identity theft: Can you escape Big Brother in our modern society?
- 07/09/15 02:14 PM
In part 1 of this blog, we relayed the story of how a young writer named Henry David Thoreau moved to a remote path of woods by Walden Pond in 1845, where he built a humble cabin and lived a Spartan existence. When Thoreau emerged more than two years later, he had produced the manuscript to Walden, a memoir that trumpeted the virtues of simplicity, as well as the perils of conformity to modern industrial society. And while that was more than 150 years ago, Thoreau’s words still serve as the touchstone of what many people now are trying to achieve – taking … (0 comments)
identity theft: Confessions of an identity thief.
- 05/17/14 03:40 PM
Hey, you! Yeah, I’m talking to you! The guy sitting there in Starbucks checking his bank balance on his iPad. Or the nice old lady waiting for her social security check to be delivered to her mailbox. Or even the family who doesn’t shred their junk mail before tossing it out. I’m going to let you in on a little secret – I’m going to steal your identity and then steal a lot of your money, and there are so many ways I can do it you’d be amazed. In fact, me and my fellow identity theft friends steal about a gazillion dollars each year, and it’s … (85 comments)
identity theft: The frightening truth about identity theft.
- 05/17/14 03:38 PM
Let me paint you a picture. You’re sitting at Starbucks and pull up your laptop and log in with their Wi-Fi to check email. BOOM! Your bank account information was just stolen.
Or you get a few credit card offers and other junk mail you don’t want so you rip it in half and throw it in the trash. POW! Someone just took out 5 credit cards in your name and maxed them.
Even scarier, you just go to your local store and buy a pair of jeans. SHAZAM! Just by that act, they record sensitive financial information in their database – … (0 comments)
identity theft: New legislation hopes to shake up the credit reporting industry.
- 04/29/14 02:22 PM
U.S. consumers may be getting a valuable ally when it comes to correctly reporting their credit scores if newly introduced legislation gets passed. A bill sponsored by U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Brian Schatz (D-HI,) among others, would call for accuracy and accountability from the credit bureaus when it comes to reporting consumers’ credit. The Stop Errors in Credit Use and Reporting (SECURE) Act of 2014 would give the public an avenue for transparency in reporting, a way to access free credit reports, and a way to dispute and correct inaccuracies under protection of the law. Errors aren’t harmless since … (0 comments)
identity theft: The 5 biggest data thefts in U.S. history.
- 02/17/14 08:10 AM
An indictment came down last summer for what’s being called one of the biggest data theft operations in U.S. and international history, as four Russian men and one Ukrainian man were charged in a sophisticated hacking scheme that may cost its victims hundreds of millions – or even billions – of dollars. The men stole data that included over 160 million credit card numbers from multinational corporations like Visa, J.C.Penny, JetBlue, 7-Eleven, and even NASDAQ, selling the information on the black market and defrauding countless consumers. The men utilized custom malware and hacking tools to get on the corporate networks and … (0 comments)
identity theft: 10 Shocking Trends in Online Fraud.
- 09/10/13 03:04 PM
Online fraud is one of the fastest growing forms of crime, reaching epidemic proportions in a nexus of technology and cruel anonymity that defies international borders. The highest instance of fraud attempts are now aimed at businesses, violating their often-weak or nonexistent firewalls to access customer financial data, and using it with impunity.
In a recent report by IDology, 66% of organizations polled reported suspected online fraud attempts in the past 12 months, and 35% reported an increase in those numbers. As more and more consumers conduct commerce over the internet, and businesses adjust to the digital age reality that … (1 comments)
identity theft: How long should you keep financial documents?
- 07/16/13 11:07 PM
Last weekend it rained cats and dogs, so instead of enjoying a sunny summer day, I went into the basement to clean out the mountain of boxes and bins that had piled up, filled with my financial paperwork. I pulled up a chair and started opening boxes and looking through all of the documents: a decade of of tax returns, shoe boxes bursting with receipts, and stacks of bank statements spanning back a decade. “Why hadn’t I thrown some of this out before?” I asked myself as I unpacked it all and tried to form organized piles of paper without causing a … (0 comments)
identity theft: Theft, freeze, and fraud; how to protect your financial identity.
- 07/16/13 10:56 PM
What's the fastest growing crime in the United States? Would you guess it has something to do with gun violence, corporate fraud, or maybe texting and driving? Nope! In fact, identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the US, so prevalent that every year about 15 million citizens have their identities stolen or used frequently, costing losses of up to $50 billion! In our information age when transactions are migrating online and even companies and the government lose your sensitive financial information to thieves. No one is immune - even celebrities like Hillary Clinton, Jay Z, and Attorney General Eric Holder have had … (0 comments)
In part 1 of this blog, we relayed the story of how a young writer named Henry David Thoreau moved to a remote path of woods by Walden Pond in 1845, where he built a humble cabin and lived a Spartan existence. When Thoreau emerged more than two years later, he had produced the manuscript to Walden, a memoir that trumpeted the virtues of simplicity, as well as the perils of conformity to modern industrial society. And while that was more than 150 years ago, Thoreau’s words still serve as the touchstone of what many people now are trying to achieve – taking … (0 comments)
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