By Jacelyn Thomas

We all know identity theft is a serious problem that is not going away anytime soon. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) estimates that as many as nine million Americans experience identity theft each year. At this point, most people are aware of the dangers of identity theft; however, many people do not realize the various ways in which identity thieves obtain your personal information. It is important to learn these methods in order to deny criminals the ability to use them against you.

Online Methods of Identity Theft
There has been a huge shift of focus in the past decade or so to online security and rightly so. Newer technology usually has more holes for possible security breaches, and many people aren’t educated adequately on how to secure and protect their personal information online.

Phishing
One of the more commonly known identity thefts, phishing occurs when a criminal poses as a financial institution or utility company and sends spam or pop-up messages asking for your personal information, often threatening to suspend your account if you don’t comply. Their posing as other companies can often appear very legitimate and convincing. While phishing mostly occurs through email, it also still happens through physical mail.

Key loggers
By using Trojan horses and other viruses, criminals can put key loggers in your computer that record your passwords, usernames, and credit card numbers that you type into your computer. Using anti-virus software and avoiding suspicious or sketchy sites will definitely decrease the likelihood of this occurrence.

Hacking Accounts
Some criminals will attempt to hack into your online accounts, either specifically targeting your account or by simply hacking into a whole database network that has your account information (among other users). While there is not much you can do if a criminal hacks into your bank’s database, you can minimize damage by keeping unique passwords for every online account you have. That way if someone does hack something like your Twitter account, they can’t easily get into your email or bank by using the same password.

Real Life Methods of Identity Theft
Although there is a lot of emphasis on online security, internet identity theft only accounts for a small fraction of all identity theft fraud cases, even with today’s statistics. In reality, most identity theft criminals use a variety of online and real life techniques to steal your identity, and a lot of the information that they work with initially they find in real life.

Mail Theft
Criminals steal male from postal trucks, collection boxes, and co-op mailing racks. They look for your credit card applications, checks, and bank statements. If you suspect someone is stealing your mail, report it online here.
Stealing Wallets or Purses

Once a criminal has your wallet, they have your credit card numbers, address, driver’s license number, and maybe even your checkbook. While this doesn’t seem like incredibly sensitive information, criminals can do a lot with this, including getting more information.

Dumpster Diving
Criminals will sometimes look through your garbage, trying to find bills and other documents with your personal information. This is why it’s important to shred financial and other important documents with your personal information on it.
Skimming

In this scary ploy, criminals steal your credit or debit card numbers using a high-tech device that stores information as you swipe your card. ATMs with no bank affiliation that are located outside are most susceptible to have a skimming device installed.

Pretexting
This method is like the inverse of phishing. Rather than posing as your bank, the criminal – after sealing some of your information – poses as you and contacts your bank in order to get more personal information. Criminals attempt pretexting in real life as well as online.

By Jacelyn Thomas

Despite the fact that Mozilla Firefox just recently released an updated version of its open source web browser in late March, the leading internet company has quickly released an even newer version of its successful web browser, Firefox5. The new, updated version promises to be faster and include more than 1,000 improvements–one of which is making the “do not track” option available in Firefox 4 more visible to consumers. This provision allows web surfers to block Web sites from tracking their online behavior for marketing purposes. While Firefox5 has improved its online privacy and security settings, that doesn’t mean there aren’t additional tactics consumers can take to safeguard their browsing experience and prevent against hacking techniques like clickjacking. Add-ons, which are extensions especially designed to increase Firefox’s performance, can in fact help improve online security. The best part? Most of them are free. To learn the top Firefox5 add-ons that can increase privacy and protection, continue reading below.

Web of Trust. This add-on is specifically designed to prevent users from browsing harmful web sites and clicking links that can distribute viruses and steal sensitive information. Using a ranking system of colors, a web site will flash red if the “community” of Web Trust users has labeled the site as threatening. As a member of the community, you are encouraged to label hazardous web sites if you ever come across them to warn future users as well. Cost: Free

Adblock Plus. As if pop-up advertisements weren’t irritating enough, these kinds of ads can actually cause “super cookies” to be installed on your computer and easily grant third parties access to your browsing history. Sometimes this information is used for harmless marketing purposes, other times for malicious activity. In either case, unlike traditional cookies (which are small files that are stored on your computer every time you visit a Web site) super cookies are extremely difficult to delete and/or reject. Thanks to this add-on however, users can control the amount of advertisements that appear on each Web site and even have the option to stop them all together in an effort to prevent super cookies from installing on their hard drive. Cost: Free

No Script. What makes browsing Web sites an exciting and interactive ordeal is unfortunately what can also make it a danger zone. JavaScript, which is a program language that allows users to play online games and look at cool graphics for example, is also the easiest ways for hackers to trick users into revealing sensitive information through CSRF attacks (router hacking), clickjacking, or cross-site scripting attacks (XSS) just to name a few. But because javascript is in fact used on authoritative sites, it wouldn’t be wise to deactivate the feature entirely. This is where NoScript comes into play: it allows users the option of controlling where JavaScript can be ran, such as on trusted site like an online banking website. Cost: Free

LastPass Password Manager. Lastly, the biggest mistake anyone can ever make is create the same password and log-in name for every single site that requires one. This is because if a third party figures out the one password, this means that they will have access to all of your information. That’s why creating multiple, complex, and unique passwords for every site you visit is recommended. But remembering all those passwords can be pretty difficult to do. Fortunately this add-on helps you keep track of your multiple passwords in a safe and encrypted area so that you, and only you, can retrieve the information with ease.

By Jacelyn Thomas

Identity theft is a scary reality that an estimated 9 million Americans go through each year. The key to recovering from such a traumatic experience is early detection and quick response. If you or someone you know might be a victim of identity theft, follow these four steps that were drafted by the Federal Trade Commission as soon as possible to prevent further damage to your finances and name.

The first step in responding to identity theft is to place a fraud alert on your credit reports by calling one of the three consumer reporting companies (TransUnion, Equifax or Experian) on their toll-free fraud number. Whichever company you place a fraud alert with is required to contact the other two companies. A fraud alert will give consumer reporting companies a heads-up on your situation, as well as prevent the thief from opening up any more accounts under your name. After you place the fraud alert, you’ll be able to order one free copy of your credit report from each company so that you can thoroughly review it for fraudulent inquiries, unauthorized accounts, debts and any other suspicious transactions. You will need to make the corrections to your credit report and include an Identity Theft Report with a cover letter that explains the fraudulent activity and incorrect information. Be sure to keep a close eye on your credit report and check it periodically for new fraudulent activity.

Your next step in responding and recovering from identity theft is to close the accounts that you know have been tampered with. The best way to do this is to speak with someone directly in the security or fraud department of your bank or credit card company. Be sure to follow up in writing and provide the companies with copied versions of your supporting documents. Keep all of your original documents in a safe place. When you decide to open new accounts, you’ll need to use all new PIN numbers and passwords. Once your identity theft disputes are resolved, ask each company for documentation of this.

The next important step is to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, which will help law enforcement officials track down identity thieves and stop them from victimizing others. Your identity theft complaint can even be passed on to other government agencies and companies that may be able to take further action. Once you’ve successfully filed your FTC ID Theft Complaint, you can give a copy of the form to the police. By doing so, you’ll be granted certain protections, such as permanently blocking fraudulent information from your credit report, keeping debts from reappearing on your credit report, prohibiting companies from collecting debts from identity theft and extending a fraud alert on your credit report.

Last but not least, be sure to file a report with your local police department or the city where the identity theft occurred. If you have trouble getting the police to accept your report, ask to file a miscellaneous incident report instead. Take all of the supporting documentation with you to the police and be steadfast in your attempt to dispute the identity theft and debts to your account.

Identity theft as we know it is a relatively knew incarnation of an ancient crime. As long as humans have operated in a modern society, they have at one point or another conspired to commit identity fraud. Although the first official mention of the phrase ‘identity theft’ didn’t occur in print until 1964, the idea of committing identity fraud was fairly well-known for some time. Take, for example, the plot of Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, which was published in 1955. In that novel a man murders his rich friend and travels around Europe under the fake name in order to benefit from his wealth.

Old cases of identity theft tended towards the personal, and the act was much different than the online crime it has become today. Generally, someone impersonated another in order to get what he or she wanted, be that a job or a way of life. But the act of taking on this other person’s identity was far more complicated then. For example, when credit cards first made an appearance in the 1950s, it was very hard to get credit, as applications were always made in person and required photo identification. If someone committed identity theft back then, they had to go through quite a lot in order to pull it off, so cases of stealing someone’s credit were fairly rare. Instead, identity theft was more of a victimless crime.

Nowadays, of course, identity theft is quite easy and it can create a lot of trouble for all parties invovled. The rise of online identity theft grew naturally with the development of the internet. Email scams and others of that kind are very cheap to run, and when they pay off, they pay off quite well for the phishers. Likewise, those who hack into networks can get a huge bang for their buck, especially if they can get some bank account information out of it. Lighter regulations regarding credit card applications, such as those that allow mailing campaigns, have also made identifity theft quite easy. Thieves need to simple comb throguh the tash to get what they want.. These and other factors have contributed to higher rates of identity theft than ever seen before.

Fortunately, as identity theft has changed and adapted to new technologies, so have methods to prevent identity theft and methods to help us recover if we are victims of identity theft. If you suspect that you’re a victim of identity theft or if you would simply like to read more information about it, then you should visit the Federal Trade Commission’s Identity Theft Web Site.

By Jacelyn Thomas

Children make good targets for identity thieves merely because they’re vulnerable. Children don’t have credit and won’t be checking their credit reports until they’re adults, giving thieves more time to accumulate debt using the stolen IDs. A recent study from ID ANALYTICS discovered that more than 140,000 children are victims of identity theft each year. In order to protect your child from becoming a victim of this often overlooked crime, consider the following precautions:

• Don’t divulge too much of their personal information: It’s a common sense measure, but many parents seem to forget that even seemingly insignificant information, such as birthdates, can be used by thieves to find additional information about your child. If your child is older and uses social networking sites such as Facebook, tell them to conceal exact birthdates and other personal facts that could serve as starting points for a thief.
• Hide their social security number: Many forms and documents — whether for school, the doctor or little league — request your child’s social security number, even if it’s not completely necessary. Before relenting to giving it out, confirm whether or not it must be done, and ask how it will be secured. In most cases, however, try to keep it secret.
• Secure their birth certificate: Much like their social security number, more organizations are asking for birth certificates to serve as proof of age. If it’s absolutely necessary, make a copy and provide it to the party requesting the document, and monitor their handling of it. When they’re finished, take it back and put it in a secure place.
• Do not check their credit report: Contrary to popular belief, it’s not a good idea to check your child’s credit report, as they shouldn’t have one until they actually begin applying for credit. An established credit repot only gives thieves an easy starting point. Instead, contact social security to see if any income exists relating to your child’s social security number.
• Beware of the warning signs: When an identity theft occurs, it’s typically accompanied by calls, letters and visits from debt collectors; unsolicited, pre-approved credit offers; a letter from the IRS stating that your child’s number listed on your tax return is a duplicate; and when your child’s prospective banker informs you that an account with their social security number has already been opened.