional names, all computers using the name resolution provided by the DNS server will be redirected to the hijacker’s web site.

Once that happens, it’s time to be fleeced.

DOWN ON THE PHARM

“Pharmers” hijack your “hosts” file or DNS servers using Spyware, Adware, Viruses or Trojans. One of the most dangerous things you can do is to run your computer without some form of Internet Security installed on it.

Your security software should be continually updating its virus definitions, and be capable of warning you if something has been downloaded from a web site or through email. It should be able to remove it, “quarantine it”, or tell you where it is so that you can remove it by hand.

You should also have Spyware and Adware programs installed, and be aware of any change in Internet browsing patterns. If your home page suddenly changes, or you experience advertising pop ups (which may pop up even when you are not hooked up to the Internet), you should run a Virus, Spyware or Adware scan.

Thanks to the efficacy of these protection programs, pharming is a lot more difficult than it used to be. It isn’t as easy to hijack a computer as it once was.

So, the “pharmers” have teamed up with the “phishermen” to get you to visit the bogus web page yourself, and enter all the information they need.

PHISHING TO CATCH YOU ON THE PHARM

As Bob discovered, the page he had been taken to by the bogus email message was identical to the ebay logon page. Identical in every way except for the URL.

Out of curiosity, he checked the URL for the ebay logon by accessing ebay directly and clicking on the logon link. The two URL’s were nothing alike, except the bogus one did have the word “ebay” in it twice - just enough to make it look authentic.

By combining the two techniques, the phishermen/pharmers had avoided the high tech problems associated with downloading a Virus that could get past his protection software. They had gone straight for the throat.

Bob’s throat.

YOUR ONLY REAL IDENTITY THEFT PREVENTION AND PROTECTION

The only real protection against the pharmers and phishermen is YOU. There are three things you must consider when you read any email demanding information:

• Why do they want it? Be extremely skeptical when they say they have to “update their records”, “comply with federal regulations”, or prevent fraud. They are the ones initiating the fraud.

• Why can’t this be done at the website? Why not invite you to access the website directly and provide this information? The answer is because the bonafide company doesn’t need an update.

• What does the URL look like? Is it a series of subdomains some of which have the name of the bonafide company? Most likely the subdomain is set up with a free hosting company.

• Have they provided partial information about you as a guarantee that the email authentically comes from the legitimate source? Be very careful of this one. This technique is effective for “pretexting”, impersonating a person or company, and was used in the Hewlett Packard scandal to collect information. Just because they know your first and last name (and any other information - known only to the legitimate source) doesn’t mean the email is legitimate. They probably hijacked the information off the server.

THE BOTTOM LINE

The bottom line is: don’t provide any information at the behest of an email, no matter how authentic it looks, or how authentic the page it directs you to looks. If you must log in, do so at the parent site itself.

Your Identity Theft prevention and protection is, in the final analysis, up to you.

Don’t be the next sheep fleeced by the pharmers who caught you with the phisherman’s hook. Being dropped naked into their frying pan is NOT a fate you want.



By: John Young

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In the wrong hands, it’s just as easy for a thief to recover data off your old, discarded hard drive as it is to unravel and read a crumpled piece of paper that you’ve tossed in the garbage. Geek savvy crooks know just how to access the dark corners of your trusty old computer and this can place your identity at risk.

Shredding paper, smashing up CDs, DVDs or USB flash drives that contain any sort of personal or business information is an obvious and simple step to take when discarding any media. But what do you do with your hard drive once you decide to replace it?

Most of your stored data may be trivial or of no concern. No one usually cares very much about your photos, old to-do lists or the kid’s video games. But if your hard drive stores archived email, financial documents, tax records, passwords, account numbers or medical records, then don’t just give it away. Be aware that your personal information can be easily retrieved and used to hijack your identity.

Once a fraudster has enough vital information, they may attempt to transfer your bank accounts, change billing addresses, or apply for new credit cards and often, with surprising success. So it’s more important than ever that you erase or destroy your obsolete hard drive. But how?

There isn’t a portable shredder on the market that you can run your old hard drive through. And just erasing all important files won’t do the trick. There are programs that will un-erase these files and bring them right back.

There are options that promise to cleanse a disk drive using wiping software. There are also destruction services and manufacturers’ recycling programs. But what many PC owners don’t realize, according to some experts, is that many of these options are not 100% reliable.

Your hard drive maintains an index of files used to organise the data on your computer by telling it where things are stored. When you install any file - especially a large one - the information for that file is scattered around the hard drive in bits and pieces. When you request to open the file, the hard drive checks the index first and then it gathers the fragmented pieces and reconstructs them to open the file.

If you later delete the same file, the links between the index and the file disappear telling your system that the file is no longer needed. But the deleted file actually remains on your computer. Even if you’ve taken care to cleanse and overwrite your drive, remnants of data will still exist.

If you have your drive overwritten, you are replacing previously stored data with a predetermined pattern of gibberish. You can find countless brands of software that claim a lofty standard of data erasure and they all work on the same premise of overwriting the drive with bad data. The goal is to effectively render the good data unrecoverable. If you go this route, it’s time consuming but smart to overwrite your disk several times for greater protection.

Here’s the Problem:

Your computer’s operating system may tell you that the data is gone, but the pattern of 1’s and 0’s will still be on your machine - it’s just been overwritten. Skilful hackers can decode this information back into human, readable language. It may only take a modestly resourceful cyber crook with a good shareware program to be able to recover your personal information.

Taking the step of formatting the drive helps to remove patterns but, many format programs still cannot erase the full pattern, only its file system pointer chain. Some commercial devices are available that will thoroughly remove any trace of patterns that could be decoded into information. They perform a low-level format and this should permanently erase the data. Nonetheless, recovery measures are sometimes still possible.

A low level format may not do the trick so you can consider a “degaussing” service. Degaussing is the technical term for de-magnetization and it is considered to be a more secure measure of data erasure. You’ll often read warnings not to get a magnet near your hard drive for fear of losing your data. Degaussing is a process of placing a very strong magnet next to the hard drive so that it no longer holds any information. Still, the process may not purge the disk completely which means some remnants of information may remain recoverable.

Physical destruction is the most reliable method of all to guard against having your information and identity stolen from your old PC. If you’ve used the computer for some time or if you’ve been using it extensively for personal or business use, this is the way to go. And it can be a do-it-yourself project that can be kinda fun.

On the other hand, drives are designed to be robust and most can withstand being mishandled or even dropped, so you may not want to do the destruction yourself. After you unplug the computer wires, you’ll need to remove any mounting screws and slide the hard drive out from the back of its casing. Use a hammer to smash the hard disk platters or even try an acetylene torch to complete the destruction.

If you don’t have the tools or the inclination to do the job properly, you can always hire a hard drive destruction service. Just Google terms like “hard drive destruction service” or “clean out your hard disk” and you’ll find a ton of information and resources that may lead you to a good service close to home.

If your data is confidential, it’s worth the effort to ensure that it stays that way as a measure of identity protection. So before you leave that old clunky Pentium by the curb side, you should take some time to research your best alternative and then decide to save, sell, recycle or destroy that old PC or Notebook.



By: Wilfred Walter

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Why Insurance Agents Should Offer Identity Theft Protection Service

Statistics in print, online and other media show that identity theft has become a major topic of discussion over the past few years. In fact, the figures regarding the costs and time involved in identity theft - both for businesses and individuals is almost staggering. With this in mind, a new type of insurance has been established as a result. And it’s known as personal identity theft insurance.

Personal Identity Theft Insurance Coverage

Here are some of the main points covered by personal identity theft insurance. Check with insurance agents in our area for more details and to see what’s covered in your area.

1) At this point in time, personal identity theft insurance basically averages between $25 and $50 per year. It mainly covers up to around a sum total of $15,000 through $25,000 worth of expenses, including some lost wages that may result from time taken off work to handle the identity theft-related fraud issues. However, coverage incurred for this benefit most often will not surpass $500 in a week’s time plus it is more often than not limited to four weeks in full of total coverage.

2) Some attorney fees may also be included in this coverage, so check accordingly with insurance agents / providers. They’ll also have limits, if this is covered.

3) Some insurance coverage for personal identity theft may also extend to long distance fees, notary fees and certified postal mailing costs for the competing and delivering of fraud affidavits so that they go to the right parties involved.

4) Some additional fees that may be required when reapplying for new installment and other loans plus new credit cards, even for accounts that were possibly turned down earlier because of the fraudulent credit information may also be covered, at least to a certain extent with identity theft insurance.

Note that while personal identity theft coverage is in itself not an actual ‘fix’ for your credit record, history or criminal record, it does help pay for many expenses associated with the fix for you in time, help, money and reaching out to clear things up. Overall, the insurance for identity theft will most often cover expenses totaling up to and not exceeding $1,000. But every little bit helps! And to many, $1,000 can represent a huge chunk of time and money, especially when your know upfront that the chips will be down: i.e. that you’ll be bummed, busy trying to juggle your regular daily activities while being right smack in the middle of chaotic theft.

Take steps to safeguard your private and personal information.

Help reach out to others you know to alert them to this info for their safety. Print out helpful articles like this and share copies with others, even emailing them as well to help others stay safe online and off.

Also bookmark helpful sites and blogs and subscribe to them. This will help you stay advised of alerts and updates regarding identity theft issues and topics are also great ideas.

So know you know why insurance agents should offer Identity Theft Protection Service. Spread the word!



By: Bernard Pragides

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You heard right. Identity Theft is THE fastest growing crime wave in America. Why? Because it’s easy and doesn’t require someone to break into your home to make off with the goods. They can get them right out of your trash!

According to the U.S. Postal Service, one reason is the carelessness of how many of us handle sensitive documents. One of the best investments you can make for your home or office is a paper shredder. There are people who make a living out of looking for a copy of someone’s un-shredded bank statement, credit card bill, tax return or any number of documents with sensitive account numbers!

This article is an attempt to educate you of those dangers and give you some genuine facts and a solution or two. If you have ever known someone who had their identity stolen then you know what we are about to tell you is true.

Last year alone, more than 9.9 million Americans were victims of identity theft, a five billion dollar crime wave!

The number of id theft victims and their total losses are probably much higher. It’s hard to pin down, because law enforcement agencies may classify id theft differently - it can involve credit card fraud, Internet fraud, or mail theft, among other crimes. It can even involve your credit report because when you order a copy of yours unless you request that only the last 4 digits be listed, the entire number is there just waiting to be stolen! I know this myself because I recently ordered my credit report be mailed to me and there was my entire social security number on EVERY page for all to see!

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) reported that only four percent of victims cited stolen mail as the source of personal information. Even so, U.S. Postal Inspectors, charged with protecting the nation’s mail system from criminal misuse, are leaders in the fight against identity theft.

What Should I Do If I Am A Victim of Identity Theft?

According to the FTC, if you are a victim of identity theft there are four steps you should take as soon as possible, and keep a record with the details of your conversations and copies of all correspondence.

Place a fraud alert on your credit reports, and review your credit reports.

Fraud alerts can help prevent an identity thief from opening any more accounts in your name. But one is too many.

One of the best favors you can do for yourself is order LifeLock the guaranteed Identity Theft program. When we set our site up we decided to only recommend vendors that we had confidence in personally.

What sold us on LifeLock? The fact that their founder and CEO Todd Davis does their advertising and gives his Social Security number in all their ads. When I first heard this I figured it had to be an advertising ploy. After further checking them out both my daughter and I both signed up. They have lived up to everything they said and as a bonus we stopped getting those pre-approved credit card offers and the majority of our junk mail also stopped.

Here is what LifeLock says about themselves:

Stop Identity Theft. Guaranteed.

By now you’ve heard the stories about individuals whose identities have been stolen by identity thieves. They’re not pretty stories . . . people working for hundreds of hours over many years to get their lives back in order, even innocent individuals ending up in jail! We can protect against this ever happening to you. Guaranteed. Up to $1 million.

LifeLock doesn’t just report unauthorized use of your credit information, we prevent it by working with the credit bureaus to make sure you’re contacted to approve any credit transaction before it takes place. We also remove your name from pre-approved credit card offers and junk-mail lists, where identity theft often gets started.

We’re the leaders in proactive identity theft protection as you’ve probably seen in coverage in The Wall Street Journal and Chicago Tribune, and on MSNBC, CNN, and many other national news outlets. We’re so sure of our system our CEO confidently publishes his own Social Security number in all our ads.

Is this fraud alert something you can do yourself? Yes however since this is not a priority with most people it will get put off until it’s too late. Then you have to un-do what could have been prevented in the first place for approximately 33 cents a day. That’s pretty cheap insurance. This is an investment in protecting your peace of mind and your good name as well.

If you’ve already become the victim of id theft you can contact them for help on getting your good name back!

With the increase of identity theft, I wouldn’t put it off another day. Once your identity is compromised it can take months or years to get it fixed. Contact LifeLock today.



By: Dewey Kearney

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You may not be aware of the boom in the crime of identity theft but it is a crime that continues to increase, especially as many people become less careful with their personal information and who they are willing to give it to. Just as an example, almost 8 million people were victims of identity theft of some form during 2006.

It is hard to understand why there is such a major increase in this type of crime, which is a crime that barely existed only 10 to 15 years ago. Yes, there were fraud cases back at that time, but not nearly to the extent nor the sophistication that today’s identity theft crimes display.

Much of the reason, it must be assumed, is due to the Internet boom and how there are literally millions more people online every day than there were several years ago. But this is NOT to say that the Internet or the information technology craze is a bad thing, not at all. What it does mean, however, that it is easier than ever for people to share personal information online. There is no personal interaction required to type information into a web form or via instant messenger or via email, when in reality, you do not know for 100% sure exactly WHO is receiving the information you are transmitting into cyberspace. You may THINK it’s your bank asking you to verify your information or this great new friend you met in a forum that teaches Sunday school, but do you really know?

For the most part, most consumers are unaware of what information they are NOT required to divulge. People who are relatively new to the Internet and email do not realize that their bank or credit card company would NEVER ask them to verify personal information online, yet thousands of people fall victim to email scams every year by doing so because the email looks so “official”. What they don’t realize is that almost any 12 year old worth his salt can create an “official looking” email that probably would look better than one the real bank or credit card company would send out themselves!

Never give out your personal information, account information or PIN codes via an online form or to a telemarketer over the phone. Even if you don’t have doubts about the identity of the person calling, be cautious anyway and YOU initiate the call to the bank or credit card company so you know who you are calling.

Invest in a paper shredder, which are less than $40 at almost any office supply store. And with those credit card offers you get in the mail every week? Shred them. If you are like most people and simply tear it in half and throw it in the trash, this becomes gold for the identity thieves who regularly engage in “dumpster diving” to piece back together such offers so they can steal your identity.

Protect your identity and your personal information. It may be a bit more trouble than you are used to taking, but if your identity is stolen, you will spend weeks, month, and even years trying to get things straightened back out.



By: Jon Arnold

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Identity theft is a very scary subject. Recently there was an article in the paper about a twenty eight year old woman, a resident of Salt Lake City, who almost lost her four kids due to identity theft. The woman’s purse had been stolen two months prior to this.

A woman who looked very much like the twenty eight year old used the stolen driver’s license when she was registering at a hospital to give birth. The woman later abandoned her premature infant leaving only the drivers license behind. Detectives of course assumed that the twenty-eight year old victim of identity theft was the woman who gave birth. It is terrifying to think that someone could be using our identification.

There are several ways to protect yourself against identity theft. One of the important ways is to make sure that you do not give out any of your person a information to an unsecured source. Do not give out any information over the phone to someone you do not know. Also, if you are shopping online or need to give out personal information while online make sure that you are using a secured website. Your privacy should be protected. To protect yourself from identity theft it is a good idea to shred any documents that may contain your personal information. There are several relatively inexpensive shredders on the market that can be purchased for less then twenty dollars. As a third precaution you should double-check your credit card and bank policies regarding identity theft. Make sure that your monetary funds are protected if someone does use your card or bank account in a fraudulent way.

Identity theft can happen to anyone. Make sure that you protect you personal information. Identity theft is not a victimless crime. Often times it takes years for the victims of identity theft to clear their names. Do not allow yourself to be the next victim.



By: Chuck Masterson

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The first and most important thing you can do to become better prepared and protected against identity theft is to lose the attitude that “it could never happen to you”. Identity theft is much more common than most people believe, and the belief that it won’t happen to you leaves you much more vulnerable than someone who actively takes steps to protect themselves against the crime. Identity thieves are able to obtain information they need to assume someone else’s identity- often with little effort.

Take Care to Protect Personal Information

Do you shred information before you throw it away? The easiest way for identity thieves to gather information to assume your identity is through the paperwork you throw in the trash. You may as well hand a thief your credit card, social security card and driver’s license if you’re throwing out (without shredding) credit applications, resumes, credit card and utility bill statements.

Sometimes thieves will intercept your incoming or outgoing mail by taking items from your mailbox. With enough information, perhaps gathered through various bank statements or credit card applications, the data can be pieced together by a thief to use your name to apply for loans and credit in your name. You may want to consider mailing documents from a post office mailbox rather than a personal mailbox- the little red flag you put up on your box to signal your mail carrier that you have mail waiting for pick up is also a signal for identity thieves of a potential victim!

Preventing Identity Theft

Other than shredding paperwork prior to throwing it away, there are a few other methods you can use in order to protect yourself against identity theft:

Cut credit cards into tiny pieces before throwing away, even if the card has expired, and throw the tiny pieces into more than one trash bag so even if one bag is found the card could not be put back together.

Report any stolen or lost credit cards immediately.

Destroy receipts, tax information, credit card applications, mortgage information or cancelled checks before throwing away- and keep such documents in files in a locked file cabinet inside your home. Don’t rule out the possibility of the babysitter or housekeeper or guests taking paperwork lying around your home.

Keep a close eye on your credit reports and credit card statements to watch for anything out of the ordinary, or transactions you know you didn’t make. Investigate anything suspicious immediately.

If You Are a Victim of Identity Theft

Victims of identity theft often spend months or years trying to recover from the crime. Not only may it cost victims money, but their credit score is going to be ruined and will take work and time to repair. While the three major credit bureaus do have policies for fixing credit scores and reports after identity theft crimes have occurred, it does take a long time for the errors to be corrected and repaired.

Before the report and score is corrected, the victim is going to have a difficult time obtaining any sort of financing (from credit cards to student loans to car loans or mortgages). In some extreme cases, identity theft victims are even arrested for crimes they didn’t commit.

Being a victim of identity theft interrupts your life. It is far easier to take appropriate steps to protect yourself than it is to repair your credit reports and credit score after your identity has been stolen.



By: Debbie Dragon

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