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Blog / March 2006

The next big threat after phishing--key loggers

Mar 1, 2006 by Tom Fragala

Over at the blog The Make Money Fast Hall of Humiliation, the author wrote about another threat for PC users called key logging. A key logger is a piece of software—a Trojan horse—that copies keystrokes you type in with the...

Mar 1, 2006 by Tom Fragala

GuardMyCreditFile writes about another phishing scam that claims to be from the Social Security Administration. I don’t write about every phishing scam, since there are dozens of new ones every week (if not more). I actually tried to do that...

Mar 1, 2006 by Tom Fragala

Over 4,000 Ohia state workers have their SSN put at risk in a data breach. Network World reports that the company responsible, MedCo, waitied 6 weeks to report the breach. A laptop was stolen from a Medco employee’s home on Dec...

Mar 1, 2006 by Tom Fragala

NPR / Justice Talking have created a big radio program called “Identity Theft” and has a nice web site just for this program located here. The show should be broadcast on your local NPR station. But I am listening to...

Mar 2, 2006 by Tom Fragala

An online games giant faces a potential $230 million lawsuit. Lawyers in South Korea have filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of more than 230,000 victims of identity theft in an online game. The suit will claim damages of...

Mar 2, 2006 by Tom Fragala

In response to the 12DailyPro scam, the SEC has issued an investor alert entitled "Auto-Surfing”: What You Need to Know. Here’s an excerpt. In the world of marketing, people often get compensated — with cash or free products and services— for...

Mar 2, 2006 by Tom Fragala

An executive from IDAnalytics wrote an article about data breaches on CNet. It's worth a read to get the perspective of someone from the anti-fraud technology industry. It was written by Thomas Oscherwitz. vice president of government affairs and chief...

Mar 2, 2006 by Tom Fragala

I noticed on SANS NewsBites this story about the FBI expanding its investigation of a debit card fraud case. The full story is on CNet News.com and apparently involves retailers such as Wal-Mart and Officemax and the source is apparently a...

Mar 2, 2006 by Tom Fragala

From CNet, another story to brighten your day. Trojan horse software is nothing new and generally have been of the password stealing variety. It appears that newer style Trojans have gotten smarter and will be clever enough to foil banks’...

Mar 3, 2006 by Tom Fragala

Jim at GuardMyCreditFile found this beauty. I had to use his title too, it's too good not to. Here we have a major state government official allowing SSN's to be published on a government web site. It's nuts. When business...

Mar 3, 2006 by Tom Fragala

From SANS NewsBites: Bank of Bermuda has been notified by Visa that a recent security breach compromised information about 800 Bank of Bermuda customers' bank cards. The breach occurred at an ATM transaction processor. The bank is closing the accounts,...

Mar 3, 2006 by Tom Fragala

The San Bernardino County District Attorney launches an ID Theft Unit. Tags: idtheft, identitytheft, law...

Mar 3, 2006 by Tom Fragala

A follow up to my post yesterday about the OH Secretary of State web site… The revelation that hundreds, if not thousands of Ohioans' Social Security numbers are available on the secretary of state's Web site triggered politically charged debate Thursday...

Mar 4, 2006 by Tom Fragala

ABC-TV Channel 4 reports: 12 Daily Pro investors may eventually get some of their money back, but it is going to take a while. For the first time, Charis Johnson [the head scammer at 12 Daily Pro] is talking to the...

Mar 4, 2006 by Tom Fragala

Another report by ABC Channel 4 KTVX. If you particpated in the 12 Daily Pro program, you’re probably going to lose any money you don’t already have out. And all you can do now is report it (see below) and...

Mar 4, 2006 by Tom Fragala

Have money in 12 Daily Pro? Here’s what to do if you're a victim: 1. File a complaint online with the FBI at www.ic3.gov.2. Wait. UPDATE: See this new post for important news. 12 Daily Pro, the Ponzi scheme, and the SEC...

Mar 5, 2006 by Tom Fragala

Credit cards. By a mile. When I say debit card I mean check cards or ATM cards with the credit card logo on them (MasterCard or Visa). Don't use them for purchases. Why? Buying something on your debit card pulls...

Mar 6, 2006 by Tom Fragala

There is a lot of buzz on blogs worldwide about this. Apparently Citibank’s ATM network was compromised in some countries so Citibank allegedly shut down access to ATM’s in those countries. This story is developing… One of the largest banking...

Mar 7, 2006 by Tom Fragala

SANS Newsbites is reporting that an Ohio resident is suing the Ohio secretary of state J. Kenneth Blackwell after discovering that his and other residents' SSNs have been publicly available for years on state web sites. The numbers are included in...

Mar 7, 2006 by Tom Fragala

Data on 93,000 people may be at risk. From a school bulletin: Metro State President Stephen Jordan announced today at an open meeting for the College community and the Denver media that a laptop computer belonging to Metro State was...

Mar 7, 2006 by Tom Fragala

The MMFHOH blog is reporting on a story that ID theft was up 16% last year. Tags: idtheft, identitytheft...

Mar 7, 2006 by Tom Fragala

ZDNet's ZDNet Research reports 7.92 mln phishing e-mails sent daily. In the second half of 2005, phishing attempts made up one in every 119 processed e-mail messages, according to Symantec. This translates into an average 7.92 mln phishing attempts per...

Mar 7, 2006 by Tom Fragala

From the Washington Post, a brief and important follow up story: Some consumer advocates who specialize in privacy issues have written to complain about a blog item last week on a new identity theft study done by the Better Business...

Mar 7, 2006 by Tom Fragala

Ars Technica is reporting that Google is going to release a free anti-phishing tool. If it works, and is given the resources needed to stay up to date, this could be a boon for consumers. Those that use the Firefox...

Mar 7, 2006 by Tom Fragala

From Senior Journal: If senior citizens don't have enough problems sorting out the Medicare prescription drug program, now they have to be alert to the possibility of being scammed by crooks that offer to help them enroll in the new...

Mar 8, 2006 by Tom Fragala

One of the biggest scam stories of the year is the auto-surf Ponzi scheme run by Charis Johnson called 12DailyPro. Her next scam she attempts to launch will probably be called HitsDailyPro. If you haven't read my previous posts on...

Mar 8, 2006 by Tom Fragala

A theft of two laptop computers has put a "significant number" of Verizon Communications' employees at risk of having their identities stolen, the company said Wednesday. Undisclosed number of Verizon employees at risk of identity theft | News.blog | CNET...

Mar 9, 2006 by Tom Fragala

From the AP Wire... PIERRE, S.D. - A state law to help protect victims of identity theft in South Dakota will be enacted July 1.Gov. Mike Rounds has signed the legislation, which will let identity theft victims block access to...

Mar 9, 2006 by Tom Fragala

The New York Times is reporting that Citibank, BofA, Wells Fargo and many other banks have seen customers become victims of this data breach of debit card infomation. Some are blaming Officemax, but Officemax is denying it. This story is...

Mar 9, 2006 by Tom Fragala

From Wired News: Seventeen million customers of the online payment service iBill have had their personal information released onto the internet, where it's been bought and sold in a black market made up of fraud artists and spammers, security experts...

Mar 9, 2006 by Tom Fragala

Jim at GuardMyCreditFile posts another good article, this time talking about the risks of the e-fax or virtual fax services. This is one of those things that seem obvious when you read it, but no one is really talking about. Both...

Mar 9, 2006 by Tom Fragala

Computerworld is reporting about a nasty data breach. Georgetown University in Washington has called in the U.S. Secret Service to investigate a server breach that may have exposed confidential information including the names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers...

Mar 10, 2006 by Tom Fragala

Computerworld is following this big story. The reason it's a big deal isn't just the scope of the fraud which is massive. It's because the fraudsters managed to compromise debit card PIN-based transactions on a huge scale, which seems to...

Mar 10, 2006 by Tom Fragala

Jim Malmberg at GuardMyCreditFile wrote another fantastic article today, touching on an important, but little known topic. There's parallel system for checking accounts similar to credit files. And if you've ever been a victim of check fraud, you'll understand that...

Mar 11, 2006 by Tom Fragala

Experian Consumer Direct, (aka ConsumerInfo.com) which is a division of one of the three main credit bureaus, announced a new low priced product called Triple AlertSM, which I believe is the lowest priced three-bureau credit monitoring product at a cost...

Mar 12, 2006 by Tom Fragala

Another reminder, watch out for tax related scams. Here’s more from the IRS (and tax scams can also be focused on your state tax agency, too). ...

Mar 13, 2006 by Tom Fragala

CNET has this breaking story on the huge debit card fraud case. It appears law enforcement cracked the case. That might explain why so little information was forthcoming on this—they appear to have been hot on the trail of the criminals....

Mar 13, 2006 by Tom Fragala

NBC-TV Channel 4 in Los Angeles is reporting that a government agency data breach could effect as many as two million people. In an exclusive investigation, Channel 4's Ana Garcia uncovered a security breach of confidential records at a government...

Mar 14, 2006 by Tom Fragala

This is big news in the consumer credit space. It appears the three credit reporting companies are launching a broadside against Fair Isaac’s FICO credit score system. It is called VantageScoreSM. Consumers might benefit from a single, agreed upon credit score—currently...

Mar 15, 2006 by Tom Fragala

At the request of the Federal Trade Commission (full story), a federal judge has halted a massive fraudulent billing scheme that has collected more than $25 million in bogus collect call charges from hundreds of thousands of consumers. The FTC...

Mar 17, 2006 by Tom Fragala

I have been slow in responding to email and I have been posting lightly the last few days. But it's all for a good cause. We've been working 18 hour days here at Truston this week and we're going to...

Mar 17, 2006 by Tom Fragala

I recently posted about a data breach that had to do with a company called iBill. Here’s an update from SANS NewsBites: iBill says that large quantities of stolen customer data linked to the on-line payment company are in fact...

Mar 20, 2006 by Tom Fragala

There’s been a lot of noise about HR 3997, also called the Financial Data Protection Act. I'm a few days behind on this. CALPIRG blog (ED MIERZWINSKI) writes about this bill here first and then about a later draft here the same day, calling it...

Mar 22, 2006 by Tom Fragala

Jim from GuardMyCreditFile has written several posts lately about the bill winding its way through Congress. In this one he makes an argument that the California breach notification law (which would be wiped out by HR3997 as its now written), actually...

Mar 22, 2006 by Tom Fragala

The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse wrote a super article summarizing all the data breaches since the first occurance of Choicepoint’s fraud-tinged data breach which started with their announcement February 15 2005. The total number of people who have had their personal information compromised...

Mar 23, 2006 by Tom Fragala

Martin Bosworth of ConsumerAffairs.com mentioned me and this blog in his article of March 21. The article talked about comments I recently made about a new service from a company called TrustedID on another blog. It also covers some opinions...

Mar 23, 2006 by Tom Fragala

GuardMyCreditFile gets the inside scoop on the news about Utah’s new credit freeze law (which also has a data breach notification provision). Some good and some bad. For example, Jim tells us that Utah’s credit freeze law allows any citizen of...

Mar 24, 2006 by Tom Fragala

The New York Times is reporting that a laptop computer owned by Fidelity Investments was stolen. It contained sensitive data on around 196,000 retirement account customers. The company, the nation's largest mutual fund manager, confirmed reports Thursday that the computer held information on...

Mar 26, 2006 by Tom Fragala

Ed Mierzwinski’s US PIRG blog says The New York Times had a story by Damon Darlin Saturday on the issues around the need for strong security freeze laws and the threat to strong state privacy protections posed by Congressional meddling....

Mar 26, 2006 by Tom Fragala

PENN PIRG (THE PENNSYLVANIA PUBLIC INTEREST RESEARCH GROUP) writes The IRS is considering weakening consumer privacy rules by allowing tax preparers like H&R Block or your accountant to share the entire contents of your tax filings with corporations that want...

Mar 28, 2006 by Tom Fragala

CALPIRG’s blog has an post about a proposal the IRS is considering to allow tax preparers to sell your information (yes, with your approval). It points to a couple of recent newspaper editorials....

Mar 28, 2006 by Tom Fragala

Computerworld provides further proof that signing up for free offers via the web is a bad idea. New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is suing Web site operator Gratis Internet Inc. for allegedly violating consumer confidentiality agreements by selling...

Mar 29, 2006 by Tom Fragala

The NY Times is reporting today: The Secret Service yesterday announced seven arrests in five states and the District of Columbia as part of a continuing crackdown on online forums where credit card data and other stolen consumer information is...

Mar 29, 2006 by Tom Fragala

Which local, state or federal agency has primary jurisdiction to investigate financial fraud involving FDIC insured banks, credit cards and identity fraud? Put your guess in the comments. Correct answer to be posted this weekend. Update: The correct answer is...the...

Mar 29, 2006 by Tom Fragala

Computerworld is reporting: A U.S. House of Representatives committee has unanimously approved a bill that would create regulations for so-called data brokers, including a requirement that U.S. companies that traffic in personal data notify victims of breaches. The House Energy...

Mar 29, 2006 by Tom Fragala

Stars and Stripes is reporting that over 200,000 Marines may be at risk for identity theft after loss of portable drive. A portable drive with personal information on more than 207,750 Marines was lost earlier this month, possibly jeopardizing those troops'...

Mar 29, 2006 by Tom Fragala

Update 8/8/06:The receiver Thomas F. Lennon posted a 1 page letter updating the situation on July 17 2006. You can find that letter here (PDF file). If you are a victim of 12 Daily Pro you need to know this....

Mar 30, 2006 by Tom Fragala

Yahoo has this story about a baby in Massachusetts. WVCB NewsCenter 5's Amalia Barreda reported that the baby's mother discovered the theft when she went to open a savings account in her son's name and learned someone had used her child's...

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Blog / March 2006

Mar 1, 2006 by Tom Fragala

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