Articles and Ideas January, 2009
When 23-year-old Zal Chapgar of Bluebell, PA passed away, his family was understandably devastated.
But their grieving period was interrupted by a sudden slew of mysterious and confusing phone calls from banks and national stores.
Though the Chapgars didn't know it yet, Zal’s identity had been stolen...after he'd already passed away.
A Shocking Discovery
The family was alerted to the misdeed when they began receiving phone calls from credit card companies, including financial giants Amex and Citibank, and from businesses.
The Chapgars “thought it was a freak thing,” according to Zal’s mother, Kerban, in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer.
But when the unwanted solicitations ...
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Businesses, governments and educational institutions reported a nearly 50 percent increase in data breaches last year over 2007. Identity Theft Resource Center of San Diego announced last week that 656 breaches were reported in 2008, up from 446 in the previous year. Nearly 37 percent of the breaches occurred at businesses, schools accounted for roughly 20 percent, and the percentage of breaches attributed to data theft from current and former employees more than doubled from 7 percent to nearly 16 percent.
Crime Rings Use Insiders
"This may be reflective of the economy, or the fact that there are more organized crime rings ...
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For a little over five years, rumors have circulated the internet about hotel key cards potentially placing an identity theft threat. Are the rumors true? And if so, how can you protect yourself? We’ll explore ways key cards could be used against you--and how much of a risk they really pose.
Where the Concerns Started
The first whispers linking hotel key cards to possible identity theft date back to 2003, when warnings began circulating the internet via e-mail and websites. Concerns reportedly stemmed from Pasadena, CA, where a police detective leaked an internal theory that key cards might be encrypted with the ...
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Members of networking site twitter.com were warned this week of a potential scam being issued to some users’ mailboxes, a Jan. 5th report said.
In response, Twitter has issued a warning to its users to be on the lookout for the scam, which could be dangerously easy to fall for.
Direct messages are sent to site members with such leading statements as “Hey!--check out this funny blog about you,” reports say.
Since the scam was revealed, Twitter has issued several blogs on the subject, as well as the advice, “If this has you a bit weirded out, feel free to change ...
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Tweet! Tweet!
Last week two hits on Twitter were made - the first two large scale hits on Twitter. First, President Elect Barack Obama’s Twitter account was hacked, along with the accounts of several other prominent people. This was alrming enough, but the second scam was much more sinister.
People were receiving emails to go and check out a story. The emails took them to a ‘Twitter login page’, and their usernames and passwords were being captured. This is a common phishing tactic, used to obtain information that can often be backtracked to more info about the person - particularly when the ...
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