Identity Thieves are Now Becoming Scapegoats

It is a sign that something is becoming mainstream when identity thieves start taking the blame for committing an offense probably not worth their time or effort.

Recently a woman was sued by and went to trail against the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and lost. The RIAA is the trade group turned watchdog group whose members are recoding artists. They are the group that is fighting illegal P2P (peer 2 peer) downloading among mainly younger computer users.

The judgment came in the form of a fine of over $250,000. She was offered an out of court settlement and turned it down. Most if not all individuals offered this option are accepting it since they are liable for much more that the industry is requesting. They (RIAA) are really getting a pittance compared to the industry losses and the legal costs of suing young individuals is surely more then they are getting in return. But they are setting a great example. Until now.

This woman refused to settle because she is claiming an identity thief stole her web identity to file share on P2P. Is this idea original, probably not. There have likely been many users claiming they didn’t do. They claim it was someone else using their computer, hijacked their account etc. But I believe it is the first time it has been used in court when defending a suit filed by the RIAA. Is this defense possible? Anything is possible, but the court did not buy it and ruled against her.

Is this realistic? With so much to gain financially doing other misdeeds, would identity thieves go to this length to file share a few songs? Put in another light, if you are an identity thief, you obviously have little regard for the law, so worrying about file sharing, not even on the bottom of any list. But because the thieves are becoming so commonplace, the public has now decided that they could be a good scapegoat. And why not, since there are plenty of them lurking in every corner of the planet.

In retrospect, the RIAA should spend some of that recovered money educating parents on how identity thieves really use P2P networks to actually steal identities. Maybe if they got the attention of more adults they would have a much better army of soldiers to combat their problem of lost revenue, while at the same time educating individuals, college students and moms and dads, of the other unseen peril of illegal downloading, identity theft.

Apple Online Lawsuit Brings to Light Another Threat of Identity Theft

A recent lawsuit alleges Apple Store is not in compliance with Fair Credit Reporting Act, thereby making it easier for identity thieves to gather more personal information on consumers.

All businesses need to heed this as an example of things to come and protect their clients' personal information in any way that they can after a class action lawsuit, case number 07-22040, was brought against Apple Store online last week in Florida Federal Court alleging that the stores violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The FCRA is a federal law designed to help ensure that consumer reporting agencies act fairly, impartially, and with respect for the consumer's right to privacy when preparing consumer reports on individuals.

In 2003, an amendment was added that states, "No person that accepts credit cards or debit cards for the transaction of businesses shall print more than the last five digits of the card number or the expiration date upon any receipt provided to the card holder at the point of sale or transaction."

It was this amendment that Apple Store online was violating. Apple Store was apparently printing credit card expiration dates on the receipts, in addition to the other personal information. Companies were given a three-year grace period to comply with the law and the cost is so miniscule to make the change that most have made the change well in advance of the deadline. Apple Store, as of last week, was still not in compliance.

Identity thieves are getting smarter and smarter. Consumers must stay one step ahead and protect themselves from the financial devastation of identity theft. Consumers expect businesses to uphold the law and do what they can to protect personal information they acquire.

While no proof of a specific identity theft has stemmed from Apple Store's non-compliance, it is a recipe for disaster that reminds consumers to take every precaution when making an online purchase or any purchase with a credit card. The federal government has made efforts to protect citizens from identity theft but consumers must be on the offense and take matters into their own hands.

Place yourself in a situation to protect your personal information from theft and learn to practice fire prevention versus firefighting.

Identity Theft with Obsolete Computers

We are coming to a point in time when many people are replacing their computers with a new faster and sleeker versions that will do just about everything they need to keep up with the multi-media world we now live in.

Judging by the age of the internet going mainstream, it will likely be your 3rd replacement with the last two really being used with much of your personal information embedded somewhere on the hard drive. Ten years ago you thought nothing of donating it to a school, or giving it to another family member or even the local Salvation Army.

If you still think that way today about disposing of that old PC, don’t! Yes you want to do the right thing, help out, be conscious of the environment, or any other good reason you may come up with for not just discarding it. But before you take that step, think about identity theft first. Your personal information from the last few years is somewhere on that hard drive. Sure you deleted it, formatted it, cleaned it, but to a persistent thief, they can dig up anything with a little effort, and they do.

Thieves pick them up on auction sites, at garage sales, in used shops, flea markets, all loaded with personal information.

There are software products in the market ranging from $30-$60 that guarantee you that they will wipe that hard drive clean to department of defense standards. I am not denying the validity of these nor endorsing them, but there are other surefire alternatives.


1)Remove the hard drive before giving the PC to anyone, a replacement will cost very little to the recipient verses buying a new PC.

2)Replace the hard drive and designate that PC as a “kids only” PC, let them download all the spyware and viruses while they fileshare using P2P networks. The keylogger they pick up will find nothing good on Disney.com.

3)Replace the hard drive yourself then donate it or give it away.

4)Recycle the entire PC, but remove the hard drive first. Call your local waste management office to find out how, many designate special days for these items.

5)Keep the PC forever and never let it leave the house (some are sentimental about everything)


So what do you do with that old hard drive that you removed? Just pick your weapon of choice and destroy it. Toss it on the grill for a half hour, smash it with a baseball bat, drill a half dozen holes in it, place it in your tool box and use it when you can’t find that hammer.

All this may seem extreme and time consuming, but the hassle of identity theft is much worse.

P2P Networks Significantly Increase Risk of Identity Theft

Ask someone who has a child in middle school up through college what P2P is and chances are you’ll get a look of uncertainty. Chances are they will not know what you are talking about and if they do the details will be scant.

If they do know what P2P is, do they truly understand the dangers of it outside of the fact the kids are likely using it to obtain copyrighted material for free and most likely illegally. There are legal ways to use P2P networks for sharing photos and video clips and other homemade material, but it is used mainly for illegal downloading of copyrighted material without paying for it.

P2P is an abbreviation for Peer to Peer networking. How it works in simple terms, you expose folders on your PC to other peoples PC’s on a network, and you copy anything you find in their folder back to your PC, generally music files. But anything else in that folder is fair game to anyone on the network who wants to look at your PC. And depending on how the PC user allows others to view files, your entire hard drive could be read like an open book to anyone on the internet. Nothing scary there! You might just as well go post files of last years tax returns in a chatroom of identity thieves and set a timer to see how quick someone becomes you.

The network is set up by a third party service who just acts as a hub that all the users pass through to get to other PC’s on the network. They are everywhere and becoming harder to shut down due to ruling in court cases and the ability to operate in a manner that cannot be easily detected.

P2P has been around for a long time, remember the name Napster in the news a few years back? They brought P2P file sharing to the mainstream. The recording industry got them shut down because of the massive losses in music sales all blamed on illegal P2P usage.

So what has changed since then? P2P is growing among younger PC users and exposing their own or their parents personal information to identity thieves. The thieves scour P2P networks looking for personal information in folders that your 9th grader has exposed unknowingly.

According to a recent study released by Dartmouth business school researchers, P2P users have increased from 4 million in 2003 to approximately 10 million today.

So no surprise that along with it, identity theft has also been on the rise. It is an epidemic in this country. Is P2P responsible for that? It sure has added to the ease in which the thieves are obtaining information.

So now what? Any sensible adult who has any child engaged in P2P file sharing of any sort, particularly illegal music, should shut it down and close that door immediately. The lure of free (illegal) music for the kids will pale in comparison if you bank account get drained by an identity thief. There are plenty of safe and secure site to buy music from at extremely reasonable prices.

It is up to individuals to protect themselves and keep tabs on what is happening on the family PC. Go take a look before it’s too late.