Today we have two random identity theft protection tips for you on pickpocketing and smishing, yes smishing.
1. Smishing People are always coming up with clever names to give to types of identity theft. First there was phishing, then there was vishing and now there is the newest incarnation: smishing. Smishing stands for phishing via SMS, or short message service, which you probably refer to as text messaging. With this scam, potential victims get a text message that instructs them to dial a toll-free phone number to solve a mishap with their financial institution. A lot of people will follow this instruction out of legitimate worry, and some will do the same simply out of curiosity.
When they do dial the number, they will find that it’s answered by a voice response system that instructs them to type in account information. After they type in the information, the thief’s system records the keystrokes.
An excellent way to improve one’s level of security intelligence is to follow the writings of Robert X. Cringley, one of my favorite technology know-it-alls.
Anyway, Cringley’s credit card was recently hacked. And if his card can be hacked, anyone’s can. Like many cardholders, Cringley received a notification from his credit card company’s fraud depar
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Sony estimates the massive data breach affecting 100 million PlayStation Network, Qriocity, and Sony Online Entertainment customers have cost $171 million so far. However, lawsuits and regulatory fines could push that figure much higher.
The money has been spent on providing identity theft protection to affected customers, costs from welcome back programs that offer services for free, customer support costs, network security enhancement costs, legal and consulting costs, as well as lost revenue, Sony said.
Sony stressed that it has not received “any confirmed reports of customer identity theft issues, nor any confirmed misuse of credit cards” from the data breaches.
The company acknowledged that class action lawsuits have been filed against the company and some of its subsidiaries and regulatory inquiries have been initiated. These could significantly increase the costs from the data breaches.
Q: This will be my first time getting a credit card. I’ll be making small purchases with this card and paying them off in full each month, so as to build credit so that I can eventually rent my own apartment, etc. What credit card would be appropriate for my situation?
A: First off, I want tomend you on your interest in building good credit. A healthy, positive credit history will help you with everything from getting a cell phone plan or renting an apartment to obtaining a mortgage.
Based on your question, it sounds like you don’t have much of a credit history. If this is because you’re still in school, I would suggest looking at a student credit card. These cards are targeted towards students who want to begin establishing their credit history. Typically they are sensitive to student situations, and don’t charge an annual fee.
Reed College’s entire website was recently copied and replicated, but with the fictitious name “University of Redwood.” The Wall Street Journal
Ok, we usually don’t write blog posts on identity theft crimes as we like to hold ourselves to a higher standard and provide great content and quite frankly that would have us posting multiple times every day and would just make the important content hard to find. This one, however, caught our eye and just goes to show you that identity thieves don’t care at all about the victim of their crimes.
Normally, when you think of individuals who an identity thief might target, it’s unlikely for your first guess would be a centenarian. It’s a little difficult to pass for someone that age, and the real person’s photograph may show up on Al Roker’s televised birth announcements on the morning news. If they do decide to target someone of a certain age, they should probably not choose Josephine McBride, the oldest graduate from Norfolk, Virginia’s citizen police academy.
The accused identity thief is Mark Hillard, who allegedly forged checks, used them to make purchases at local retail stores and then returned the items that he purchased for cash on a later date and at different establishments.