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Blog / February 2007
Free Articles on Identity Theft Prevention and Personal Finance
Feb 1, 2007 by Tom Fragala
Have you checked out our free articles on the Truston web site? Right now we have six valuable pieces, with more coming soon. Check these out: 8 Warning Signs That You’re Headed for Financial Trouble Three Tips to Stop Identity...
Watch Your Assets: Gochex, Son of Qchex, Arrives
Feb 2, 2007 by Tom Fragala
Neovi, Inc., the company behind the notorious Qchex has launched an ever-so-slightly revised new service called gochex. Qchex was the service that enabled vast fraudulent activity and was shutdown by the Federal Trade Commission. My most recent post explaining this...
VA loses another hard drive
Feb 6, 2007 by Tom Fragala
I have written a lot about the VA in the past (see here). Everyone knows they had a laptop (and, don't forget, external hard drive) stolen last year with data on 26.5 million vets and active military. Well, they are...
A Series on Scams
Feb 8, 2007 by Michelle Pastor
Scams come in all shapes and sizes and are a lot of times used to commit identity theft. I want to alert the public to some very creative scams in hopes that individuals will recognize a scam for what it...
Mystery Shopping Is A Great Front for Identity Thieves
Feb 8, 2007 by Michelle Pastor
The first sign of a scam is that you can make a lot of money for only a little work. Mystery shopping happens to be one of those nebulous terms that make people think they can get paid very well...
The Real Impact of a Data Breach
Feb 9, 2007 by Tom Fragala
Data breaches make great copy for the media. Journalists write stories to create scapegoats and sell ads, while consultants (or even non-profits) love the stories because they sell data breach "remediation" services. And politicians eat it up because they can...
VA Reveals Latest Breach is 535,000 Identities
Feb 12, 2007 by Tom Fragala
Originally, it was thought the VA external hard drive lost in Alambama recently had data on "only" 48,000 people or so. Today the VA issued a press release saying it was really data on 535,000 people. And that's not all....
FBI Lost 477 Laptops and 514 Weapons 2001-2006
Feb 12, 2007 by Tom Fragala
Ars Technica reports that the Office of the Inspector General of the Justice Department has been auditing the FBI for several years. Since 2001 the FBI has lost 477 laptops and 514 “functional weapons” (guns). Wait there’s more: not only are they...
Can You Get Credit Without a SSN?
Feb 12, 2007 by Tom Fragala
Can you get a credit card without a social security number? Can a credit file/report exist for a person without an SSN? Noodle on that for a second. The answer is Yes. According to Evan Hendicks, in his book Credit...
How myTruston Credit Inpecting Can Help Prevent ID Theft
Feb 13, 2007 by Tom Fragala
In the words of one of our myTruston members which signed up for our free prevention service: While I have never been a victim of Identity Theft, I was interested in learning more about the process of protecting myself. When...
Scam Series: Skimming and ATM Card Cleaning
Feb 13, 2007 by Michelle Pastor
When I think of skimming, I think of waiters and credit cards. As the story goes, once the waiter is out of your sight, he runs the credit card through a reader that read your credit card account number. The...
Data on 200,000 Wellpoint Customers Stolen
Feb 14, 2007 by Tom Fragala
Courier-Journal reports: Computer tapes containing personal information on about 196,000 members of health insurer WellPoint — including many Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield customers in Kentucky and Indiana — have been stolen from the office of a WellPoint vendor....
Identity Theft Statistic Battle Raging
Feb 14, 2007 by Tom Fragala
There’s a battle going on about ID theft stats. USA Today has a story about this here http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2007-02-07-ftc-idtheft_x.htm. Javelin Research says ID theft is dropping. US PIRG , Consumer Affairs, consumer advocate Chris Hoofnagle and others are ripping Javelin apart saying...
Tax Scams
Feb 15, 2007 by Tom Fragala
Ed at the Fraudwar blog has a post on watching out for scams during tax season, including the IRS' 2007 dirty dozen tax scams. Check it out....
PayPal Offers Free Equifax Credit Monitoring: Still Not Worth It
Feb 15, 2007 by Tom Fragala
PayPal (Nasdaq:EBAY) is now offering all its members free Equifax Credit Alerts. Wow, that sounds great doesn't it? This is one of those things that is “better than nothing” right? No. Don’t waste your time. This service only monitors your...
Equifax Will Revoke Your Right to Link to Their Site
Feb 15, 2007 by Tom Fragala
Another thing that bugs me about the Equifax service? Take a look at their Terms of Use. This is what they say is their link policy: You are granted a limited, non-exclusive right to create a hypertext link to this...
Banks Fight Back Against TJX in Data Breach
Feb 16, 2007 by Tom Fragala
The Canadian Privacy Law Blog (great blog, not just about Canada) pointed me to this eye opening story in a CIO Magazine blog. It is important because a bank seems to have tied the TJ Maxx security breach directly back...
Scam Series: Identity Theft While Pumping Gas (Video)
Feb 16, 2007 by Michelle Pastor
I found an excellent Public Service Announcement video made by the Broward Sheriff’s Dept in Broward, Florida. With real footage it shows an identity thief searching for his next victim and then stealing the victim’s information while she’s distracted. It...
ID Analytics Release Research On ID Fraud by Geography
Feb 16, 2007 by Tom Fragala
On February 14, ID Analytics, Inc. released a new research study on identity theft and geography in the U.S. Here are some tidbits of interest from their press release. The ten states with the highest rates of identity fraud are:...
How ATM Skimming Scams Work (Video)
Feb 17, 2007 by Tom Fragala
This video (from the UK) shows how an ATM skimming scheme can steal your ATM card number and PIN. The moral is watch out for shady looking ATM machines and put your hand and body over the keypad while you...
My Former Bank's Response To ID Theft Questions
Feb 17, 2007 by Michelle Pastor
One of my biggest concerns of identity theft is a drained bank or investment account. Years ago when I researched identity theft, I had a lot of questions for my bank. I asked what my liability would be if someone...
Supermarket Checkout Keypads Compromised
Feb 20, 2007 by Tom Fragala
In a bold scam similar to what happens to ATM cash machines (see this video), data thieves setup skimming devices on the keypads in the checkout lanes at some Shop & Stop supermarket stores in New England. That really takes...
TJX Data Breach Worse Than Originally Feared
Feb 21, 2007 by Tom Fragala
CNet.com reports, The breach of credit and debit card data was initially thought to have lasted from May 2006 to January. However, TJX said Wednesday that it now believes those computer systems were first compromised in July 2005. TJX also...
Mass. Considers Law Making Retailers Liable for Data Theft
Feb 21, 2007 by Tom Fragala
In response to the massive data breach at TJX, parent company of TJ Maxx, lawmakers in Massachusetts are mulling over a new law. It would force retailers to take responsibility for security breaches. WSJ has the story.> If it passes, and...
Scam Series : The Concierge Scam
Feb 22, 2007 by Michelle Pastor
There’s a new scam that targets hotel customers while they are staying at the hotel. If you get a phone call from the front desk of the hotel you’re staying at, beware if the caller asks for your credit card...
MyTruston Released to the Public
Feb 25, 2007 by Tom Fragala
Exciting news! We are finally launching the full public version of our MyTruston service! Here are the announcement details. 1. Availability February 26th 2. Prevention service free, Recovery service $19.99 / month, while you need it. 3. Find out more...
Vishing: A New Name for an Old Trick
Feb 27, 2007 by Michelle Pastor
Vishing refers to voice-phishing to get a victim’s vital information. It happens when an identity thief poses as a customer service rep from a bank or credit card company and calls to ask the victim to verify their information. The...
Free 30 Days of MyTruston Recovery for Charter Members
Feb 28, 2007 by Tom Fragala
If you signed up for our MyTruston recovery service during our “beta” testing period, I have good news. You hopefully heard that we officially launched MyTruston to the public this Monday. We added a number of new features to MyTruston as...
Javelin Strategy Writes About Truston
Feb 28, 2007 by Tom Fragala
Javelin Strategy & Research, a leading provider of research for the financial services industry, wrote a blog post about our MyTruston service. Here is an excerpt: MyTruston, a recently developed Internet-based recovery service, could be useful for victims who may feel...
Fraudwar Blog Does Review of MyTruston
Feb 28, 2007 by Tom Fragala
Ed Dickson of the FraudWar blog (#1 ID theft focused blog according to Technorati) wrote a positive reivew of the new MyTruston service recently. Here are a few of the things he said about us. Tom Fragala, CEO of MyTruston (Identity...