We’re seeing more pay-at-the-pump skimming scams in the U.S. and Europe, and local police are now asking civilians for help in finding tampered terminals or signs of illegal skimming devices.

While grassroots efforts are great, most experts would agree that more anti-skimming effort is needed.
“Feet [and eyes] on the ground is a temporary solution,” says identity theft expert Robert Siciliano. “But it’s not what’s needed to prevent skimming. If the banks or station owners just employed their own [staff] to pay attention, volunteers wouldn’t be needed.”

The bottom line is that self-service gas pumps need more built-in security, and banks need more fraud-tracking. But until that happens, it’s important to be aware. Before you swipe your card through any device, such as an ATM or gas pump, look to see if there’s an extra device attached to the machine. If something doesn’t look right, don’t use it.

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Comedian Bennett Arron dedicated his career to laughter but he wasn’t laughing when he was hit by identity theft. CIO Australia tells his story, which started in the 1990s with a postcard sent out by a home shopping firm to his old address. Soon, he was in debt to mobile phone companies, catalogue firms and department stores.

Arron became aware of the problem when he applied for a mortgage on a house in London only to receive a letter from their bank saying he had too much debt to qualify. “I knew it wasn’t me so I contacted my bank and they said `we can’t give you any more information’,” Arron said. After discovering that someone using his name had set up two accounts with a mobile phone company, an account with Harrods department store and then racked up the debt, he passed the information on to the police. “Police didn’t know about identity theft at the time,” he said. “I couldn’t open a bank account [because of the debt]. We couldn’t get the mortgage so the house was sold to someone else.

Arron spent countless hours trying to resolve the issue. Finally, he tracked down the mobile phone provider that sold phone service in his name to an imposter. “I got a copy of the [mobile phone] contract but it didn’t give me any more information until I saw the address, which turned out to be my previous address,” he said. “My landlord rented it out to a Nigerian guy who stayed for six months, paid one month’s rent and trashed the place.”

The identity thief had received a retail postcard with Arron’s name and address. “Believe it or not, the home shopping company sent this post card out for people to buy goods with,” he said. “He had ticked yes to buy something and an order form arrived.”
The thief used that account as proof of identification to set up two phone accounts and a credit card account.
Arron was frustrated that police and the retailers that gave out credit in his name were of little help. He decided to help raise awareness of identity theft, and made a television documentary on identity theft. On the show, he stole the identity of former home secretary ,Charles Clark.

How did he steal Clark’s identity? 1. He applied online for Clark’s birth certificate. 2. He used the birt certificate to get a driver’s license in Clark’s name (with Arron’s picture).

Ironically, he wrote to the police and other authorities, telling them what he had done and never got a response. Eventually he was arrested for obtaining a drivers’ license in the name of Clark by the police. He says it was worth it because the laws surrounding driver’s licenses have changed. You now need more than just a birth certificate to get a driver’s license. However, he worries that credit card issuers aren’t being as careful as they should be.

“I think the companies need to stop making it so easy for people to set up accounts,” he said. “They don’t realize the impact that identity fraud can have.”

Check out Arron’s story in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bgs27e6KLRo

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It seems identity thieves will stop at nothing to steal identities. However, while most cases don’t involve physical harm, identity theft may have been the main motive for the murder of a Florida mail carrier.

Bruce Parton, a mail carrier, was shot to death in December, was killed over a master key he carried that thieves wanted to “use for tax fraud,” according to the Sun Sentinel.

Saubnet Politasse, 23, and Pikerson Mentor, 29, were arrested in connection with the killing, used the key “to open up apartment mailboxes for the purpose of stealing mail and engaging in identity theft,” said authorities. Police found a postal key in Politasse’s car along with a Green Dot card, which is commonly used to receive fraudulent IRS refunds.

The two men allegedly used the key to remove mail from boxes at an apartment complex.

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Identity theft is one of the fastest-growing and costly crimes in the United States today. It’s now just as important to secure assets like credit reports, medical records, and credit card accounts as it is to protect your bank accounts.

To help Americans fight identity theft and protect their credit, financial expert Suze Orman partnered with TrustedID to offer Suze Orman’s Identity Protector, the most complete, proactive, and cost-effective identity theft solution on the market today.

“The costs associated with identity theft are disheartening, especially when many Americans struggle already to make ends meet in today’s economy,” says Suze Orman. “Protecting your identity has become essential to successfully protecting your money, and I’ve partnered with TrustedID to offer the most comprehensive preventative protection possible.”

Suze Orman’s Identity Protector combines complete 3-bureau credit monitoring services, instant online access to your credit reports, and proactive identity theft protection. For more information on the Identity Protector, visit: https://www.trustedid.com/suzeidprotector/

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A new poll from PEMCO Insurance reveals that young people, despite being perceived as more technically savvy, are less thoughtful about privacy and more vulnerable to the threat of identity theft than older people.

The survey shows that senior citizens are more likely to take steps to secure their personal identities, such as installing security software on their personal computers, using a shredder, retaining financial records, and registering with the national “do not call” registry.

The survey reveals:
• 84 percent of respondents who are 55 and older have registered with the privacy-protecting “do not call” service offered by the U.S. government, while a third less – only 55 percent – of those age 35 and younger opted to join the registry.
• 88 percent of older respondents have installed a firewall or spyware on their personal computers while only 78 percent of young people report the same behavior.
• 86 percent of the older generation say they regularly use a shredder to destroy sensitive documents compared to 74 percent of younger residents.

The poll also reveals that all residents can do more to reduce the threat of ID theft from stolen mail. Only about one-third of respondents have taken steps to lock their mailbox or opt out of direct mail.

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Over the last decade, identity theft investigators have uncovered thousands of websites and chat rooms dedicated to selling stolen credit card information, Social Security numbers, account log-ins, passwords, and more. Some sellers have complete identity packages, which include a person’s name, address, Social Security number, financial information, and more. Others sell bits and pieces of stolen identities, which can be used to gather additional information or combined with other pieces to form new, fake identities.

The underground black market for identity theft is thriving, as scammers continuously find new ways to steal information and sell it online quickly before they get caught. The online market has become a lot like eBay, allowing buyers and sellers to rate each other, leave feedback, and advertise.

Most victims of the identity theft black market don’t find out their identities have been sold until they see suspicious activity on their credit reports or bank statements. However, there’s a better way to protect yourself….and it’s free.

Sign up for IDSafe, TrustedID’s new, free credit and identity theft protection service. One of its core features is an online black market monitoring service that monitors your Social Security number and credit cards, for any suspicious activity. It uses web crawling technology to troll known black market sites for the use of any of these account numbers. If it finds any of your numbers are being bought or sold, you’ll be alerted immediately.

Pretty cool, huh? Visit https://www.TrustedID.com/IDSafe for more info on IDSafe. It’s the only free product of its kind on the market today, so be sure to take advantage and sign up!

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Are you a fan of our identity theft protection products? Do you appreciate our efforts to keep you updated on the latest identity theft news and scams? If so, we hope you’ll declare your love to the world and “Like” us on Facebook! What’s in it for you? We’re glad you asked! Daily posts, tips, and product updated delivered right to your news feed, information about contests and events, and an opportunity to engage in our conversations. Just click the “Like” button on our Facebook page and you’ll be in the know!

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With identity thieves constantly coming up with new ways to steal vital information, even the most careful of us are at risk. Even if you never divulge your Social Security number to anyone, never click on a suspicious email attachment, and shred everything with your name on it, data breaches, new scams, and computer viruses can still put you in danger. What to do?

Sign up for TrustedID’s new, free IDSafe service. If you become a victim of identity theft, it won’t be the end of the world, because this service helps you understand the damage and puts their restoration specialists to work. One of the many basic features of this service is restoration assistance, which means our experts will answer your questions, help you alert all affected creditors, the FTC, and the Social Security Administration, and give you advice on preventing damage.

Did we mention this service is free? Why, you ask? Because we hate identity theft. We’re making sure every American has core protection against this heinous crime with IDSafe, so there’s no excuse not to protect yourself.

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It just got easier to fight the bad guys. Sign up for IDSafe,™ our new, free service that gives you core credit monitoring and identity theft protection.

This is the first-ever consumer credit and identity theft protection service of its kind, and we’re proud to be the ones who are providing it. Basically, IDSafe protects your vital data from falling into the wrong hands, offering a basic level of our award-winning services. Here’s what you get:
• $50,000 service warranty
• Free credit score updated monthly
• Free annual credit report from each of the three national credit bureaus
• Facebook social networking privacy risk monitoring
• Continuous monitoring of known online black market venues where identity thieves buy and sell consumers’ personal information
• Lost Wallet Protection service
• Identity Restoration Assistance
• Fraud Alert reminder service

IDSafe users also get full access to the IDSafe Marketplace, which showcases the best, free privacy and security services from our partners whose offerings complement TrustedID’s protection. For example, in the Marketplace, you can pick up:
• five gigabits of online data storage from SugarSync,
• online privacy scan and personal data removal services from Reputation.com,
• parental control tools from SafetyWeb,
• PC scanning services from IdentityFinder; and
• cloud-based anti-malware protection from by Immunet.

In the Marketplace, no subscription or purchase is required! You’ll also find TrustedID’s full menu of services, should you decide to upgrade to comprehensive protection.

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New York Times columnist Ron Lieber blasted Sony in an article today. Not for the data breach that left the personal data of 77 million customers vulnerable to hackers, but for the way they handled it.

Sony offered victims a free one-year subscription to a surveillance service that searches for evidence that they may have become victims of identity theft and alerts them if anything turns up. However, the company failed to offer a security freeze.

“A surveillance service is reactive,” wrote Lieber. “By the time you get an alert from one, thieves may have already done a lot of damage. A security freeze, also known as a credit freeze, is proactive.”

Read more about why Lieber thinks Sony should pay for a credit freeze and his recommendation for TrustedID’s Credit Lock.

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