A Phoenix, AZ resident, Christopher Cantrell, has received a sentence of 21 years in prison for crimes that include identity theft. He was arrested in July of this year after trying to buy some computers at Best Buy using a forged driver’s license an forged credit card. Employees of the store saw that the ID used to make the purchase, did not match that of the person making the transaction and alerted the authorities immediately. The defendant did try to run away from police, but was apprehended in the parking lot of the store. At the time of his arrest, he was found carrying three forged identification cards.
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This holiday season, consumers need to shop being especially aware that it is a time of year when identity thieves are the most active. Scams and frauds online and in stores will be lurking for unsuspecting victims.

First, there is Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving when everyone wants to go out and find those great deals before Christmas arrives. Unfortunately, it is also the perfect time for an identity thief to target their victims, who are oblivious to the fact that they are being targeted. The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) reported last year that consumers lost more than $1.2 billion to identity theft.
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Parents have many different things they worry about when it comes to their children. They worry about health, safety, education and many other facets of life. What they don’t normally worry about, is the safety of their child’s identity.

Javelin Strategy and Research have recently released a study that shows the scary statistics relating to the identities of children. In this study, it was found that:
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Our email accounts can easily be the source of identity theft, if we are not careful of not responding to risky emails. Many email account owners, especially those new to email, are not aware of “phishing” scams where emails are sent that look like they belong to legitimate companies, but are actually ploys to extract personal information from the account owner. It is not hard to design an email and send it out to thousands of people who think it is from a well-respected company. This has happened over the years with PayPal, Bank of America and other companies, being sent by imposters. You will often find that companies let you know that they will never ask for your personal information by email and not to respond to such inquiries.

Now, there is a phishing scam circulating the internet targeting the Better Business Bureau (BBB). (more…)

Yes, for those of you who have not heard of “Joe The Plumber”, he is only one of the hottest topics of discussion between presidential candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain. Joe became an overnight sensation after the final presidential debate took place. The media was swarming with stories of Joe and the hardship that this campaign has put him in. Joe’s face was being shown through media outlets nationwide.
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What in the world is “clickjacking”? We have all heard the terms “hijacking” and “carjacking” and neither are crimes we want to ever be found a victim of. It is the same with “clickjacking” and it is a growing trend.

ComputerWorld.com has posted an informative article on “clickjacking”. Here are the details, according to Jeremiah Grossman, Chief Technology Officer at WhiteHat Security Inc:

“Think of any button on any Web site that you can get to appear between the browser walls. Wire transfers on banks, Digg buttons, CPC advertising banners, Netflix queue…. The list is virtually endless, and these are relatively harmless examples. Next, consider that an attack can invisibly hover these buttons below the users’ mouse, so that when they click on something they visually see, they actually are clicking on something the attacker wants them to.”
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The Indianapolis Star recently reported that due to an error, the personal information of over 3,000 people who had been charged with minor offenses related to drugs and alcohol was posted to a new web site belonging to the city of Indianapolis. The information was displayed for just under two weeks, in the late part of September and early part of October.
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Have you ever thought about how much frustration, time and effort it would take to try to clear your name and good credit if someone were to gain access to your social security number for fraudulent reasons? Data breaches are being reported weekly, not only in the United States, but worldwide. There are no specific criteria to meet when becoming a victim of identity theft. Thieves just wish to get a hold of social security numbers, names and any other identifiable information to be able to go on unauthorized spending sprees.
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Many colleges and universities nationwide have been found to have either leaked private information or had their computer hacked. Some have found to have this information leaked via the internet, such as the following incident:
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Have you ever felt that the mobile phone service carrier you use might be the source of your personal data being exposed one day? That is exactly what happened to millions of German customers of T-Mobile, some of whom were very prominent.
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