IDENTITY THEFT - DETER, DETECT, and DEFEND

How can someone steal your identity? Identity theft occurs when someone uses your personal information such as your name, Social Security number, credit card number or other identifying information, without your permission to commit fraud or other crimes.

Identity theft is a serious crime. People whose identities have been stolen can spend months or years - and their hard-earned money - cleaning up the mess thieves have made of their good name and credit record. In the meantime, victims may lose job opportunities, be refused loans, education, housing or cars, or even get arrested for crimes they didn't commit.

If you think your identity has been stolen, here's what to do now:

	Contact the fraud departments of any one of the three major credit bureaus   to place a fraud alert on your credit file. The fraud alert requests creditors to contact you before opening any new accounts or making any changes to your existing accounts. As soon as the credit bureau confirms your fraud alert, the other two credit bureaus will be automatically notified to place fraud alerts, and all three credit reports will be sent to you free of charge.
	Close the accounts that you know or believe have been tampered with or opened fraudulently. Use the ID Theft Affidavit when disputing new unauthorized accounts.
	File a police report. Get a copy of the report to submit to your creditors and others that may require proof of the crime.
	File your complaint with the FTC. The FTC maintains a database of identity theft cases used by law enforcement agencies for investigations. Filing a complaint also helps them learn more about identity theft and the problems victims are having so that they can better assist you. Federal Trade Commission
	If your social security card is stolen contact the Social Security Administration. The telephone number is 1-800-772-1213.

Download FTC Identity Theft Guides:
"Take Charge - Fighting Back Against Identity Theft "
"ID Theft - What's It All About"
"Deter, Detect, Defend - Avoid ID Theft" (Special Edition for Members of the Military)

Consumer Alerts

1. VISA/Mastercard Scam Alert: Should you get a phone call from a VISA or Mastercard “employee” trying to confirm unusual spending activity AND that person asks for code on the back of your credit card--- DO NOT give that number out. They will sound very professional but may not be from that company. In the interest of financial security, it is not advised to give the code on the back of your credit card to anyone unless you have initiated the call and it is to a reputable merchant. Contact VISA or Mastercard Fraud numbers on your credit card to confirm that they made that call and deal with the situation that way.
   
   
2. Account verification or "phisher" scams: For several years, individuals have purchased domain names that are similar to those of legitimate companies. These con artists then send out millions of emails asking consumers to verify account information and even SSN. Prior to agreeing to do this, check with the company directly and see if the email originally was sent from them. In almost all cases, you will be told that it is a scam. The latest verification scams are: E-Bay, Best Buys, Discover Card, e-gold.com, ebay-verification.net, change-ebay.com, and PayPal. Almost all Internet server names have been used for this scam as well. Companies that have been known to be victims of this scam include: AOL, MSN, Earthlink,PayPal, Discover Card, Bank of America, Providian and Wells Fargo.
   
   
3. Sign-in rosters: There are some companies and governmental agencies (colleges, EDD, state-sponsored programs) that ask you to put your name and SSN on a sign-in roster. Please be aware that identity thieves may sign up toward the end of a page (purposely) so that they can copy and collect personal identifying information. If you encounter a sign-in roster like this, the best way to handle the situation is to write the following instead of your SSN - "will provide in person." You might also question a company/school representative about this practice and see if you can get it discontinued. It is dangerous and should be stopped. Some state laws will be addressing this in the next year or so. If this is a classroom situation and you do not need the credits, you may choose to leave the space for SSN either blank or filled in with 000-00-0000. Please do not make up a number. It might belong to another innocent person and hurt his or her credit.
   
   
4. Help move money from my country,aka Nigerian Scam- Almost everyone has received an email from a representative of a foreign government asking to help move money from one account to another. This scam still nets $100 million annually so people are falling for it. Nigerian Money Offers now account for about 12 percent of the scam offers people have said they've received, according to a recent National Consumers League poll. The latest versions of this scam include a dying woman, a soldier and emails other than from Nigeria.
   
   
5. Canadian/Netherlands Lottery - "You Have Won"- Unless you entered a lottery or bought a ticket to win a prize, these are scams. They originate from the Netherlands and other foreign countries. Many include - From: "Promotions Manager" : CONGRATULATIONS! WERKEN BIJ DE LOTTO, 41132, NL-1007 DB AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS. NEW- Via US Mail there is a new scam about a "Spanish Lottery." Do not respond, turn it over to your local postal inspector.
   
   
6. Free Credit Report Emails- Almost all of the "free credit report" emails you receive are scams. Either the person is trying to find out your social security number or will be billing you for a service later on. Do your homework and check out the company via the Better Business Bureau, US Attorney and Federal Trade Commission. You don't know who is sending these emails.
   
   
7. "You have won a free gift" - You may receive either a phone call or email about a free gift or prize. You just need to send your credit card info to take care of shipping and handling. DON'T. Free means free, there should be no charge. Also, you must consider if this is a group sending out a cheap gift in exchange for finding a "live" phone number or email address. Responding may result in hundreds of spans or telemarketing calls.
   
   
8. Email chain letters/pyramid schemes - There are many of these. One says that Bill Gates is testing a new email-tracking program and wants your help. If you forward the email to your friends, Microsoft will pay you $'s for each person that receives it. Others say that you will get a gift or money from each person who comes after you. Another tells you: Follow the simple instructions below and your financial dreams will come true. Order all 5 reports shown on the list below. For each report, send $5 CASH, This one even says that the FTC says this is legal. These are pyramid scams. They are for the most part illegal and are just variations on the old postal chain letters. Do not respond or forward these emails. As ScamBusters said, "Remember, any email that asks you to forward it to your friends is a scam. We literally know of no exceptions."
   
   
9. "Find out everything on anyone" - This email is trying to solicit $'s in order to buy a CD or program that you can use to find out personal information on another person. These are always public records and may be someone who just wants your credit account number to use themselves.
   
   
10. Questionnaires: You may get an email card from an "old friend." It may come from a chat room friend. These include questions that help the person sending it find out your birthdate, passwords (favorite things) and even may ask for your SSN. Do not answer these, even with false information. You only let the other party know that they have reached a "live" person and you may eventually give away information you don't realize can hurt you. These people are slick and can easily convince you to divulge information you don't intent do. That is why they are called con artists.
    
    
11. Job advertisement scams: Recently there have been scams involving Internet Job Websites (for instance Monster.com) and Newspaper Want Ads. Under no circumstances should an applicant provide a SSN to a "HR person" found through a newspaper ad or an Internet ad prior to an actual interview or prior to authenticating both the company and the person asking for the information. If you have any doubts, contact the company directly using a phone number found on the company Website or telephone book. Remember, anyone can set up a Website. You may choose to check the company out with the Better Business Bureau for that area as well as the state attorney general to make sure that they are a legitimate company. Typical tip-offs: Email addresses that do not include a company name in the domain section, mailing addresses or fax addresses in cities that differ from corporate headquarters.
    
    
12. In-Store security scams: Individuals identifying themselves as in-store security may request a customer's help in catching a bad employee. They ask for personal information or ask you to pre-fill out a credit application and then give it to the employee. The second form involves a scamster who is watching a customer fill out a form or pay for a bill with a credit card. Just prior to the employee calling it in for approval, they call that clerk and ask the information stating that the card/application is from a thief. Make sure that any store employee who approaches you has proper identification and that if a call interrupts an employee during a transaction, that you check it out with store security.
    
    
13. Telephone scams: Do not provide credit card information or your social security number over the telephone unless you initiated the call and the call is to a known company or agency. Also, no one from the government will be calling consumers asking if they want to be included on the "do not call list" nor will these lists require a consumer to provide a SSN via telephone.

Combating Spam

Click on link above to access SpamCop. SpamCop provides methods to report and help to eliminate irritating and unwanted emails.

You can also report offending emails directly by forwarding them to the appropriate government agency. Here are some addresses:

Federal Trade Commission for fraudulent business/product offers: spam@uce.gov

Food & Drug Administration for drug/prescription related spams: webcomplaints@ora.fda.gov

Securities and Exchange Commission for investment related spams:enforcement@sec.gov

Anti-Phishing Working Group for reporting phishing scams: reportphishing@antiphishing.org

Another approach to reducing Spam is to subscribe to a service like Spam Arrest. They screen all unknown incoming emails and reject those which can not verify the identity of the sender. Click on the bannners below for a free trial or a demo.

SpyWare and Adware

Certain programs may be installed on your computer without your knowledge. These can be from sneaky advertisers or someone more malicious. Click on the picture above or the following link to download and install an excellent free program called SPYBOT - SEARCH and DESTROY to seek out and delete these unwanted guests. Another good and very popular free program is called AD-AWARE. Microsoft has also put out a free download called Windows Defender. Beware of fake spyware programs that can do more harm than good and that will try to trick you with false notices and fake positives of spyware on your computer. Other well known legitimate programs are Spyware Doctor and Webroot Spy Sweeper.

One very specific program is quite useful also. One of the most vicious versions of spyware which has infected millions of computers is called Cool Web Browser. It is very difficult to remove. A program called CW Shredder is the best known antidote. Download a free stand alone copy of CWShredder.

Scanning for spyware and adware isn't enough to protect your PC. You also need to take preventative steps to ensure that unwanted software doesn't come back. One effective way to prevent spyware and adware from returning is to install an anti-spyware prevention program such as SpywareBlaster.

For the geek in all of us here is one final tool. Internet Explorer has a nasty habit of allowing so-called Browser Helper Objects (or BHOs) to install themselves into IE. Some BHOs are helpful, like the Google Toolbar, but others (especially those planted by viruses or spyware) can be malicious and harmful. BHODemon gives you a quick look at the BHOs installed on your PC, tells you whether a specific BHO is known to be safe or harmful, and gives you the ability to enable or disable individual BHOs with a single mouse click. Download a free copy of BHODemon.

Virus Protection

Other unwanted guests show up on your computer as viruses or worms. A good first line of protection is an anti-virus program. No computer should be without one. You can buy programs such as Norton Anti-Virus or you can install a free Anti-Virus program such as Avast! from Alwil Software, AVG from Grisoft, and AntiVir from Avira. Click on link to download. In addition to anti-virus, you need a good firewall. An excellent free firewall can be downloaded from Zone Alarm.