Identity Theft “Prevention” Defined Accurately

Everybody that talks about prevention uses the word in a different way. It is about perspective. Here is an example:

Think about how you would feel if this scenario happened: Your bank called and said “someone infiltrated your savings account and they have been making withdrawals regularly for the last three months. Your account has been drained of $25,000 but due to our diligence we stopped it and you still have $15,000 left. We have effectively prevented the thief from draining your account. We thought you’d like to know we mitigated your loss.”

Was there any prevention here? Absolutely! Are you going to be happy about it? I doubt it. People are paying big money for a false sense of the word “prevention”. They are really paying for and getting “mitigation”.

Now let’s compare the words “prevention” and “mitigation”:

pre·ven·tion [ pri vénshən ] (plural pre·ven·tions)

action that stops something from happening: an action or actions taken to stop somebody from doing something or to stop something from happening

• the prevention of crime

mit·i·gate [ mítti gàyt ] (past and past participle mit·i·gat·ed, present participle mit·i·gat·ing, 3rd person present singular mit·i·gates)

• to mitigate a loss
  

lessen something: to make something less harsh, severe

When put in the context of identity theft: Everyone uses the word prevention when they are referring to credit freeze, fraud monitoring and credit reports, and credit monitoring, data scouring etc.

Now let’s look at it from the context of the consumer: Prevention would be keeping my information completely secure and preventing it from being stolen in the first place.

Real prevention is thwarting the theft of your personal information. Securing your name so nobody uses it for anything. That is what ID theft “prevention” truly is.

If I rely on a credit report, a fraud alert or a credit freeze to stop something from happening, that means that SOMEONE ALREADY HAS OBTAINED MY PERSONAL INFORMATION ! A CRIME HAS ALREADY OCURRED! Now that does not sound like identity theft prevention at all, it most definitely is mitigation. Sure it may have plugged a small hole but in the grand scheme of the information that thief still has, it is like putting a bandage on a bullet wound.

So how can credit freeze, fraud monitoring and credit reports, and credit monitoring qualify as prevention? Well, they stopped something from happening, and that has some limited value, but now who has this information and where are they going with it next? Keep in mind if they have gone to the effort to steal your info, they are going to use it. A car thief does not steal a car and drive around in it until it runs out of gas. They are going to use the stolen device until it no longer meets their needs. The same with your identity, it could be used next for medical services, prescriptions, getting arrested, forging a check, and so on.

An ID theft recovery company stated under the guise of “prevention” that they look for changes in your existing accounts and they look for new accounts and transactions in your name. By doing this, they can detect someone's attempt to steal your identity before it gets too far and before any damage has been done. Sorry people, but if any of this is detected, the damage has been done. SOMEONE HAS ALREADY STOLEN YOUR IDENTITY! THEY HAVE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMAION AND ARE PUTTING IT TO USE! This should not be sugar coated as identity theft “prevention”. The prevention ship has sailed, it is now time to mitigate.

You will still have to wonder when or where they may use it next. And you still may have work to do, to get everything closed down, changed, modified etc. and you may never be completely sure you’ve plugged the gaps because how do you know your personal information has not been passed around or sold on the black market?

So how much is “mitigation” really worth? It is up to you, but most will pay much more for “prevention”.

True identity theft “PREVENTION” is about stopping the crime from occurring, and that starts with preventing and keeping your information out of the hands of the thieves to start with. True prevention is up to you! True prevention starts with you doing the right things with your personal information.

Don’t confuse paying for mitigation services and expect prevention. You may not end up being happy with the results.

Talk of federal government rebates gives identity thieves a fresh angle

It is on the news almost nightly, in the newspaper daily, and on the internet. We are hearing about it just about every day. To stimulate the economy, President Bush is working very hard to seal the deal for many Americans to get rebate checks from the federal government.

For many Americans all the talk of a bonus $600-$1200 check from the federal government is exciting news. Many would like to get it today if that were possible. Everyone wants to be sure the government has their correct name, address, and all the other pertinent information so there will not be a delay. Unfortunately, many will end up with their identity stolen instead.

The thieves will play on that anticipation of you wanting the extra cash as soon as possible and will deploy all the traditional and still effective tactics.

The more common and widespread tactics that will be used:

1)Phishing: Hundreds of millions of emails will go out across the country claiming to be from the IRS or the federal government and will direct you to a special website to verify your personal information. If you click on the link you will end up at an official looking site with all the federal seals making it look authentic. Some phishing sites will even have warning about identity theft on them to give them a more secure look to any visitor.

Red Flag: People have many different email accounts, the government does not use email to contact anyone. You do not supply an email on you tax return!

2)Vishing: This is like the email hunt for information, but you will get a phone call instead. It may be a live person, it may be a recording, it may be a recording asking you to call an 800 number back and verify your information. They may ask for your social security number, bank account number where you would like your check deposited, even a pin number for a debit account.

Red Flag: The federal government will not call you for anything like this, ever. What makes this method even more dangerous, thieves can purchase any name they want to appear on your caller ID, such as IRS Rebate, Federal Rebate Office, US Gov’t Rebate, or any combination of words to get you to believe the call is authentic.

3)Websites: There will be scores of websites popping up using search terms to get you to visit them. Such terms will be “IRS rebate” ,“Federal Rebate”, “ Government Rebate” to name a few. They will bank on people using searches in Google and MSN and Yahoo, to find out more information. The sites may bait people in by claiming if you enter your information now, you will get a check in 2 or 3 weeks. That expediency will be extremely enticing to many so they will get drawn in and become victims.

Red Flag: The only sites that may have any information about this program will be an existing one with quite a bit of other information as well. It will end with a .GOV suffix. Examples are IRS.Gov, SSA.Gov, WhiteHouse.Gov. Any site with an official sounding name but a different suffix is not a federal site. Example is IRS.com which is owned by banks.com and is a play to get you to use their services for tax filing.

4)US Postal Service Mail: You may get a letter or a post card in the mail asking you to verify your bank account or social security number or other sensitive information. It may ask you to call a specified number or go to a website and enter in information.

Red Flag: The government will be using tax returns from previous years records to determine eligibility and addresses. They are not going to mount a new campaign to update records and personal information. If you do get something in the mail from the IRS or other federal agency, take the time to verify the validity prior to acting on it.

None of these tactics are new, but the event that will trigger their upsurge is. Basically this is an extra bonus for identity thieves to prey on victims who will not see this coming because they are blinded by the thought of the dollar sign.

The only real way to combat this offensive is to think about the details before you act. Ask yourself a few common sense questions, and practice fire prevention vs. firefighting.

The best defense for your identity is self defense.

Attention grabbing survey sites could set the stage for ID theft

There are a number of sites that quiz you about yourself and then tell you something about yourself in return. Our site does that as well. We ask you information about your personal daily habits and use proprietary algorithms backed by research to gage your risk for ID theft with an output that is in an easy to understand ID Risk Level. No ads, no personal information requested, not even email.

Someone emailed me recently asking about other sites that have quizzes and pointed out a few in particular and asked me how safe they are even if just for fun.

Some sites, by piquing your interest in certain, even silly subjects, are looking for something. There are a number of sites that purport being able to tell you when you are going to die! Wonderful, that information will certainly come in handy. It makes my retirement investment planning so much easier.

Well, you’re not gullible, but you went there for fun, as a joke, just to see, etc. All in good fun as long as you are not giving them any personal information.

So what could a site like this really be after? Mainly ad revenue. By getting thousands of people to go through the site and take the “date of your death survey”, they land you in a seemingly never ending, page after page of offers for everything from free laptops to a cruise around the world to magazines and so on. The catch is you have to get past saying no to these or fill out a few with your personal information like name, address, phone number, email etc. and what seems to be fairly harmless information. Only, once you go past the myriad of ads asking you to fill in information will you get your “calculated” date with the grim reaper.

So I tried it at a site this person asked me about. I answered the few simple questions and then waited for my results, it had to be calculated, apparently they have a long connection to go through and the grim reaper’s WiFi was down. In the meantime, they graciously had me take review some of their fine offers and click “no” if not interested. I counted 97 (yes, I counted because I assumed it was going to be big) offers that I said “no” to and still was not given my much awaited date with death. I even filled in a few with some random misinformation thinking if they got me on one maybe they would cough up that date! Nothing. I literally gave up as it was appearing to be more and more of a perpetual scam. I guess I’ll need to keep my retirement plans in place for now.

Seriously though, what was really happening was a massive operation to get you to provide just the basics of personal information. Now the company that runs the site may only be a conduit and collecting ad dollars from the marketing agency who is the real culprit in this operation. Fill one out correctly with real information and you have just asked to receive a minimum of 100,000 emails with other exciting offers include. Hey, you asked!

That information may possibly be used by them directly for ID theft, Spamming, phishing, etc. They may sell it to others who will use it unscrupulously. Worse yet, you will be put on a sucker list. This is a list created about people who willingly provide information thinking they are going to win a prize. AKA in their business “a sucker”. ID thieves love suckers. They know they are the easiest of easy targets. The people who think they will really get something for nothing, the same people who ultimately will give the thieves the keys to their identity in much the same way. The thieves already know you are an optimists, and play that hand against you to the fullest.

So the next time you go to a site and think you are providing information that is harmless, looking for that humorous “date of your death” you may find out a new date, when your identity was stolen.

Prudential’s rock crumbles when it comes to securing personal information

Prudential Financial gets a spot on our office’s Identity Defense Wall of Shame this month. They had a temp worker collect personal information from a customer then the temp worker stole the customer’s identity to go on a three month, $70,000 spending spree!

According to the article about this event, Prudential takes customer information and security very seriously. We see that clearly from the end result of this encounter between a Prudential temp employee and a Prudential customer.

Stop and think about what happened here. A financial conglomerate worth $36 billion does not have the sense of how to secure personal information that it receives. Collecting customer information is the most volatile point in a transaction because it is up to the person who collects it as to how the information is treated. This is where Prudential’s security falls apart. The people collecting information should be trusted, longer term, well paid employees, who hopefully, will want to keep their job and have little or at least minimal incentive to steal. Instead they gave that crucial task to a 23 year old temp worker, who obviously did not care about his temp job and felt he needed to supplement his income.

I’m sure they spend millions on data security, and backup systems and passwords and encryption etc. As a financial institution they are required to have secure systems on all fronts. But no matter how big your walls are, or how many lines of defense you have, if you can’t complete step 1 and put the information into secure areas, it is useless. Picture your bank having the tellers leave all the money on the counters at night and still go lock the safe.

If Prudential has procedures in place, the management team is not reading the company manual. To be fair, this could easily happen with just about any employee and it is where a significant portion of all ID theft occurs. But when you assign tasks to someone who is not even an employee, then any incentive to do the right thing is minimized because there is no long term bond.

For the sake of all of their existing customers let’s hope they have a better system in place for securing their personal information.

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.

Credit Freeze Not the Only Solution to Identity Theft Prevention

Many people who live in states that allow you to freeze your credit are recognizing the benefits of such actions. But a lot are stopping there and not doing any more feeling they have covered the bases and have done what they can to protect themselves.

Governor Deval Patrick from Massachusetts recently signed into law comprehensive identity theft prevention legislation. This new law will require Massachusetts state residents be notified immediately if their personal information has been lost or stolen via security breaches with businesses and government agencies.

As a part of the legislation, the law also states that consumers have the right to freeze their credit reports to prevent new accounts from being fraudulently opened and also puts into effect strict standards for businesses when disposing of personal information.

The portion of the law that puts into place the standards for disposing of personal information is a step in the right direction to identity theft prevention. But allowing a consumer to freeze their credit report does not prevent the theft.

Personal information can already be in the hands of the wrong people. When personal information, such as social security numbers, drivers' license numbers or bank account information is used for widespread fraud, an emotional and potentially expensive mess is left for the victim to clean up.

Of the millions of victims of identity theft last year, many of them had crimes committed against them that had nothing to do with a credit card or loan. This would not be picked up by on credit report which is the focal point of a credit freeze. The black market is booming for individuals' names and IDs for thieves to sell and the buyers will use them for many different types of identity theft. That could include medical treatments, prescriptions, arrests, and theft of existing or open accounts.

One major solution to the problem is for people to practice self defense when it comes to their personal information. Society has become so accustomed to keeping droves of information available we are leaving it laying around us everywhere. The identity thieves are everywhere picking it up.

When it comes to your identity you need to think in terms of fire prevention and not firefighting.