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Blog / November 2006
Are People Getting Misled by AnnualCreditReport.com?
Nov 2, 2006 by Tom Fragala
I'm a little peeved about the annualcreditreport.com site. And when I explain why, you might laugh or shake your head. But I have empirical evidence to back it up. As you may know, AnnualCreditReport.com is the ONLY valid web site...
Followup to FDIC Story
Nov 4, 2006 by Tom Fragala
This is a followup to my report on the FDIC web site I outed as being a security hole for users (see previous posts here and here). I heard back from the Chief Web Officer of the FDIC. Essentially, the...
Shredstation: Can it Help Cut ID Theft Risk?
Nov 5, 2006 by Tom Fragala
I was recently contacted by Andy Benson at Shredstation, an alternative to purchasing and using your own shredder. Basically, they have a kiosk at a store or bank where you can dump your papers to be shredded. They contract with...
High Foreclosure Rate in Colorado is Linked to ID Theft
Nov 8, 2006 by Michelle Pastor
Here in Colorado, we're not proud of it, but we have the worst foreclosure rate in the nation. It's been a real concern so officials investigated, and their findings surprised me! According to an October 29 article in the Denver...
How Check Scams Can Land You In Jail
Nov 8, 2006 by Tom Fragala
I've been droning on for years about check scams; work-at-home scams, 419/Nigerian scams, cashier's check fraud, and Internet/auction fraud. It may be the most common consumer fraud after identity theft. Read this story by David Lazarus in the SF Chronicle...
Golden Tickets Are In Circulation - Get Yours Now!
Nov 8, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Recently, a small number of golden tickets have been sent out to people. The tix include a special code giving them access to a new web-based identity theft recovery and prevention service called myTruston. Here's a few comments I...
Social Security Administration Cries Wolf Over Phishing Scam
Nov 10, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Today the Social Security Administration issued a press release warning about an email scam. While this is certainly serious, what struck me was their apparent cluelessness about phishing scams. The term phishing doesn't appear anywhere in the press release even...
Dear God Please Make Them Stop
Nov 11, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Update: there is nothing wrong with pre-paid legal or anyone else offering a monthly subscription service to help you prevent or recover from id theft. after all we do something along those lines too! the kroll recovery service is, i...
Tip: A Personal Data Disclosure You Should Know About
Nov 12, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Most of us know about the free annual credit report we are entitled to by federal law. Did you know that the same law also entitles you to a free disclosure report from certain data brokers? A data broker, loosely...
A Quick Note About Comments
Nov 14, 2006 by Tom Fragala
This is for anyone who posted a comment on this blog recently. Our blog system has Several comment spam filters installed which is pretty cool. But the aggressiveness of the filter was set too high, so all the comments were...
First review of myTruston Identity Theft Service
Nov 14, 2006 by Tom Fragala
I'm pleased to report that Ed at the popular blog Fraudwar (Fraud, Phishing and Financial Misdeeds) recently tried out the beta version of the myTruston service and blogged about it. Here's one quote: I had the opportunity to test the...
Golden Ticket Period is Over
Nov 14, 2006 by Tom Fragala
FYI, the period for new golden tickets window is closed. Thanks to everyone to tried out the system. For those that sent feedback, your thank you gift will be sent in the next few weeks (they are on order, arriving...
Identity Theft Secrets Uncovers Lazy PR at SSA
Nov 15, 2006 by Tom Fragala
In a recent post (see here), I opined about the Social Security Administration's apparent cluelessness over phishing scams. Well, Jonathan Kraft at Identity Theft Secrets really went the full nine yards. He discovered that the SSA was just recycling a...
Memo to the FTC: freecreditreport.com is Getting Major Complaints
Nov 15, 2006 by Tom Fragala
I recently reported how the annualcreditreport.com home page is very misleading, causing visitors to erroneously click on the logos of the three credit bureaus. This leads you away from the only site authorized to provide the free annual credit report...
Huge FTC Resource: All Decisions Since 1969 Online
Nov 15, 2006 by Tom Fragala
The decisions can be found here. From the FTC Press Release November 15 2006: The Federal Trade Commission announced today that Commission actions from the past 37 years, including documents previously available to the general public only in book form,...
Another Database With Your Information - Keep An Eye On It!
Nov 15, 2006 by Michelle Pastor
ChexSystems is another database that we, as consumers, can access. This is the database that banks and credit unions use when they decide whether or not to let you open a savings or checking account. ChexSystems generates a Consumer Report...
10 Ways to Keep Your Holiday Spending in Check
Nov 28, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Michelle Pastor, guest author here at Truston, wrote an article with 10 good ideas for watching your spending during the holiday season. It just might prevent your credit score from getting dinged, too. Click here to read the article, located...