In a version of identity theft known as skimming, crooks have for several years now been placing small machines, or skimmers, in the card slots of ATMs in order to steal credit and debit card numbers from unsuspecting patrons. However, in a new twist, identity thieves are now also installing these machines at gas stations where you can pay at the pump. This practice has already been discovered in at least five states in the U.S.

You may think it would be easy to look at a card reader and see that it has been altered in some way before you insert your debit or credit card. However, most people aren’t expecting this to be the case and don’t look closely and the technology on some of the skimmers is so advanced that they are virtually undetectable. In fact, a skimmer may remain in place for months at a time, not even noticed by employees of the establishment.

Since you may not notice when you insert your card into a machine that has a skimmer, which is directly attached to the legitimate card reader, it could be months before you realize that an identity thief has stolen your card number, and sometimes even your PIN. Most victims only find out after the thief starts making illegitimate purchases or withdrawals from their accounts, often to the tune of thousands of dollars or more.

What can you do to protect yourself?
One thing you can do to avoid becoming a victim of skimming is not use any gas pumps or ATMs where the card reader looks iffy, like it may have been tampered with. However, as mentioned earlier, you will not be able to spot all skimming machines so easily
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Another thing you can do is avoid paying at the pump or using ATMs as much as possible. If you can, pay inside the gas station building and make deposits and withdraw cash at the counter or drive through window of your financial institution. If you deal with an actual person, you can be reassured that you’re not dealing with a remote identity thief.

Third, get a copy of your credit report from each of the three credit bureaus at least once a year. Also, always read your account statements and keep a close eye for any suspicious activity on your accounts, even something as benign as an “accidental” change of address.

And lastly, consider purchasing identity theft protection. That way you won’t have to guess, you will know that you are protected in the case that an identity thief does strike. There is no way to completely protect yourself from skimmers, so it is best to work to protect yourself from identity theft attacks by utilizing fraud alerts.

Many companies, such as TrustedID and LifeLock, even offer insurance or a guarantee to take care of a good deal of your expenses if you ever become a victim while under the care of their services. To find out more about these companies, and additional ones that may be right for you, please see our comparison chart on our homepage.

Lt. Bobby Sebby of the Las Vegas Police Department was quoted in the August 6, 2008, issue of USA Today as saying, “With identity theft, it’s not a matter of if you’re going to be a victim; it’s a matter of when.” Protect yourself from identity theft today.

Want identity thieves to get a chilly reception if they try to open credit accounts in your name? Then sign up for CreditLock from TrustedID, a service that allows you to freeze your credit. Freezing your credit is different from putting a fraud alert on your credit file. With a fraud alert, a creditor is asked to contact you before opening new credit via a note on your file but still has the authority to make the transaction by verifying your identity in another reasonable manner.

With a credit freeze, from TrustedID or the credit bureaus themselves, there is no way to get around it. The individual will not be able to open the account without your approval. It is absolutely and unequivocally required. In fact, you have to authorize it before the transaction takes place. The only way the creditor can even access your credit file, much less open credit in your name, is if you contact the credit bureau in question and give a preassigned personal identification number. In other words you have to temporarily lift the credit freeze also known as thawing your credit. Of course, removing the credit freeze permanently is another option.

Now this can be a good thing, but it can also be an inconvenience. Identity thieves are not allowed to access your credit, but neither are legitimate companies or even you. If you’re trying to apply for a car loan or credit card or even some jobs, you’ll have to ask the company which credit bureau they plan to check with and contact the credit bureau yourself. Sometimes it can take up to three days to have your credit “thawed.” If you apply for a lot of credit, the process of freezing and thawing can get expensive too, since you are charged a fee each time; on average $30 ($10/bureau) to set and $30 for thawing or refreezing.

If you don’t want to have to take care of all the heavy lifting yourself, consider an identity theft insurance plan that has a credit freezing option instead. For example, TrustedID offers CreditLock service, which has all the benefits of credit freezing, as an add-on to its individual or family package of services. Instead of having to contact the credit bureaus to freeze or thaw your file, you simply visit Trustedid.com or call them, and they will take care of the rest for you, including refreezing your credit once your transaction is complete. Then on top of enjoying the added ease as far as credit freezing goes, you get to take advantage of some of the other benefits that identity theft insurance can offer.

There are dozens of different companies and plans to protect your identity so you can easily find one that fits your needs. They offer services such as monitoring of your existing credit accounts for unusual activity, fraud alerts, regular access to your credit reports and one-step processes to help you if you lose your purse or wallet. Many also offer a considerable amount of financial assistance if you become victimized while under the care of the service. Insurance or guarantees vary up to $1 million for things like restoration expenses, lost wages and legal fees. Our chart compares the best identity protection companies so you will easily be able to see how TrustedID stacks up to the competition. Find out more about TrustedID identity theft protection service now and keep your credit squeaky clean, whether it’s warm or cold.

LifeLock and TransUnion have entered in to an agreement in which the process for placing fraud alerts by LifeLock will be automated. Previously LifeLock called the credit bureaus on behalf of their clients to set the fraud alert. This was a contention of Experian in their LifeLock lawsuit as they believed the spirit of the FACT Act passed by congress was only intended for consumers to place fraud alerts and not others on their behalf. The agreement puts to rest the legal issue concerning LifeLocks manual setting of fraud alerts and allows them do so more efficiently and accurately.

"Protecting consumers just became easier," said LifeLock CEO Todd Davis. "While we have been growing our company by providing a strong layer of defense against identity theft, we have been looking to develop a business solution with the credit bureaus that takes advantage of leading technology and provides our members with a process unchallenged in our industry."

Other identity theft protection services such as TrustedID and Debix already had agreements in place with one of the major credit bureaus and as such there services were not challenged by Experian who only sued LifeLock. Experian seems to have been shut out of any agreements with other companies for the placing of fraud alerts. It seems that they would have been much better off signing an agreement with LifeLock rather then launching a lawsuit against them. Experians resistance to the fraud alerts employed by LifeLock is likely due to the fact that LifeLock took a lot of business away from their credit monitoring services and prevents them from marketing pre-approved credit card offers and other opportunities to consumers. Credit Bureaus earn a large portion of their revenues by selling our private information to companies looking to market their products. It is unclear why some credit bureaus have embraced the automated technology used by identity protection companies preferring to sign deals with them rather then oppose them. TransUnion president of Consumer Services, Mark Marinko had this to say.

"We believe in empowering consumers through education and choice. This effort will help ensure that regardless of whether consumers choose to manage their own credit directly through the services TransUnion provides or authorize LifeLock to handle those kinds of responsibilities on their behalf, their requests and personal information will be handled in a highly efficient and secure manner."

The agreement between LifeLock and TransUnion is good for consumers because consumers want choices and apparently a lot of Americans prefer the protection of LifeLock as evidenced by the 1.3 million people who have enrolled in their identity protection service. Learn more about LifeLock and their services with our unbiased review and comparison chart.

You shred your credit card statements, guard you Social Security number and always put your outgoing mail in a locked box, all to protect yourself from the risk of identity theft. Unfortunately, in this day in age, no matter how hard you try to safeguard your information on your own, it will most likely not be enough. The number of identity theft victims increases every year.

This is because even if you keep your information safe when conducting your personal business, you have no control over the fact that your data can be compromised when it’s in the hands of a company, educational institution or other organization that you do business with. In fact, large-scale data breaches seem to happen on a weekly – or even daily—basis in recent months.

This is not just an illusion, the instances of identity thieves compromising corporate data really are on the rise. In fact, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit organization in the U.S., the number of breaches in the first six months of 2008 is over 69 percent higher than in the first six months of 2007. This trend continued over the third quarter.

Identity thieves get information from companies in a variety of ways, some of which are by stealing laptop computers or other electronic devices, by hacking into databases they should not have access to or by working alongside someone who is actually an employee of the company. (Believe it or not, this type of “inside job” made up 15.8 percent of the breaches in early 2008.) Stolen Laptops and lost or stolen data tapes add to the mix.

Plus, there are also passive ways in which an identity thief can come by the information, such as if an employee accidentally loses the information or posts it online or in an email to unauthorized users.
So, in other words, even if you are doing a near perfect job of protecting your personal information, there is no way for you to police everyone that you work with to make sure that they do the same, and oftentimes you will not be notified as soon as a breach occurs. So you may want to consider some additional help to protect your personal information from identity thieves.

This help could come in the form of identity theft protection, which is available from dozens of companies. With identity theft protection services, you can put further guards on your accounts to prevent identity thieves from accessing your accounts or opening new ones if your information becomes public due to a data breach. These companies take this risk very seriously. In fact, at least one company, Trusted ID, keeps a comprehensive list of these breaches on its Web site.

Others, such as LifeLock, offer a service guarantee to help with costs you incur if you become a victim of identity theft while using the service. Without this type of protection, recovery could cost you thousands of dollars and quite possibly a substantial amount more. Not only that but they also do the strong majority of work to recover your identity saving you your valuable time, often 200 - 600 hours over a frustrating two year period.

You can’t control everything in the world of data breaches, but you can choose to make the best effort possible to safeguard yourself in the event that your name and personal information does get out there. It is time to start learning about your identity theft protection options. Find what you feel is a good fit for you and your family then use that as your identity protection plan.

LifeLock, the leading providers of identity theft protection, announced they signed US Airways as a partner to promote their service as a benefit to their members. LifeLock CEO Todd Davis made the announcement. The strategic alliance offers US Airways Dividend Mile Members 1000 Dividend Miles and a 10% LifeLock discount to enroll in their identity protection service.

"Whether you spend a great deal of time traveling or staying at home, identity theft can be crippling," said Davis. "This partnership with US Airways shows the airline's commitment to ensuring that their customers' personal information is kept safe."

The strategic alliance offers US Airways Dividend Mile Members 1000 Dividend Miles and a 10% discount to enroll in LifeLock's identity theft protection service.

The safety and satisfaction of our customers is a top priority for our airline," said Fernand Fernandez, director, customer loyalty and marketing programs with US Airways. "As we continue to expand the benefits offered within our Dividend Miles Program, protecting our customers from the growing threat of identity theft is very important to us. LifeLock is a simple and effective preventative tool. Our Dividend Miles Members will appreciate this added security element."

LifeLock has continued its success in aligning with other companies who have loyalty and membership benefit services. They already have similar alliances with numerous AAA agencies. It is a win - win situation for both parties as LifeLock cements its position as the leading identity protection company and the companies they sign up provide a benefit to their customer that many will be interested in.

Identity Theft Labs also offers a LifeLock discount that includes membership at $99 per year, every year, plus the first 30 days free. This brings your first year membership price down to $90.75. You can also choose to enroll at $9 per month but this, of course, brings the yearly cost to $108 with the first year costing $109. Whatever you choose it is a great way to protect your identity.

A month after the initial discovery, former dental patients of the University of Florida College of Dentistry are just now being informed of unauthorized access to their information.
Over 330,000 former patients, some dating back to 1990, have been notified that their information, which includes names, address, birthdates and Social Security number, had been accessed by an outside source.

This was discovered by some IT technicians that were upgrading the school server. They found that there was software that had been installed by a remote user, and along with removing the files, they disconnected the server from the internet to avoid further access. The hacker had access to these files for quite some time, but there is no evidence at this time that any of the information has been used to commit identity theft. Obviously those affected will be at risk for a lng time and should take preventative measures to protect themselves from identity fraud.

Most have been notified, but the university was unable to contact over 8,000 previous patients whose information was at risk. The university has, however, set up a hotline for patients to call and request information about the data breach. This number is 866-783-5883. The FBI and University Police are working together to investigate this security breach.

Patients who had their private information compromised should consider utilizing an identity theft protection service.

With the influx of shopping that comes with the holiday season, there can be an influx in identity theft too. This is especially true in recent years, as shoppers have eschewed the crowds and decided to shop online instead. There are two ways that identity thieves can nab Internet shoppers if they’re not vigilant and careful with their information.

Spoofed versions of legitimate sites
Can’t remember the address for that site you shop at where you can purchase CDs for half of retail price? Well, how lucky are you that you just got an email from them! Now you can just click on the link in the email and start shopping. Not so fast. Are you sure that the link is legitimate? Is it asking for your username, password or other personal information? This is one of the trademarks identity thieves use when launching email phishing attacks. If you can’t remember the name of a site, it’s far better to plug it into a search engine than to rely on a link that is sent to you.

Fake shopping sites
Sad but true; there are actually shopping sites out there that are completely fabricated by identity thieves. Most advertise extraordinarily good prices on products such as electronics and pricey clothing and cosmetics items. You put the items in your cart, check out, enter your payment information and congratulate yourself on finding such a great bargain. Problem is, your merchandise never arrives, and probably never existed in the first place. Meanwhile, the thief has made off with not only your credit card number but also your name and address.

So how do you avoid this one? Only shop at sites that you know to be legitimate. But don’t get into the frame of mind that all sites that offer deep discounts are fake. There are plenty of good ones out there, such as half.com. If a site looks iffy, another way to tell is by looking for contact information. If the only way to contact the organization is through an online form or the phone number listed won’t connect you to a live person, it may be wise to stay away. Many smaller online retailers have “stores” through eBay, Yahoo or Amazon.com so you can still shop safely with protection from those sites’ guarantees.

More ways to protect yourself
Another thing you can do to protect your personal information when shopping online is contact your credit card company and ask about “temporary card numbers” to use for Internet shopping. That way even if the site is illegitimate, the identity thieves can’t use your information to rack up additional charges.

Additionally, you can consider an identity theft insurance policy. Though a policy won’t stop you from falling victim to scams directly, if it is bundled with a credit monitoring service it will help you find out that you’ve been victimized before thieves have had a chance to do much damage to your credit.

Due to this year’s tough economic climate, it could be worse than ever for consumers, with new thieves coming out of the woodwork and existing ones becoming more active. Don’t forget the gifts altogether. Just remember to shop with care. If you want to stop these crooks before they have a chance to ruin your credit then consider an identity theft protection service for your protection.

Happy Thanksgiving to all and happy shopping.

In another attempt to thwart ever-present identity thieves, the Federal Trade Commission put a new set of guidelines in place that lenders, banks and credit unions must follow as of November 1 of this year. These guidelines are known as the “Red Flag” requirements. The hope is that these rules will help financial institutions be more proactive in identity theft prevention and reactive in a quicker and more streamlined fashion when the need arises. The FTC has now extended the Red Flag rules by 6 months.

According to Red Flag requirements, each organization must have a written policy that describes what it sees as risk factors that could lead to identity theft on an account, or show that identity theft has already occurred and the account is compromised. These could include an unusual influx of large purchases, a suspicious change or address or atypical account applications. After identifying these “red flags” the institution must also have a procedure in place for how to deal with them and a policy for updating the program if any prove to be ineffective.

All of this procedure will be going on behind the scenes, so you may wonder what any of it has to do with you. The way this will affect the consumer in many cases is via the introduction of more stringent identity standards in regards to account information. For example, you may have to show two forms of identity to open your account, have additional verification steps required to sign up for online banking than before or be asked more personally identifying questions when trying to make transactions by phone. This may be in an attempt to mitigate risk factors or prevent them from occurring in the first place.

Another change you might notice is holds on your credit card when identity theft flags are raised. Yes, this can be frustrating, but just remember, it’s for your own protection. I know this is little solace when you’re standing at the cashier line trying to buy that $15,000 Jet Ski you’ve always wanted, but it’s better that you’re inconvenienced for the day than that an identity thief uses your card to buy not only the Jet Ski but yachts for 10 of his or her closest friends.

Don’t try to get around these new regulations. It’s expected that identity thieves will so there will be systems in place to stop you. It’s just one more thing we have to accept since the risk is always out there. If, in contrast, you’d like to protect yourself further, there are some things that you can do. First of all, you can use passwords that are difficult to guess, even when you’re not required to. Secondly, you can shred important documents instead of simply throwing them in the trash can or recycle bin. And lastly, you can look into signing up for an identity theft protection plan. This insurance can protect you and your family even if your financial institution drops the ball. Even with the new Red Flag regulations, they will not be infallible by any means.

Lifelock continues to use its market leading identity protection services to partner with AAA memberships. Yesterday they announced a partnership with AAA Tidewater Virginia bringing their total AAA partnerships to over one dozen. AAA members can now enroll in the LifeLock service at a discounted rate from LifeLocks regular price of $110 per year or $10 per month.

"Identity theft can strike anyone, anywhere, and we think it is important to offer our members and employees protection," said Joni Girardin, Director of Financial Services for AAA Tidewater Virginia. "We admire LifeLock's commitment to educating the public on this growing threat, and are excited to partner with a company that offers its members premier services. LifeLock will give AAA families in Tidewater Virginia the tools they need to protect their identities and good names."

A LifeLock press release noted that identity theft has become the number one crime in America ahead of drug trafficking and cited the U.S. Department of Justice as the source. Of particular note for Virginia residents is that credit card fraud is responsible for 26% of all identity theft cases in the State. LifeLock, like some other identity protection companies, places and renews fraud alerts to protect its members from new account fraud. They also remove consumers from junk mail lists which not only saves our trees but also puts and end to all those pre-approved credit offers that identity thieves like to steal.

LifeLocks other services include WalletLock which works to cancel and replace your ID if it is lost or stolen, eRecon which scans illegal black market internet sites to ensure your private information is not being sold illegally and TrueAddress which notifies you if a change of address has been filed. LifeLock backs their service with a $1 million total service guarantee.

Click here to learn more about LifeLock.

Researchers at RSA's FraudAction Research Lab discovered one of the largest stolen data caches ever. Over the last 30 months a trojan virus, known as Sinowal, Torpig and Mebroot by various anti-virus companies, has stolen 270,000 online banking account credentials and 240,000 credit and debit account numbers. The virus is so sophisticated that it changes constantly to avoid detection by anti-virus programs, in fact, a test of the most recent virus showed that only 10 out of 35 security applications were able to detect it.

Sinowal works by hiding in the Master Boot Record of computers waiting till its victims visit one of 2700 bank and e-commerce sites where it displays new fields in to the existing website to capture personal and private information such as Social Security numbers, account numbers and passwords.

At this point it is not apparent who is behind the attacks but there is some interesting, if not revealing, evidence that suggests the Russian Mafia may be behind this crime.

Sinowal was tied to the Russian Business Network in its early days. The Russian Business Network was a hosting company in St. Petersburg, Russia that was disbanded last year after media pressure due to thier cyber-crime friendly policies and clients. With 500,000 stolen identities and accounts from at least 27 countries it is interesting that none were from Russia. Additionally, one of the Sinowal web servers also contained a spoof of the U.S. Marshals Web Site with bogus wanted posters for famous Russian people such as Mikhail Gorbachev, Leonid Brezhnev, Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Lenin and Vladimir Putin. What's more interesting is that these names were also the user names for gang members that logged in to this illegal web server.

Is all this proof? No, but that will be difficult to obtain. It does lead to a high level of suspicion though. Identity Theft Labs has stated previously that we fully expect large criminal organizations to become involved in identity theft, if they haven't already, because it is profitable and low risk. The Russian Mafia has already taken their operations in the U.S. in to other non-traditional income streams such as insurance fraud and personal injury lawsuits. Can identity theft really be far behind or have they already entered this criminal market? It may not be proven but the odds say that they have already hatched their master plan.

Identity theft is a horrible crime and has altered the lives of many ordinary citizens. Please take the time now to educate yourself about identity fraud and then share your knowledge with others. Please explore our site, read some identity theft protection reviews and learn how to protect yourself today.