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Do you have any users who are dealing with fallout from an ID theft incident? What recommendations would you add to this list?
a great bulk of this is NOT online, including roommates stealing checks, trash pickers, etc.
Get a cross-cut shredder- now about $20 on sale
shred any credit card or mortgage stuff addressed to you
I can identify phishing instantly. I have my own domain, with a 'catch-all'. Paypal, my bank eBay all go to specific email addresses that no-one else has, e.g. bidders@mydomain.com or myaccount@paypal.com.
This way, if 'supposed' email from ebay is not to this email address, I delete it instantly (sometimes I'll forward it to their spoof or abuse email accounts).
scan constantly for keyloggers. they sneak on even to the best protected systems due to holes in browsers.
http://www.trendmicro.com/spyware-scan/free_spyware_scan.asp
is a good online free scanner for spyware
in restaurants, don't hand the person your credit card. alot of theft comes from restaurant employees with card readers that capture your credit card info at same time they swipe it thru restaurant's credit card system.
instead pay cash for meals under $25 if you can. I'm not advocating carrying alot of cash which has its own problems.. if you pay with card, give it to clerk at register always. best if you swipe it yourself in plain sight.
beef up any PCs you have with an outgoing firewall like zonealarm. get a $25 cable router so outside systems can't ping your PC. it fits between cable modem and your PC. Even has multiple ethernet out so you may not need a hub.
don't use wireless at home if you can help it, and turn on security if you must.
before giving CC# to online retailer,
check their ratings at:
resellerratings.com
(find the store box and type in website address, will tell you individual consuemr's exprience the website, also good to know if you'll ever get your order on time)
I pay electricity, cable, phone online which reduces checks that could be stolen in mail.
be careful but don't let it rule your life worrying about it.
Get a cross-cut shredder- now about $20 on sale
shred any credit card or mortgage stuff addressed to you
I can identify phishing instantly. I have my own domain, with a 'catch-all'. Paypal, my bank eBay all go to specific email addresses that no-one else has, e.g. bidders@mydomain.com or myaccount@paypal.com.
This way, if 'supposed' email from ebay is not to this email address, I delete it instantly (sometimes I'll forward it to their spoof or abuse email accounts).
scan constantly for keyloggers. they sneak on even to the best protected systems due to holes in browsers.
http://www.trendmicro.com/spyware-scan/free_spyware_scan.asp
is a good online free scanner for spyware
in restaurants, don't hand the person your credit card. alot of theft comes from restaurant employees with card readers that capture your credit card info at same time they swipe it thru restaurant's credit card system.
instead pay cash for meals under $25 if you can. I'm not advocating carrying alot of cash which has its own problems.. if you pay with card, give it to clerk at register always. best if you swipe it yourself in plain sight.
beef up any PCs you have with an outgoing firewall like zonealarm. get a $25 cable router so outside systems can't ping your PC. it fits between cable modem and your PC. Even has multiple ethernet out so you may not need a hub.
don't use wireless at home if you can help it, and turn on security if you must.
before giving CC# to online retailer,
check their ratings at:
resellerratings.com
(find the store box and type in website address, will tell you individual consuemr's exprience the website, also good to know if you'll ever get your order on time)
I pay electricity, cable, phone online which reduces checks that could be stolen in mail.
be careful but don't let it rule your life worrying about it.
I didn't see any mention of the new single-use credit card numbers.
I was very annoyed with the first recommendation. The author implied that any online vendor smaller than Amazon is untrustworthy and that they should be avoided. I wouldn't dream of cheating or otherwise abusing one of my customers. My site is properly encrypted even though my shopping cart passes control of the transaction to PayPal before credit card numbers come into play. All that I ever see is PayPal's limited confirmation details; I never see a credit card number. In addition, I offer payment options for those who prefer to use checks or money orders.
I've completed numerous transactions with both very large and very small online vendors with no credit card problems. The occasional minor problems always seem to occur when I deal with large corporate sites. In sum, don't hurt the little guy with idiotic sweeping generalizations.
I was very annoyed with the first recommendation. The author implied that any online vendor smaller than Amazon is untrustworthy and that they should be avoided. I wouldn't dream of cheating or otherwise abusing one of my customers. My site is properly encrypted even though my shopping cart passes control of the transaction to PayPal before credit card numbers come into play. All that I ever see is PayPal's limited confirmation details; I never see a credit card number. In addition, I offer payment options for those who prefer to use checks or money orders.
I've completed numerous transactions with both very large and very small online vendors with no credit card problems. The occasional minor problems always seem to occur when I deal with large corporate sites. In sum, don't hurt the little guy with idiotic sweeping generalizations.
Many of those 10 suggestions are helpful, however, any article that leaves the same impression as the funny Citibank commercials is a dis-service to the readers. Leaving the impression that credit related identity theft is the only type of identity theft is not ideal since less that 40% is credit related. There are five types of id theft. Most realists will agree there is no such thing a secret information. After all, did you never complete an information sheet at a doctor's or veteranarian's office or credit app at a car dealership? Consider their security? There is a solution provided by only one program on the market today.
If we can't prevent id theft, the best protection is immediate notification of a problem and an actual restoration service to repair the damage. I found the "Identity Theft Shield" by Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. combined with a family or business pre-paid legal plan to be the perfect solution. When (not if) we become an id theft victim we will need help to reverse the damage and protect from our increased risk of a secondary attack. You can review the details I found at http://plan-info.net and see for yourself. By combining daily monitoring, professional restoration service, legal defense, and unlimited legal consultations we can become empowered and don't need to worry.
If we can't prevent id theft, the best protection is immediate notification of a problem and an actual restoration service to repair the damage. I found the "Identity Theft Shield" by Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. combined with a family or business pre-paid legal plan to be the perfect solution. When (not if) we become an id theft victim we will need help to reverse the damage and protect from our increased risk of a secondary attack. You can review the details I found at http://plan-info.net and see for yourself. By combining daily monitoring, professional restoration service, legal defense, and unlimited legal consultations we can become empowered and don't need to worry.
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned temporary credit card numbers tied to a single merchant. I can't name all of the creditors who offer them, but I seem to recall that AMEX was among he first.
Discover also offers DeskShop. After I create a DeskShop number online and use it at one merchant, it will be rejected if anyone were to try using it at another. So, even an inside job by an employee of that merchant would only work if he/she used it for purchases from her/his employer - not a very smart move, but if they were smart, they wouldn't be a thief, so they get caught easily!
I like the way MBNA (now Bank of America) allows me to limit the risk even further. When I create a ShopSafe number online, I also decide how much of my credit line to load onto that number and when the number will expire, between 2 and 12 months out.
So, if I'm buying something for $59.95 and shipping + tax might add another $8 but I'm not likely to buy from that merchant again soon, I only load the ShopSafe number with $70 for two months. As with Discover's DeskShop, it's only good at one merchant. That gives a thief only 2 months to steal $2.05, and only if they use it at the same merchant where I did.
For merchants where I buy often or recurring charges such as utility bills, I use Discover's DeskShop since the expiration date is the same as the card to which the number is linked. The only problem occurs when a merchant tries to bill the charges using several different merchant accounts. That voids the number and you have to give them a new one.
I'd rather put up with that minor inconvenience and keep trying to educate the merchants, than deal with the massive inconvenience of having my cards run up by an identity thief.
Discover also offers DeskShop. After I create a DeskShop number online and use it at one merchant, it will be rejected if anyone were to try using it at another. So, even an inside job by an employee of that merchant would only work if he/she used it for purchases from her/his employer - not a very smart move, but if they were smart, they wouldn't be a thief, so they get caught easily!
I like the way MBNA (now Bank of America) allows me to limit the risk even further. When I create a ShopSafe number online, I also decide how much of my credit line to load onto that number and when the number will expire, between 2 and 12 months out.
So, if I'm buying something for $59.95 and shipping + tax might add another $8 but I'm not likely to buy from that merchant again soon, I only load the ShopSafe number with $70 for two months. As with Discover's DeskShop, it's only good at one merchant. That gives a thief only 2 months to steal $2.05, and only if they use it at the same merchant where I did.
For merchants where I buy often or recurring charges such as utility bills, I use Discover's DeskShop since the expiration date is the same as the card to which the number is linked. The only problem occurs when a merchant tries to bill the charges using several different merchant accounts. That voids the number and you have to give them a new one.
I'd rather put up with that minor inconvenience and keep trying to educate the merchants, than deal with the massive inconvenience of having my cards run up by an identity thief.
My bank's login page is not secure. I had to roust them to give me a secure login page. Unfortunately, this is common among banks (secure login page takes more resources to render than unsecure page).
http://www.mysecurepc.com/identity-theft-prevention.htm
is an amalgamation of tips.
Doug
http://www.mysecurepc.com/identity-theft-prevention.htm
is an amalgamation of tips.
Doug
they generally send the login info to the bank via ssl 'post' even tho page you login from doesn't have lock icon.
this is OK except that SSl performs another function: authenticates website, i.e. it performs a check that would be hard for a phisher, who had copied the website AND poisoned the DNS to show the correct website name even tho pointing to phisher site, would have trouble getting around if SSL was there.
so your login is probably encrypted, but it may not really be your bank. fairly unlikely now but could happen with a DNS at a company being poisoned even if the internet DNS was not, so logging to your bank from just your company could be going to wrong place if they had hacked the DNS.
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/Ou/?p=226
this is OK except that SSl performs another function: authenticates website, i.e. it performs a check that would be hard for a phisher, who had copied the website AND poisoned the DNS to show the correct website name even tho pointing to phisher site, would have trouble getting around if SSL was there.
so your login is probably encrypted, but it may not really be your bank. fairly unlikely now but could happen with a DNS at a company being poisoned even if the internet DNS was not, so logging to your bank from just your company could be going to wrong place if they had hacked the DNS.
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/Ou/?p=226
My CC got skimmed in Tokyo at Xmas time. Luckily, the skimmer used it to send stuff to a location in the Carribean!!! And in the middle of the night, too! So the CC flag came up instantly as "unusual activity". I got a call from Saison Visa asking what the items were for etc. Their reason was simple. The locations and timing were totally outside my usual card use pattern.
As I was in bed at the time of the skim plus they tried several times using a different expiration date, the scam didn't work. but if the cc company had NOT been on the ball, I would not have known for more than a month that it had taken place assuming I actually spotted the unusual transactions etc.
Saison then had to issue a new card with a different number. Why? Because the renewed card had the same number as the previous one making it almost impossible to know when the skimming took place and of course much easier for the skimmer to keep on using the card number. All they had to get right was the expiration date!!!
So never allow yr cc company to send you a new card using the previous number and never give the pin number to any shops etc. when buying items.
Always keep all the receipts in the house and never throw them away in the trash without really shredding. Best not to throw cc receipts away ever.
Is it a shock when it happens? Yes. Most of us don't carefully scrutinise our monthly cc statements which allows the perp. some more leeway to skim successfully.
As I was in bed at the time of the skim plus they tried several times using a different expiration date, the scam didn't work. but if the cc company had NOT been on the ball, I would not have known for more than a month that it had taken place assuming I actually spotted the unusual transactions etc.
Saison then had to issue a new card with a different number. Why? Because the renewed card had the same number as the previous one making it almost impossible to know when the skimming took place and of course much easier for the skimmer to keep on using the card number. All they had to get right was the expiration date!!!
So never allow yr cc company to send you a new card using the previous number and never give the pin number to any shops etc. when buying items.
Always keep all the receipts in the house and never throw them away in the trash without really shredding. Best not to throw cc receipts away ever.
Is it a shock when it happens? Yes. Most of us don't carefully scrutinise our monthly cc statements which allows the perp. some more leeway to skim successfully.
Great article, with one exception. The statement that there is no protection with a debit card is totally wrong. Both Visa® and Mastercard® debit cards have fraud protection that the card issuers (banks) have to comply with.
Visa, for example has a zero consumer liability for fraudulent purchases made on the Visa® network. If fraudulent purchases are made, the card issuer is liable for all of the charges made and the consumer has no loss.
Federal Reserve Regulation E also places a $50 maximum loss for fraudulent activity on all electronic transactions if the customer notifies the bank within 60 days after the charge first shows up on their statement. This, of course, includes debit card transactions.
Visa, for example has a zero consumer liability for fraudulent purchases made on the Visa® network. If fraudulent purchases are made, the card issuer is liable for all of the charges made and the consumer has no loss.
Federal Reserve Regulation E also places a $50 maximum loss for fraudulent activity on all electronic transactions if the customer notifies the bank within 60 days after the charge first shows up on their statement. This, of course, includes debit card transactions.
Hi friends,
One of the serious concerns is about identity fraud. In order to protect you i can show identity safety tips which can help you out..!
In order to protect yourself from identity fraud and name theft, you must carefully protect your personal records, and pursue online activities with caution. There are a number of things to prevent this.
One of the serious concerns is about identity fraud. In order to protect you i can show identity safety tips which can help you out..!
In order to protect yourself from identity fraud and name theft, you must carefully protect your personal records, and pursue online activities with caution. There are a number of things to prevent this.
This really big issue in our society, many peoples are suffered from it. I read somewhere about identity theft prevention and i would like to share with you this link. http://www.keepmyid.org/id-theft-protection-that-protects-your-tax-refund.html/
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