Blog Entries for Collin Eli

Five Types of Identity Theft

development@gill-media.com — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 09:36:19 +0100

This time, let’s round up five of the most common types of ID theft scams. Knowing these will help you recognize the unusual symptoms that occur when you or someone you care about becomes a victim of identity fraud. The pernicious thing about identity theft is that the fallout for the victim can occur weeks, months or years after the fraudster commits actual crimes, but in many cases the warning signs – unusual mail, credit fluctuations and phone calls &ndash [...]

Vehicle Identity Theft � Or Car Cloning

development@gill-media.com — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 09:26:57 +0100

On March 25th, 2009 the FBI reported that it broke up one of the country’s largest auto identity theft rings, and that a new national database may soon make that crime more difficult. But wait – auto identity theft? Aren’t identity thieves after people’s identities, not cars’? The answer is that they want both. In reality, stealing a car’s identity is a subset of identity theft targeting people. It’s a way to make stolen cars h [...]

Synthetic Identity Theft: Part of Your Name � All of the Problem

development@gill-media.com — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 11:02:43 +0100

There’s a new form of identity theft that’s rapidly becoming known to law enforcement, institutions and victims. This is synthetic identity theft. In this form of fraud, the criminal doesn’t steal your name; instead, he creates a new, fake identity. If the identity is fake, can it harm you? The answer is yes. In fact, it can be even worse for you.

In today’s [...]

Identity Theft and Cell Phones

development@gill-media.com — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 10:59:31 +0100

Your cell phone is a common target for identity thieves on three fronts. First, a modern phone can contain an incredible amount of personal information such as names, numbers and addresses. Second, cell phone accounts can themselves be targets for fraud. Your cellular plan is based on your good name, so it can be abused to acquire new phones and services. Finally, criminals can use the phone to contact people you know while pretending to be you. They normally do this to [...]

Five Signs of a Phishing Email

development@gill-media.com — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 07:41:36 +0100

Phishing is an email scam designed to enable identity theft. A phishing email is a fraudulent request for personal information. The phisher usually claims to represent a well-known financial institution or other corporation. The email says it needs your password, Social Security number and a host of other items – usually enough to get credit cards in your name or in some cases rip money right out of existing accounts.

A good phishing email [...]

LifeLock and TransUnion Enter Into an Identity Theft Prevention Agreement

development@gill-media.com — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 08:16:50 +0100

On December 17th LifeLock and TransUnion agreed to work together to streamline and improve their relationship. A global leader in credit and information management, TransUnion is bringing its expertise in automated credit management system to bear in working with Lifelock’s identity theft protection services. Together, companies will develop a rapid method for processing fraud alerts and opt outs delivered through LifeLock’s identity theft prevention service. [...]

Identity Theft Prevention in Retail and Credit: Five Consumer Tips

development@gill-media.com — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 07:57:45 +0100

On December 17th the Federal Trade Commission released new guidelines for institutions that store personal information. It recommends stricter precautions to leave fewer holes for ID theft to breach. If you’re concerned about identity fraud, however, you won’t want to wait for companies, schools, banks and other organizations to put those guidelines in place. Instead, you can use your discretion as a consumer to choose institutions that take appropriate preca [...]

Is Someone Using Identity Theft to Steal Your Home Equity?

development@gill-media.com — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 07:21:23 +0100

The housing market crisis in the US has brought increased awareness of how people legally and illegally “game the system,” leveraging a house’s equity in ways that range from being ill-advised (getting loans you can’t pay) to illegal. While there are many other sites that discuss the current state of mortgage loans and using your house as collateral we’re going to look at from an identity theft prevention perspective. This builds on our prev [...]

Four Ways to Protect Your Credit Card from Identity Theft

development@gill-media.com — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 07:15:31 +0100

Like it or not, you are the first line of defense against identity fraud. Identity theft works for criminals because the default responsibility lies with you, the consumer. By the time you manage to convince financial institutions that you’re a victim the perpetrator has normally already profited from your name and credit.

Fortunately, when it comes to credit cards you can help prevent identity theft by following a number of simple guide [...]

Protect Your Identity: Spot Phishing Scams

development@gill-media.com — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:51:31 +0100

You can read a quick definition of phishing on our Identity Theft Terms to Know page. Let’s talk about phishing in detail today because it’s one of the identity scams almost everyone’s encountered.

Phishing refers to attempts to steal personal information from you over the Internet. This includes bank account data, credit card numbers and passwords to online banking and e-commerce services. Sometimes, phishing attempts are [...]

The Danger of Social Engineering

development@gill-media.com — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:44:30 +0100

Social engineering is an old term that computer hackers have been using since at least the 1980s. It can be reduced to a simple adage: “If you can’t hack the computer, hack the user.” In other words, social engineering is the art of stealing electronic information through non-technical means, using deception to gain access to the desired data.

Many of the hackers who pioneered social engineering techniques now fight a [...]

Wireless ID Theft Part 2: RFID Fraud

development@gill-media.com — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0100

In our last article about wireless identity theft we covered wardriving: the practice of finding and exploiting open wireless connections. Identity fraud via wardriving is unnerving, to say the least, but RFID-enabled fraud is downright spooky. Security experts fear that this may allow fraudsters to steal personal information from your wallet at a distance. RFID Basics

To understand how this works you need to know what an RFID chip. RFID stands for Radio Frequency ID. An RFID [...]

Wireless Identity Theft

development@gill-media.com — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0100

We want you to protect your good name, but we don't want you to get paranoid about it! Nevertheless, some recent developments in identity theft are pretty frightening. What if we told you a criminal could steal your personal information out of thin air? Scary? Yes - and absolutely possible. New technology lets fraudsters steal your identity through wireless communications channels

There are two forms of wireless ID theft that security analysts ro [...]

Protect Your Mail

development@gill-media.com — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Your mailbox is a valuable resource for identity thieves. Remember that ID thieves get a lot of their information through plain old physical theft. Your mailbox is no exception. It's often the easiest way for an identity thief to acquire personal information and access to your credit. Fortunately, there are a few easy things you can do to greatly reduce the risk.

First off, collect your mail promptly. Seems simple enough, right? If you look at your daily habits, however, you may find that [...]

Identity Theft -- It Just Takes One File . . .

development@gill-media.com — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0100

This recent identity theft case illustrates some important facts about identity theft and what you can do to prevent it. To sum up, police arrested a man in Texas in connection with an identity theft case affecting over 1,100 University of California, Irvine students.

Here are four interesting facts from the case that will help you understand identity theft and suggest tips to stop it.

Burglary equals id [...]

Five Identity Theft Prevention Tips

development@gill-media.com — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Services like LifeLock provide an extra level of protection against identity theft. Beyond that, the best thing you can do is to take simple, commonsense precautions in everyday life. Here are five of the most useful identity theft prevention tips.

Keep Your Books

The easiest way to tell if someone else has been using your bank or credit services is to stay on top of your bills. Keep a basic set of books to track bills, checks, withdrawals, credit card payments and automatic transaction [...]

TrustedID Review

development@gill-media.com — Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 +0100

TrustedID provides a "total identity” protection package for the entire family. TrustedID procedures are designed to significantly reduce the risk of credit fraud, with a service guarantee backed by $1,000,000 in identity theft insurance from AIG and Lloyds of London.

TrustedID’s Lender DoubleCheck™ and IDFreeze™ services require credit grantors to get your approval by phone before taking any action that may affect your credit. For an additional charge, [...]

Identity Guard Review

development@gill-media.com — Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 +0100

Identity Guard provides credit reporting services and four levels of protection. Level 1 services include public record protection and social security tracking. Other levels add services, right up to the extensive protection offered by level 4 packages. Each level priced to attract a specific type of customer, allowing Identity Guard to provide services to people from all walks of life.

The most popular package monitors a client’s 3-in-1 credit report (in oth [...]

LifeLock Review

development@gill-media.com — Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 +0100

LifeLock was started by Todd Davis, who made it famous by constantly displaying his own social security number in the company’s advertising. The message is clear: The company’s CEO trusts his product enough to risk his own credit record.

As we’ve seen repeatedly in today’s news, identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in America. It victimizes over 10 million people a year and costs billions of d [...]

Identity Theft Survival

development@gill-media.com — Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 +0100

If you want to guard against identity theft, read the articles in our info center or consider Lifelock. If it’s already happened to you, though -- it’s not your fault! Nevertheless, after an ID theft incident, you need to respond quickly and thoroughly. In most cases, you need to prove you were the victim. A fast, thorough response is the key to identity theft survival.

Here’s what you need to do: