Wired News reports that, in a unique study on which companies have the most identity theft incidents, Bank of America, HSBC, and Washington Mutual were called out as the companies with the most incidents per billions of dollars of deposits, according to Measuring Identity Theft at Top Banks (Version 1.0), a study by Berkeley Law School fellow Chris Hoofnagle.

Among the major banks, ING Bank appears to be the safest, with only 0.085 identity theft complaints per billion dollars of insured deposits. In terms of sheer numbers of complaints, Bank of America, AT&T and Sprint were named most often in the complaints, followed closely by Chase, Capital One and Citibank.

Hoofnagle, who started as a privacy and consumer rights advocate at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, says he did the study because he wants people to be able to choose companies based on identity theft statistics.

According to ABC News, the Federal Trade Commission and United States Postal Service have joined forces to educate the public against identity theft.

While only 2 % of the nation’s population reported that identity theft happened to them through the mail, local post offices are trying to lower that percentage to zero.

Postmaster Mel Hill says that the national postal service is sending a warning letter to U.S. residents, warning them of the dangers of identity theft. “During March 2-8, we are having national consumer protection week,” he says. “It’s just to educate the public and consumers against fraudulent mail scams.”

The former director of the Aztec Health and Wellness Center in New Mexico has been charged with stealing an employee’s identity and charging more than $12,000 in business and personal credit expenses, according to the Daily Times. Tara Ritter, 34, was arrested and charged with identity theft and credit card fraud, both felonies.

Authorities say Ritter opened a Chase Visa account using a part-time employee’s personal information in December 2006. The name on the account was Aztec Health and Wellness Center, and the address was Ritter’s own. She allegedly gathered the victim’s personal information from payroll records.

The low-cost medical center had financial problems and closed in May 2007. Ritter was director for three of its seven years.
The victim wasn’t aware of the identity theft until she was contacted by a collection agency this month.

Security firm McAfee reported a phishing attack which targets the victims of last year’s massive HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) data breach. In November of last year, the British government admitted that two discs had gone missing containing the personal records of 25 million child benefit recipients.

McAfee discovered a phishing attack that offers the email recipient the opportunity to claim a refund of £215 from HMRC – but clicking the link takes the user to a phishing site. The attack doesn’t seem to use any of the information held on the discs, however, and is merely taking advantage of the news coverage surrounding the breach and playing to people’s fears, said Toralv Dirro, security expert in McAfee’s Avert Labs.

The suspicious site has since been removed.

Greg Day, McAfee security analyst, says that this attack was standard in that it offered free and easy money as bait. “This phishing attack has echoes of traditional get rich quick scams, preying on the desire to be compensated for the government losing their data, but people must learn that there really is no such thing as free money,” Day said.

The new Ziszor! makes it easy to shred your financial papers, unwanted/sensitive mail, and other paperwork with personal information. This hand-held paper shredder is 10 inches long, and less than one-and-a-half pounds.

Best of all, it’s easy to use. Just insert any folded paper (up to 5 sheets) into the Ziszors!’s slot, press the trigger button and completely shredded pieces drop into the convenient, disposable plastic catch-bag.

It is important to routinely shred your financial papers, sensitive mail, and other paperwork with personal information. Surprising to many, identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the United States and frequently involves a victim’s mail.