Some things are irrational to fear, such as monsters under the bed or your inlaws coming for a visit. But some things that we fear are perfectly reasonable, like the Internal Revenue Service and identity thieves. In fact, a study taken by Unisys, an information technology consulting service, asserts that more Americans fear having their information stolen online than getting mugged or robbed in person.

Perhaps the reason for this is twofold. First of all, when you submit your information online you like to think that it is safe. Knowing that someone can hack in and find it can make a person feel vulnerable. The second big problem with this type of identity theft is that it can occur without your knowing about it. At least if someone steals your wallet you know that you need to cancel all the credit cards it contains. In the case of online identity theft, you may not even know that a criminal has your accessed your information for months, or even years, after they get their hands on it.

Another study taken in February says that right now only about 25% of identity theft is conducted online, but identity theft is continually growing due to the still prominent recession and the high unemployment rate.

More interesting information coming out of the October survey is that:
*Americans between the ages of 35 and 65 are the most concerned about the security of e-commerce, which is reasonable considering this group has the most disposable income and assets.
*Over 50% of Americans are willing to use biometrics, such as retinal scans and fingerprint scans, to identify themselves.
*Approximately 65% of Americans are “extremely concerned” or “very concerned” about identity theft.

You would think that this number would be higher considering that over 10 million Americans were victimized by identity thieves last year. Perhaps the other 35% have identity theft protection plans in place. These plans are designed not only to protect your personal information but to preserve your peace of mind.

It’s easy to feel safe when you know you are protected, and your credit will remain intact. And it’s good to know that many plans have insurance policies in place just in case something does happen. You can find out more about the plans that are available directly through this website and even sign up for some of them at a discounted rate.

It’s important to discuss your identity theft protection plan options with your family before you choose one. That’s because some are individual plans and some will protect all of your immediate family members for one low price.

While fear is healthy in some situations, feeling secure is almost always preferable. An identity theft protection plan can make this possible. Unfortunately there’s not much that can be done about the Internal Revenue Service.

Facebook profiles are up for sale. In fact, a hacker known as Kirllos recently offered to sell 1.5 million of them for a hefty fee. Turns out the hacker didn’t actually have information on quite that many accounts, but he did start selling at least 1,000 accounts, priced by the number of connections. The powers that be at Facebook were able to identify the thief, but only after he sold a few thousand profiles. However, since he is located in Russia, it’s unlikely he will be punished for his crime.

Facebook has since announced increased security to help prevent this from happening again. For example, its software will let users know, either via an email or a text message, if their account is accessed from an unknown device. It will also check for concurrent log-ins and ask the user security questions if it notices them. This can help to prevent a fraudulent user from accessing the account from another computer while the legitimate user is online.

Even with all of these new security measures in place, the best way to protect your Facebook account is still just to use a little bit of common sense. What that means is that you should use a very secure password; one that a thief isn’t likely to guess and that is not likely to be guessed by automated software that runs lists of letters and numbers. To make a secure password, use a combination of letters, numbers and special characters that are in no way related to you or to your life. Don’t use your birth date, the name of the college you attended, your hometown or anything like that – despite the fact that those things are easy to remember.

And, while you’re thinking about it, don’t forget to leave personal details off of your wall, such as where you are, where you’re going for the evening, what your birthday is and who you are in a relationship with. If you don’t, you risk someone finding out these details, no matter how much you try to lock down your security settings. That way, even if someone unauthorized to is able to access your account, they won’t really have very much to work with. Also, don’t make your Facebook password the same as the password of any of your other accounts, particularly not your financial accounts.

The best way to share personal details with another individual is always in person – and in a low voice if you are in a public place as identity theft can start anywhere. To learn about the best identity protection companies and what they can do to protect your identity just follow the link to our easy to read comparison chart.

Consumers may soon have a stronger voice when it comes to data breaches. The Senate Judiciary Committee recently approved two bills: the Data Breach Notification Act and the Personal Data Privacy and Security Act, which, if they become law, will require businesses whose data has been compromised to inform all affected consumers of the breach – and in a timely fashion.

Currently, the majority of states have their own data breach laws in effect, but it can be difficult to enforce conflicting standards, especially when a data breach impacts residents of several different states. Also, there is no specific nationwide standard as to what type of breach event warrants consumer notification. For example, do you have to notify a person if his or her address is leaked, or only if it is something more serious, like a Social Security number?

As it stands right now, many companies do not report data breaches that occur, especially if they are smaller ones, such as an employee stealing a 20 patient list from a doctor’s office. This may not seem like a big deal – unless you happen to be one of those 20 patients.

If the Data Breach Notification Act makes it through Congress, the government will have to draft rules regarding privacy when it uses personal information it garners from outside sources. Also, large corporations will have to report significant data breaches to the Secret Service. Finally, any organization that uses personal data would have to report a breach to both the affected persons and law enforcement.

Many people do not know that data brokers, which are companies whose major role is to collect personal information, actually possess their information. If the Personal Data Privacy and Security Act passes, consumers will not only have access to this data; they will be able to make changes to it to correct any errors. People who steal this data will face increased criminal penalties, which will hopefully help to discourage potential identity thieves.

There is no guarantee that either of these laws will make it to the President’s desk, although it is hoped that they do. Even if both pass, this doesn’t mean identity thieves will cease to operate. If anything, they simply highlight the seriousness of the crime, which is not even beginning to wane. According to Javelin Research, one in 10 Americans has already been victimized.

It is still just as important to protect yourself from identity thieves and not rely on the government to do it for you. One easy way is to purchase the best identity theft protection service from a highly rated source. While there is no 100% foolproof way to prevent yourself from becoming a victim, a plan can certainly lower your odds. Since this issue is serious, as evidenced by current political activity, and it’s not going away anytime soon, the time to set yourself up with a plan is now – before this crime happens to you or a loved one.

Senior citizens are a lucrative market for identity thieves for three good reasons. First, they are likely to own their homes outright since they have often been paying on their mortgages for quite some time. Secondly, they have had credit for a while, which can boost their scores. Lastly, they may have a lot of money saved up to use during their retirement, making their bank accounts especially promising.

And, since many seniors are home during the day, thieves seize this opportunity to hit them with fraudulent phone calls. In these calls the identity thieves pretend to be representing a company that does legitimate business with seniors. Often, this company is Medicare, the government health insurance provider.

During the calls, thieves tell seniors that they need to replace their Medicare cards because they have expired and ask for bank account information to help them get new ones. One key trigger here is that Medicare cards don’t expire. However, there are many people that have no idea this is the case. The criminals also try to convince the people they call of who they are by offering up the senior’s address or birth date, which they can easily find out through the phone book or public records.

Once a thief has a bank account number and the name associated with it, it’s not too hard for him or her to find out additional information needed to commit more elaborate fraud, such as creating new accounts in the unsuspecting senior’s name. Sometimes the victims don’t find out what’s happened for months because they fail to regularly check their credit reports and do not use a credit monitoring service.

To avoid becoming a victim of this type of scam, every senior needs to know how to recognize a vishing attack, which is a phishing attack perpetrated by phone. They should be skeptical of anyone that calls and asks them to verify personal information, no matter where they say they are calling from. Even if the President of the United States calls, they should say they do not give out such information by phone.

Then, they can call back the organization that supposedly called (in this case, the White House) at a proven, legitimate phone number and ask if the person that called is a real representative and if there is really a problem. Most times, they will get a no. Every once in a while they will get a yes, which is when they should tell the person they’re speaking with that it is not wise to conduct business in this manner since they are only helping identity thieves get away with their practices by confusing consumers.

Almost always, there is a more secure way to remit sensitive information, whether it be the company’s website, certified mail, or best of all, in person. It would be very trite and irresponsible for a person to suspend someone’s account because he or she refuses to give out personal information over the phone. With nearly 10 million Americans falling victim to identity theft each year, it is almost certain that the person who calls would understand. If not, cite the statistic and hang up.

For an added level of security and the peace of mind that identity theft insurance or a service guarantee can provide simply go to our homepage and find the best identity theft protection for you and your family today.

When you picture an identity thief in your head you may imagine a masked man lurking in a corner or staring over people’s shoulders at the ATM. However, it is doubtful you will think of a 31 year old woman working in a nursing home as a big threat. Unfortunately, that is part of the reason that identity thieves are so successful. They prey on people in ways, and in places, that they would not expect them to.

For example, Jean Wright was victimized inside a nursing home by her own occupational therapist. When Wright stayed in the home for a brief period of a few weeks while recovering from knee surgery she befriended Danielle McClain who helped her with her rehabilitation. During the time she was helping Wright, McClain also happened to take a gander at her driver’s license information, and her close conversations with Wright allowed her to figure out just enough information to be able to guess her account passwords.

By the time Wright left the home, McClain had already applied for several loans naming Wright as the cosigner. Luckily, Wright got a call from American Express thanking her for opening a new account – an account she had no idea existed. This prompted her to check her credit report and find out about several additional accounts Wright had opened in her name.

There are two lessons that we can learn from this unfortunate incident. First of all, be careful who you share the personal details of your life with. It can be hard to tell who is genuinely being friendly and who has darker intentions. This doesn’t mean you can’t get to know new people. Just be very careful what you share until you are 110% sure that you can trust them.

The second lesson is to monitor your credit report. While Wright got lucky by receiving the telephone call, she would have had a much different story to tell if she hadn’t. The thief could have opened literally dozens of accounts without her even suspecting a thing.

One idea that would have worked for her was an identity protection service. Instead of getting a serendipitous phone call, she would have been expecting one at the first sign that accounts were opened without her consent. And she wouldn’t have had to frantically check her credit report. Her protection plan would have been checking it for her the whole time.

It’s unfortunate that we live in a day and age where millions of Americans have their personal information stolen each year. It’s a good thing that we also live in the age of identity theft protection or we would be in real trouble. Be thankful that there are so many plans out there that you can take advantage of, since you never know when you could run into a potential identity thief. If it’s not at a hospital or nursing home, it could be at the gas station, in the library or even at a family reunion. There is nowhere that is immune to the threat.

Oh, how great. There’s a site you can use to make the phone number on someone’s caller ID appear as anything you want when you call. It’s essential for stalking ex-boyfriends or girlfriends or seeing if someone’s cheating on you. And you know what else it can help you do? Get lots of fraudulent credit cards!

Perhaps this was not the original intent the creators of SpoofCard had in mind, but the product is said to have assisted identity thieves in stealing more than $15 million and victimizing 6,000 people.

In this scam, identity thieves ordered credit cards in other people’s names and had them sent out to their real addresses so they appeared to be legitimate. Then the thieves intercepted the cards, and, thanks to SpoofCard, were able to both disguise their voices when talking to card service agents and activate the cards automatically from the “valid home phone numbers.”

You can most likely guess what happened next. The thieves used the cards to the hilt; then tossed them aside and signed up for some brand new cards. This went on for at least two years, and was a very large scale operation. Thirty-five people were arrested as suspects in the New York City area. This was only after a lengthy investigation where cops listened in on at least a million telephone calls. It is still unclear how exactly the thieves were able to get so many credit cards.

While you may think that this is quite an amazing feat, you can also guess what happened to a lot of those people with the credit cards in their names. Yep. Their credit ratings went right down the toilet. Even when the credit card company eventually eats the charges due to its no liability policy, if it doesn’t know the charges are fake right away, it will report that person to collections. So you know that that happened to a good number of them over the course of two years.

Hopefully some of these unfortunate victims had identity theft protection. If such a plan was monitoring their credit, they would be notified if a new credit card was going to be issued in their name before it happened or very soon afterwards. They could then notify their provider that they did not request such a change and get that application canceled before the thief could do any damage.

Although the credit card companies’ fraud policies may give you a sense of security, the ultimate responsibility for identity protection lies on your shoulders. Even if SpoofCard goes away, identity thieves will find a new tool to help them continue their illegal ways. The best defense against identity theft has been and always will continue to be smart consumers. As long as there are easy victims, thieves will find their business to be lucrative. The more hassles we can make for them, the better off it will be for us in the long run.

If you’re wondering why in recent months in order to log into your bank account you can no longer simply enter your password, it’s because of a relatively recent development known as multifactor authentication.

The reasoning behind it is that even if you have a password that is easy for identity thieves to guess, especially those that know you or know of you, it’s much harder for them to figure out your password, your favorite color and your childhood nickname as well. Adding a random photo or a tagline, that only you will know, further adds to the mix making it even more difficult.

This multifactor authentication process also works to prevent account holders from becoming victims of phishing emails, since if the site you’re sent to by clicking on a link in your email doesn’t have this added security you know that it is not the legit site for the institution. And basically, the more hoops you have to jump through to get into your account, the easier it is for you to tell that a hoop-free site is not legitimate. (No, they did not decide to give you a one-time streamlined break because they knew you were in a hurry. Do not fall for it.)

There’s not much you can do about these added steps besides just dealing with them. Sometimes you have to give up some convenience for security. (Just ask anyone who’s been stuck hopping around in their socks in the airport.) The best way to come to terms with the added red tape is to realize how much more inconvenient it would be if organizations didn’t take these precautions and left their members vulnerable to identity theft. It’s basically a gift to the thieves when you make your password something simple, like your house number or your birth date. There is not much guesswork required and oh so much to be gained. For you it will be the opposite effect of course.

Expect security to get even stronger as identity thieves continue to ramp up their efforts. The smarter and more savvy they get, the more consumers – and the institutions they use – will continue to have to follow suit. It’s like that old adage, if you can’t beat them join them. You always have to stay one step ahead or you will end up with thieves walking all over you, and your good credit standing. To protect your credit and identity compare the leading identity theft companies on our website and read our reviews to find the right service for you.

Here’s more proof that identity theft is still a big topic in the news. LifeLock recently made its second appearance in prime time TV, on an episode of the Celebrity Apprentice. Its first appearance occurred last year on the same show. On this year’s episode, the contestants were tasked with promoting a bundled product that includes both a year of LifeLock service and Norton 360, a computer security product.

Janice Chaffin of Norton told CNN Money, “Working with a reality show … is a great way to educate consumers. Todd Davis, the CEO of LifeLock added, “This episode is the perfect outlet to demonstrate to viewers how to protect their good name.” It’s hoped that viewers were able to pick up some tips to help protect themselves in the future.

The reason it’s so important is that there are still 10 million victims of identity theft each year in this country – even though people are better educated than in the past. Part of the reason is because thieves are getting more sophisticated, but part of it is that a lot of individuals, and we’re talking 100’s of thousands, are still pretty careless with their personal information.

While they may not write all of their sensitive details on a card and hand them directly to a thief, they aren’t shredding sensitive mail, keeping watch on their laptops or locking them when they’re not using them or being careful what websites they visit. If they were, things would not be so easy for identity thieves, and they may have to find themselves legitimate employment.

Even if you know all of the tips and tricks you can use to protect your information, there may be one thing you haven’t thought about before or maybe many and there are certainly things you can’t do that LifeLock identity theft protection can. While LifeLock is consistently rated as one of the best available, there are literally dozens more, with varying degrees of protection for their clients. We only include the best identity protection options at Identity Theft Labs so you can rest assured regardless of who you choose.

You can find out more about LifeLock and Norton software on their respective websites. You can purchase the product featured on the show at your local Best Buy electronics store. If you happened to miss the episode, you can check it out online at nbc.com. If it’s not available yet, it should be in the next few days. There is no charge to view it, but your machine will have to be compatible with a video and sound player.

Keep in mind that the Norton bundle is LifeLock’s Basic Service. If you want better protection you can read our review on LifeLock Command Center. It is simply the best protection on the market right now.

Once again, it’s a census year in the United States. Since the task of counting all of the citizens of this great country of ours takes almost literally all year long, it’s likely a census taker will be visiting your home soon – especially if you don’t return a census form you receive by postal mail. While it’s likely said worker will be legitimate, you need to be aware of the potential that this person could be an identity thief. Even the U.S. Census Bureau is advising people to use a little street smarts.

The Better Business Bureau, which is a large consumer watchdog group, offers the following pointers if someone pays you a visit:


1. Check to see that the census taker has an official badge. The person should also be carrying a confidentiality notice. You are more than welcome to ask to see these objects. If you’re not convinced that the person is a census employee, excuse yourself and call your Census Regional Office. You can find it at http://2010.census.gov/. This person should not request to come into your home.


2. Pay attention to what the person asks. He or she should only inquire about such thing as your name, your address, the number of people that live at the residence and possibly their ages. He or she may ask for a salary range to determine household income level, but not any more specific financial information. The person does not need your Social Security number or any banking contact numbers or account number. If you’re asked to give any of these details, excuse yourself immediately and call the police.

3. Do not respond to any census inquiries you receive by email. Workers are not instructed to contact you in this manner. Most likely, you will be contacted in person or through the postal mail. In rare circumstances, you will be contacted over the phone. If you’re not comfortable supplying information over the phone, simply tell the caller this and you can make other arrangements.



The bottom line is that the purpose of the census is to find out about the people that live in all areas of the country in order to provide adequate funding for public services and proper government representation. It is not any kind of marketing scheme or charitable program. If you see it presented in this manner, it’s likely you’re being contacted by someone who is not really with the Census Bureau.



If you’re speaking with someone that really is with the bureau, or you receive contact in the mail, it’s important to be cooperative and supply the information asked of you. Just make sure it is legitimate before you do so so you don’t give out more than you bargained for. Identity theft protection should always be first and foremost on your mind.

Now that 2009 has come and gone and people’s thoughts are turning to April, and not just to the beginning of the spring but to the income tax season. While everyone has some work cut out for them as far as figuring out all those brackets and deductions, your job will be 1000% harder if you’re a victim of Social Security number identity theft.

So how do you find out if you’ve been targeted with this crime? Usually your notification will come via a letter from the Internal Revenue Service. Many victims get letters after they file their taxes saying that (a) they have filed twice or (b) they neglected to file for all of their income from a certain employer (often one they’re completely unfamiliar with).

This can happen to you if someone else has assumed your number and filed his or her own tax return, either in order to take advantage of a refund or because they’re not legally eligible for employment and need to appear legitimate. Of course, there is also the possibility that you did make a mistake on your taxes, so be sure to pursue that option first.

If you determine that you have dotted all your i’s and crossed all your t’s correctly, it’s time to report the issue to the IRS. There should be instructions enclosed in the letter you receive, but if you feel there is not enough attention being made to your case, you can also call the IRS Identity Protection Specialized Unit at 1-800-908-4490. It’s important to work to resolve the incident as soon as possible to avoid accruing penalties on the sum that you supposedly owe due to the fraud.

Luckily, this situation only happens to a very small number of American taxpayers. It’s just another example of why it is so important to keep an eye on your Social Security number. Often thieves can get their hands on it by stealing your wallet with your Social Security card contained inside, looking through your garbage or the garbage at your employer or putting up fake websites and conning you into entering the information.

Some of the best ways to prevent this from happening to you are to keep your Social Security card at home, preferably in a locked safe; shred all important documents before discarding them and make sure your employer does the same; and never entering your Social Security number on a website unless you arrive at the address by typing it in yourself and are positive that the connection is secure. (If you have any caveats, don’t enter the number. There will be another way to provide it to the organization in question.)

If you think that a thief has his or her hands on your Social Security number, even if you haven’t had a problem with the IRS yet, contact the Social Security Administration as soon as possible and report the crime to the Federal Trade Commission and to local law enforcement. To help yourself even more, consider one of the best identity theft protection services. Then you have an identity protection company looking out for you and your livelihood.