ID theft: Here's a one-stop source on scams, breaches
Posted
Feb 28 2008, 11:31 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
This post comes from partner blog The Dough Roller.
Identity theft is scary. A friend of mine several years ago had his voter registration revoked because the Commonwealth of Virginia thought he was a convicted felon.
It turns out that a former roommate of his was the convict, but had given the police my friend's name and Social Security number. It took The Washington Post running a full-page article to get Virginia to correct its mistake.
So I was very interested to learn of a resource that lists current scams and security breaches in which Social Security numbers and other highly confidential information may have been stolen. The site is run by a nonprofit organization called the Identify Theft Resource Center.
Scam alerts
ITRC provides a list of current scams on its scam warning page. Here is an example of a scam listed on the ITRC site:
"BofA Customers Targeted -- 9/3/07
"An e-mail with the heading 'Security Update Alert' and Bank of America's logo is being sent out to consumers. It then states that BofA is putting in new security measures and asks you to fill in your information at a given Web site. This is a scam. This letter and Web site are not connected to Bank of America. Bank of America never asks for their customers to reveal information via e-mail. If you receive this e-mail do not respond. Report it to BofA's fraud department."
Breach list
The most interesting aspect of the site, however, is the breach list. This page provides links to ITRC's reports on security breaches that may have resulted in the loss of personal data. You will find links to reports for 2006, 2007 and 2008. The report for 2008 is already 35 pages long and lists 110 security breaches with the potential loss of more than 2 million records. The 2007 report is 137 pages long and lists 448 breaches that may have exposed more than 127 million records.
And many of those breaches come from government databases or well-known companies like Wendy's and SAIC. It's definitely an eye-opener and worth reading if you've got the bandwidth to download the reports.
Reader question: Have you ever had your identity stolen, and if so, how did it happen and what did you do to resolve the situation?
Other articles of interest at The Dough Roller:
"My virtual library"
"1,000 ideas for remodeling your kitchen"
"The 1% solution to real estate investing"
