Blog / Other News
Non-profit data breach tracking site ends service
Apr 11, 2008 by Tom Fragala
Attrition.org, a non-profit hobby site, has shuttered its news service. They had become one of the "go to" information sources on security and data breaches. Here is an excerpt of their explanation for the shut down (although they leave the...
FTC Releases 2005 ID Theft Survey Results--in November 2007
Dec 16, 2007 by Tom Fragala
The FTC recently released the results of their well-known survey and study on identity theft. For 2005. The big number everyone looks at, total victims, is 8.3 million. Of course, interpreting that number depends on how you define "identity theft"...
Truston Named 2008 Hot Companies Finalist
Nov 13, 2007 by Tom Fragala
I am pleased to announce that Truston was named a finalist for the 2008 Hot Companies award by Silicon Valley Communications. This further confirms our position has a provider of unique, scalable ID theft protection and consumer credit services. See...
FBI Releases 2006 Crime Statistics
Sep 25, 2007 by Tom Fragala
The Federal Bureau of Investigation recently published its annual crime report, Crime in the United States, 2006. It may be more notable for what is excluded, rather than what it reports. Identity theft: Not included. Embezzlement, confidence games, forgery, check...
Order 2 credit cards, get 2000 in mail
Aug 9, 2007 by Tom Fragala
The Consumerist blog points to a story in the NY Daily News about a guy who renewed his soon-to- expire credit card and got two boxes filled with 1,000 credit cards each, all in his name with his card numbers....
Fed Proposes Revisions to Credit Card Agreements
Jun 30, 2007 by Michelle Pastor
Consumers are often confused by the fees and terms of their credit card contracts, so the Feds are trying to help credit cards companies become more consumer friendly. Currently, credit card companies have the right to change the terms such as...
Senator Allard Is On The Right Track
May 25, 2007 by Michelle Pastor
Senator Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) announced that the provision he introduced to fight identity theft has been included in The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007. Currently, the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Department of Homeland Security are prevented from sharing...
Senator Wayne Allard's Fight Against SSN Theft
Mar 4, 2007 by Michelle Pastor
Senator Wayne Allard (R-Colorado) gets it! He knows that a number of illegal aliens can use the same social security number to get a job and then never pay the income taxes which leaves the victim and eventually the country...
Credit bureau TransUnion Opens the Kimono
Dec 13, 2006 by Tom Fragala
TransUnion, one of the three major consumer credit reporting companies, has been quite secretive in the past. Their website was sparse and impersonal. Now it appears they are turning over a new leaf. Their website has a new look and...
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,...
Intersections Still Asleep at the Wheel
Oct 19, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Back on August 4, 2006, I blogged about Intersections, Inc. (INTX), the company behind IdentityGuard, and mentioned that the investor relations section of their corporate web site didn't work. Well, here it is October 19. over three months later, and...
Slow posting for a few days
Oct 6, 2006 by Tom Fragala
I haven’t been posting for a few days and probably won’t be until next week. My wife and I just had a baby boy. All is well (except the hard hospital cot :-)....
Your Business Contacts Are Selling Your Data--Legally
Sep 28, 2006 by Tom Fragala
There is a new type of company that you might not be aware of. These companies are called business contact marketplaces. It is very different from the data brokers than maintain and sell your personal information. They are unabashedly proud...
My blog is getting spammed by a marketing executive at TrustedID
Sep 22, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Interesting. The Director of Marketing for TrustedID, Lomit Patel, is posting spam comments on my website/blog. There are two: here and here. According to TrustedID's web site, "Lomit leads all of TrustedID's direct marketing efforts and has 12 years of...
Experian IPO coming in October
Aug 30, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Experian is going public on or about October 11. Manchester (UK) Evening News has a detailed story and background. According to this report, Experian might have a market cap of US$9 billion....
IRS is unleashing collection agencies on taxpayers
Aug 26, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Prepare for an ungodly beast to be unleashed on U.S. taxpayers. Unfortunately this is a fait accompli. The IRS is going to use collection agencies to collect back taxes. Look, getting tax revenues that are left on the table is great. But...
No locks are safe any more: bumpkeys are here
Aug 6, 2006 by Tom Fragala
One of the more common ways to have your identity stolen is the theft of personal materials from your home. Often by someone you know—a family member or worker. But did you know that virtually every mechanical lock, like those on your...
TransUnion is acquiring Qsent
Aug 5, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Qsent is a company that keeps an up to date database of people’s most current contact information. They also are supposed to be working on what some call a do-not-call registry especially for cell phones. Actually, the deal is that...
Special identity theft training in Michigan
Aug 5, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Nice to see a cross-agency law enforcement training program in identity theft. More from GovTech. Including local police, sheriff, and federal officers. During the four-hour course, officers were trained in the latest investigative techniques, including the areas of victim assistance, identity...
Intersections Q2 results: corporate governance dips
Aug 4, 2006 by Tom Fragala
According to Yahoo! Finance, Intersections, Inc. (INTX) saw its Q2 net income decrease 13% compared to last year, while revenue increased nicely by 11%. I don’t know what impact their acquistion of CMSI had on this quarter’s results. They also...
Experian is going public
Jul 29, 2006 by Tom Fragala
GUS, plc, the UK-based parent of Experian, one of the three main U.S. credit reporting companies, has announced plans for Experian’s IPO. In a news release entitled Demerger of ARG and Experian, by October 2006 Experian will be an independent...
New blog on bankruptcy and credit
Jul 27, 2006 by Tom Fragala
The US PIRG blog points out a new blog authored by seven scholars and professors that will focus on bankruptcy and credit called Credit Slips. Nice title. In their own words, it’s a blog about “what does happen and what...
Bill weakening consumer protection may reach vote (HR 3997)
Jul 24, 2006 by Tom Fragala
It’s tiring trying to keep up with the moving targets that are the new data breach and ID theft bills moving through Congress. But Beth Givens of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and Ed Mierzwinski at U.S. PIRG warn consumers that...
Experian reports booming revenue Q206
Jul 13, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Revenues up 21 percent. More at Bloomberg.com....
Experian reports booming revenue Q206
Jul 13, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Revenues up 21 percent. More at Bloomberg.com....
Is Intersections a membership marketing company?
Jul 11, 2006 by Tom Fragala
In June, Intersections, Inc., which offers IdentityGuard one of the leading identity theft services, acquired a company called Chartered Marketing Services. Chartered is a direct marketing company the specifically focuses on membership clubs and loyalty programs. CMSI’s value-added programs make them...
Identity theft statistics from Dept. of Justice
Jul 4, 2006 by Tom Fragala
In April 2006, the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics released identity theft victim data from 2004 (yes, 2004). The findings are from interviews conducted from July-December 2004 as part of the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). Here’s...
The President's Identity Theft Task Force
Jul 3, 2006 by Tom Fragala
This is from back on May 9. This excerpt is from Whitehouse.gov: Today, President Bush Signed An Executive Order Creating The Nation's First Ever "Identity Theft Task Force." This task force will marshal the resources of the Federal government to...
iJacking?? Intersections Creates a New Word
Jun 11, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Intersections, Inc., the NASDAQ-listed company behind the IdentityGuard products, has a new marketing campaign. It’s called “stop ijacking” and you can see for yourself at www.stopijacking.com. Apparently the goal of the campaign is to create a new term they “own”...
Payment card industry changes standards--for the better or worse?
May 18, 2006 by Tom Fragala
C|NET reports: Proposed new security rules for credit card-accepting businesses will put more scrutiny on software, but let them off the hook on encryption. The update to the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard, due this summer, responds to...
Identity Theft Task Force Formed by Executive Order
May 14, 2006 by Tom Fragala
From the Whitehouse.gov Fact Sheet: May 10, 2006 – Today, President Bush Signed An Executive Order Creating The Nation's First Ever "Identity Theft Task Force." This task force will marshal the resources of the Federal government to crack down on...
Citibank introduces anti-phishing tokens
May 5, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Computing says US banking giant Citibank has followed in the footsteps of HSBC by issuing security tokens to online business account holders. The Vasco two-factor authentication tokens will be issued to the bank's CitiBusiness Online customers in the US, who...
Free California Senior Summit Announced
May 3, 2006 by Tom Fragala
From the California Department of Consumer Affairs: The California Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) is preparing to host a first-of-its-kind senior summit to address financial, physical and emotional abuse of the elderly.Senior Summit 2006: Protecting and Serving California's Aging Population...
Organized Crime Behind Online Crime
Apr 29, 2006 by Tom Fragala
The mmfhoh blog has an interesting post about organized crimes impact or influence on Internet-based crime. No question in my mind here that organized crime, especially the Russian mob, plays a huge part in fraud and scams. Some that spring...
Cleaning Up Caller ID Spoof Services
Apr 16, 2006 by Tom Fragala
In a recent post, I talked about a Caller ID fake out service called SpoofCard. Looks like I was right when I said the FCC has jurisdiction over these types of services. Wired News has a story on proposed legislation...
SpoofCard: I have a bad feeling about this
Apr 11, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Have you heard about SpoofCard? It's a calling card that let's you change the CallerID number that appears on the phone you are calling to. And it doesn't even have to be a 10 digit number. You could send "411"...
Beating phishers at their own game
Apr 4, 2006 by Tom Fragala
Cnet has a story about a company called Cyota. They are doing something pretty cool to fight back against phishers. It’s sort of simple and obvious..and very clever. RSA Security's Cyota division is helping fight phishing attacks by giving the...
US Secret Service cracks down on data thieves
Apr 4, 2006 by Tom Fragala
From a press release on the USSS’ web site: UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE’S OPERATION ROLLING STONE NETS MULTIPLE ARRESTSOngoing Undercover Operation Targets Cyber Fraudsters March 27, 2006 Washington, D.C. – The United States Secret Service today made public an ongoing...
Credit bureaus launch new credit score system
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...