2:53 pm
Protect yourself from identity theft by shredding daily
By Michael Berg
Modern criminals may be stealing personal information electronically through sophisticated online data mining tools, but small-time crooks sorting through food wrappers and dirty diapers in the quest for discarded paperwork ’still lurk.
In fact, not shredding potentially sensitive documents before you dispose of them is almost like begging to become one of the Federal Trade Commission’s estimated 9 million victims of identity theft in the United States every year. And with adequate shredders available for as low as $50, there’s almost no excuse — every household should have one.
John Sileo can attest to this firsthand. The identity protection expert and professional speaker had his identity stolen twice, and in one of those instances, a shredder could have made all the difference. “Shortly after buying a house, I put some mortgage documents out in the trash, and didn’t think twice about it,” he says. Later “a woman used my identity to buy herself a home. Eventually, she declared bankruptcy as me.”
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John Sileo became one of America’s leading Social Networking Speakers & sought after Identity Theft Experts after he lost his business and more than $300,000 to identity theft and data breach. His clients include the Department of Defense, Pfizer and the FDIC. To learn more about having him speak at your next meeting or conference, contact him by email or on 800.258.8076.
4:28 pm
Why pay for Health Insurance when you can steal it?
As the economy dropped severely in 2009, the instances of Identity Theft continued to rise. With desperate times and individuals struggling, Medical Identity Theft and Health Insurance Fraud reports by emergency rooms have been higher than normal over the past several months. According to Javelin Strategy and Research, in 2009 Medical Record Theft had the longest length of time, 493 days, between the theft and detection by the insured. This also led to the highest fraud amount of $18,480 and the largest mean consumer cost of $2987. That means the average consumer that suffers from Medical Identity Theft pays almost $3000 of his own money to resolve the theft! This shows how the financial repercussions of Medical Identity Fraud are the largest among Identity Fraud types.
There are more than just financial risks to Health Insurance Fraud. If your name is linked with another person’s medical records, their blood type, medical history and medications are recorded on your chart. Inaccurate information can lead to ER and hospital mix ups with health complications that could prove deadly.
9:09 am
Here’s a statistic that’ll get your attention! 285 million records were compromised in 2008 according to a new data breach study from Verizon Business. The report claims that organized crime is responsible for a large increase in the number of breached corporate electronic records.
The report of industries affected by data breach shows that Financial Services was the major gainer in 2008. That industry doubled its percentage of data breach to 30% while Retail is still the most affected industry (barely) at 31%. The shift to data breach in Financial Services will affect all of us more drastically.
According to the study, which Verizon Business compiled using data from the 90 confirmed corporate network breaches it recorded last year, roughly 93% of all records breached came from the financial sector. The company also says that nine out of every 10 of these breaches involved “groups identified by law enforcement as engaged in organized crime.” Verizon says that the 285 million electronic records breached last year were more than the total number of records breached in the past four years combined. The reason for the sharp increase is that attacks on financial firms’ networks have become more sophisticated and successful, the company says. Although only 17% of the attacks studied by Verizon constituted “highly sophisticated” data breaches, these attacks were responsible for 95% of all records breached. Verizon says that cybercriminals are targeting financial service companies’ networks to get customers’ personal identification number (PIN) information in order to withdraw cash directly from their accounts. Cybercriminals are also selling PIN information on the black market, the company says. Read the full report on data breach. (Scroll down when you see “285″). Technorati Profile
8:34 am
Are you one of the 200,000,000+ Americans (almost 66% of the US population) who had their identity stolen from TJ Maxx, Marshalls, BJ’s Wholesale Club, OfficeMax, Boston Market, Barnes & Noble, Sports Authority, Forever 21 or DSW?
If so, you need to know that 11 people, including a Secret Service informant,
