Winter is upon us, and with it comes the dreaded flu season. In turn, this means more trips to the doctor’s office and the potential for high medical bills – a monetary incentive that fraudsters have not overlooked. According to the FBI, healthcare fraud costs the United States an estimated $80 billion a year, with Read more…
On Christmas Day, 2011, Apple product users were targeted by a major phishing attack. The Mac Security Blog reported, “A vast phishing attack has broken out, beginning on or around Christmas day, with emails being sent with the subject ‘Apple update your Billing Information.’ These well-crafted emails could fool many new Apple users, especially those Read more…
Tags: anti-phishing, Consumer, Cybercrime, identity fraud, identity fraud scams, identity theft, internet security, Mac antivirus, Mac security, malware, McAfee, McAfee Internet Security for Mac, phishing, Safe search, Safe surf, scams, site advisor, spam, web security
Your Social Security number was never meant to serve the various functions it is used for today. Over the past 70 years, the Social Security number has become our de facto national ID. The numbers were originally issued in the 1930s, to track income for Social Security benefits. But “functionality creep,” which occurs when an Read more…
Tags: counter identity theft, Data Protection, identity fraud, identity fraud scams, identity theft, personal information protection
Yes, it’s a glorious day with the birth of my new book. I’ve spent 15 years in the trenches, reporting on all issues of personal security. Now I’ve taken what I know about protecting your identity and avoiding fraud and packed it all into 99 tips, a quick read of less than 35,000 words. Now Read more…
Tags: 99 things, Consumer, counter identity theft, credit card fraud and protection, credit monitoring and resolution, Cybercrime, data breach, identity fraud, Identity thieves and cybercriminals, personal information protection
More than ten years ago, when I began speaking to organizations about personal security and identity theft, headlines often read “Utility Worker Steals Identities” or “Human Resource Officers Steal Identities” and even “Police Officer Steals Identities.” Back then the primary concern was insider identity theft, perpetrated by those who had direct access to victims’ data. Read more…
Tags: counter identity theft, credit card fraud and protection, credit monitoring and resolution, Data Protection, identity fraud, identity fraud scams, identity protection, identity protection $1 million guarantee, identity protection surveillance, identity theft, identity theft expert, Identity thieves and cybercriminals, lost wallet protection, McAfee Identity Protection, personal identity theft fraud, personal information protection, proactive identity protection, proactive identity surveillance
The most basic advice for protecting your own identity is to protect your Social Security number. The obvious solution is simply never to disclose your number, but this is silly, since, depending on your age, you have probably provided it to hundreds of people, on hundreds of forms. It now sits in hundreds of databases, Read more…
Tags: counter identity theft, credit card fraud and protection, credit monitoring and resolution, Data Protection, identity fraud, identity fraud scams, identity protection, identity protection $1 million guarantee, identity protection surveillance, identity surveillance, identity theft, identity theft expert, Identity thieves and cybercriminals, lost wallet protection, McAfee, McAfee Identity Protection, personal identity theft fraud, proactive identity protection, proactive identity surveillance
Identity theft victims don’t need Jessica Van Vliet, an assistant professor in counseling psychology at the University of Alberta, to tell them that they no longer feel safe when conducting everyday financial transactions, which most of us take for granted. But she did a study highlighting a fact that many of us in the industry Read more…
Tags: counter identity theft, credit card fraud and protection, credit monitoring and resolution, Data Protection, Family Safety, identity fraud, identity fraud scams, identity protection, identity protection $1 million guarantee, identity protection surveillance, identity surveillance, identity theft, identity theft expert, Identity thieves and cybercriminals, lost wallet protection, McAfee, McAfee Identity Protection, personal identity theft fraud, proactive identity surveillance, social networking
Cyber scams happen to the young and the old, the rich and the poor. It doesn’t matter how good or bad your credit is, or whether or not you have a credit card. Cybercriminals target everyone, regardless of how much or how little you rely on a computer. The lowest of the lowlifes, however, tend Read more…
Tags: counter identity theft, credit card fraud and protection, Family Safety, identity fraud, identity fraud scams, identity protection, identity protection surveillance, identity theft, Identity thieves and cybercriminals, personal identity theft fraud, personal information protection, proactive identity surveillance
The Sony Corporation has been providing consumers with stellar electronics since before the introduction of the Walkman. The past six months have been harsher for Sony, with attacks by hacktivists and numerous breaches of clients’ data. Many recent breaches involved usernames, passwords, email addresses, and in some cases, credit card numbers. Each compromised data point Read more…
Tags: counter identity theft, credit card fraud and protection, credit monitoring and resolution, data breach, Data Protection, Family Safety, identity fraud, identity fraud scams, identity protection, identity protection surveillance, identity theft, identity theft expert, Identity thieves and cybercriminals, proactive identity protection, proactive identity surveillance
To all you security companies out there, listen up: “identity theft protection” has become an overused and abused marketing term, which is often used to sell a product or service that doesn’t actually protect users from identity theft. It’s like labeling food “natural” when we know it’s not “organic.” It’s incorrect at best and a Read more…
Tags: counter identity theft, credit card fraud and protection, credit monitoring and resolution, data breach, identity fraud, identity fraud scams, identity protection, identity protection $1 million guarantee, identity protection surveillance, identity surveillance, identity theft, identity theft expert, Identity thieves and cybercriminals, lost wallet protection, McAfee, McAfee Identity Protection, personal identity theft fraud, personal information protection, proactive identity protection, proactive identity surveillance
Posts tagged under identity fraud