KSL TV reports that the Utah Attorney General’s Office will send out 100 letters to Utahns whose Social Security numbers may have been compromised. Utah authorities say they have a moral obligation to do so. Utah is the first state in the country to do so.

Approximately 20,000 Utahns have been identified by the Division of Workforce Services as possible victims. The attorney general’s office is sending out 100 letters this week, alerting people of the possibility of theft. They are only sending 100 letters so they will not be overwhelmed by calls from people who want help.

Chief Deputy of the Utah Attorney General’s Office, Kirk Torgensen, says identity theft is a major problem in Utah. Authorities say thieves are targeting both adults and children. By cross-checking databases, authorities have found that thousands of Utahns’ numbers are being used by multiple people to collect wages. They are starting to notify Utahns on public assistance whose children have a social security number collecting at least $1,000 last quarter.

According to law enforcement officials, identity thieves are targeting U.S. citizens with a jury duty scam. The Moorpark Acorn reports that these scammers call people at home, pretending to be U.S. court employees to advise individuals of their arrest warrant for failure to report to jury duty. When victims protest they have never received mail notification about the alleged jury duty, the scammers ask the victims to “verify” their Social Security numbers, birth dates and credit card numbers.

The jury duty scam has been reported in nine states with variations on the crime. Some residents are asked for birth dates and Social Security numbers to assemble a pool of jurors for selection in upcoming trials. In other states, scammers ask for home addresses and bank accounts allegedly for reimbursement purposes to directly deposit the jurors’ $40-a-day stipends.

According to the FBI, the judicial system does not contact people by telephone and ask for personal information such as your Social Security number, date of birth or credit card numbers.

MySpace users were getting their accounts hijacked left and right a couple of months ago. SecurityFocus.com reports that there is a reason for this. Starting in mid-March, the number of page views generated on phish sites increased five-fold, with almost all (95 per cent) targeting MySpace, according to a recent Google analysis.

According to Google, phishers used a modification to the style sheet of a user’s profile to place a transparent image over the page, causing a click on a link — or anywhere else on the page — to redirect the visitor to a fake MySpace login page.

In mid-April, MySpace changed their server side code to disable bad links in users’ profiles and the traffic to known phishing sites dropped down to its pre-March levels.

The Associated Press reports that, under the guise of Internet Revenue Service representatives, phishers are using fear to trick computer users into giving out their personal information. According to the IRS, a new phishing scam involves scammers sending e-mails that appear to come from its Criminal Investigation division. These emails falsely state that the recipient is under a criminal probe in an attempt get the recipient to click on a link or open an attachment. However, the e-mail link and attachment is a Trojan horse that can take over the computer hard drive and give someone remote access to the computer.

The IRS says it will never send out unsolicited e-mails or ask for detailed personal and financial information. Therefore, users are warned not to respond or open attachments.

According to KPTH, the American Red Cross has issued a scam alert, warning Americans that identity thieves are targeting military families of deployed troops. “It’s preying on those who are most vulnerable, people who are really giving of themselves to sacrifice possibly everything for our country,” says Tammy Lee, Executive Director of the Siouxland Red Cross.

Identity thieves pretending to be Red Cross workers have been calling the wives of deployed servicemen and telling them their husband has been hurt. They tell these wives that they need to provide personal information, such as Social Security numbers, before they can begin treatment on the men. The American Red Cross says there’s no way to tell how many have been targeted so far.

The Red Cross advises citizens that they would never call and ask for this information. A legitimate call would come from the military directly.