According to JournalStar.com, the Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles recently launched a new driver’s licensing system, which has led to 41 investigations into identity theft or fraud.

DMV director Beverly Neth says that the facial recognition system implemented when the system changed has been reviewing every picture in the DMV system every night, comparing former ID photos with ones taken since the system changed. Staff members are also now checking new pictures against old ones when new photos are being taken.

These changes have led to 41 investigations. “The technology we’ve installed is a powerful tool that can help combat fraud and identity theft in Nebraska,” Neth said.

For instance, the nightly system searching found one person who was using three different Social Security numbers, one belonging to a dead person. Another resulted in the DMV fraud unit contacting the person whose identity had been stolen, only to learn the identity thief had “racked up a $100,000 bill for unpaid taxes with the IRS,” Neth said.

The Associated Press reports that New York’s attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, is charging Tagged.com, a social networking site, with stealing the identities of more than 60 million Internet users around the world. He said he’s suing the company for deceptive marketing and invasion of privacy.

Cuomo alleged that Tagged acquired most of its users fraudulently, sending unsuspecting recipients e-mails that urged them to view private photos posted by friends. The message read: “(name of friend) sent you photos on Tagged.”

When recipients tried to access the photos, they become new members of the site — without ever seeing any photos. Recipients’ e-mail address books would then be stolen, said Cuomo.

The attorney general said a lawsuit would seek to stop Tagged from engaging in “fraudulent practices” and to seek fines.

According to Tampa Bay Online, the Postal Inspection Service (PIS) caught a postal worker stealing mail after 60 customers on her mail route complained of stolen and opened mail.

Amanda Turner failed a “test” set up by the PIS, in which investigators sent out a mailing that included an envelope with a Target gift card. Turner took the bait, and stole the gift card. She confessed to stealing the Target gift card and other gift cards, and was sentenced to three years of probation on a charge of theft of mail by a postal employee.

According to 10Connects.com, hackers stole a Facebook user’s online password and his identity. They changed his Facebook page to say he was in trouble and then asked his friends for money.

“One of the very best ways to steal online–is to impersonate someone else,” says Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
Rotenberg says call anyone who asks for money before sending it. And to keep from being a victim, there are a lot of things you should never post on your Facebook page.

“Social security number, credit card numbers, financial information, even very personal secrets. They don’t belong there,” he says.

For the second time in less than 18 months, Monster.com was breached, along with USAJobs.gov, which Monster’s parent company runs for the federal government.

According to the Associated Press, this calls attention to the fact that attacks against Web sites have become so common that Monster won’t necessarily scare customers away even though user IDs, passwords, e-mail addresses, names and phone numbers were compromised.

Security experts said Monster didn’t appear to be doing enough to secure its computers.