According to the Associated Press, a 27-year-old man described as one of the world’s biggest spammers was arrested Wednesday, and federal authorities said computer users across the Web could notice a decrease in the amount of junk e-mail they receive.

Robert Alan Soloway is accused of using networks of compromised “zombie” computers to send out millions of spam e-mails. A federal grand jury issued a 35-count indictment against Soloway charging him with mail fraud, wire fraud, e-mail fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering. He has pleaded not guilty.

“He’s one of the top 10 spammers in the world,” said Tim Cranton, a Microsoft Corp. lawyer who is senior director of the company’s Worldwide Internet Safety Programs. “He’s a huge problem for our customers. This is a very good day.”

In Forbes Magazine, Frank W. Abagnale Jr. discusses the problem of identity theft and the importance of protecting yourself before it happens. He says that, 40 years ago, few people could have predicted that identity theft would become as big an epidemic as it is today. People did not consider shredding documents and bringing their mail to the post office instead of leaving it in their mailboxes.

According to Abagnale, the problem is that we are a reactive society. We wait until a problem surfaces before doing anything about it. He writes: “If you haven’t been a victim of identity theft, it is likely just because thieves haven’t gotten to you yet. If things fail to change, your turn will come. Prevention is not simply a matter of following a checklist of tips–it is about education. This is the primary factor in protecting ourselves.”

Checks are a major area of concern, in Abagnale’s opinion, as checks hold all of the information needed to steal your identity: name, address, bank account, routing number. If written with a ball-point pen, information can be stolen through a process called check washing, a common form of identity theft. Check washers take a check or document that has already been filled out, remove the ink with a regular household chemical, then re-write in a new dollar amount and recipient. “If you are careless, your personal check could contribute to the 1.2 million fraudulent checks written every day,” says Abagnale. “That’s more than 13 per second.”

Abagnale knows first-hand how easy it is to perform check fraud. About 40 years ago, he cashed $2.5 million in fraudulent checks in every state and 26 foreign countries over a five-year period. The hit movie “Catch Me If You Can” was based on his life story. However, he says it is just as easy to protect yourself as it is for identity thieves to rip you off.
Here are Abagnale’s top tips:
1. Don’t leave mail in your mailbox overnight or over the weekend.
2. When writing checks and filling out important documents, use a gel pen, like the Uni-Ball 207, so thieves can’t remove the ink and change the information.
3. Shred or tear up unwanted documents that contain personal information before discarding them.

According to the Columbus Dispatch, the Ohio House of Representatives voted in favor of a bill that would allow consumers to freeze their credit information. More than 30 other states have implemented similar laws that prevent credit-reporting agencies from releasing personal or credit information without consent. The bill also would allow consumers to either thaw the freeze or permanently remove it for a $5 fee.

“It’s a proactive approach to stop identity theft,” said Rep. Timothy DeGeeter, D-Parma, who sponsored the bill with Rep. Jimmy Stewart, R-Athens. “What makes this bill different? The best defense is a good offense.”

The legislation, which would take effect in 2009, now moves to the Senate, which is also reviewing a broader identity theft bill by Sen. Tom Niehaus, R-New Richmond.

According to the report released this week by the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG), a consortium of software companies, payments networks, and law-enforcement agencies, the number of unique phishing attacks crept up 5% in March from February, to 24,853. Digital Transactions reports that a record high was recorded in January, when attacks nearly reached 30,000.

The population of sites hosting malicious code used to sniff out passwords, which had reached a record 3,121 in February, fell by more than half, to 1,486, the lowest number seen in more than a year. The number of unique applications of this code also fell, to 260 from 289 in February and 345 in March.

The APWG says that the number of hosting sites rose to 20,871, but still remains below the levels seen last year. While this is god news, the group cautions that it is the result of a “tactical change” by a group of fraudsters who recently began using multiple URLs tied to the same domain name in an effort to thwart anti-phishing filters. The APWG says that the number of brands targeted by phishing fraudsters soared in March, to 166, the second-highest monthly total the group has recorded. “APWG researchers continue to record elevated numbers of brands subject to phishing attacks, indicating the lower number of phishing URLs does not mean that the phishing problem is diminishing,” the group says in its report.

According to the Boston Globe, lawmakers across the nation have passed bills that would require credit-reporting agencies to offer to lock down, or “freeze,” consumer credit files to minimize harm from identity theft. However, industry experts say that consumers in states that allow freezes are not taking advantage of them.

A credit freeze prevents companies from providing a consumer’s credit report for transactions without approval. Since 2003, most states have laws that make freezes available. According to the Consumer Data Industry Association, a trade group in Washington that represents credit reporting companies, so far only about 50,000 people have requested freezes.

“Relative to the potential population, that’s not a big number,” said Stuart K. Pratt, president of the association, whose members include the three consumer-reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.

Pratt cited two possible reasons for the low usage rate: 1. people may not know of their new rights to freeze their credit reports; 2. people might prefer to avoid using a freeze and to keep their credit reports easily accessible when they apply for new credit cards, car loans or other products.

It is likely that most consumers seeking freezes have contacted all three credit bureaus but it may be that a few did not, in which case the total number of freeze requests could be tens of thousands of people higher.