Financial institutions and creditors have until June 1 to implement the Red Flag Rule.

According to the Jacksonville Business Journal, the Federal Trade Commission requires certain industries to implement a program to detect, prevent and mitigate instances of identity theft. A program must be in place by June 1 to provide for the identification, detection, response to patterns, practices or specific activities known as “red flags” that might indicate identity theft.

A Florida woman allegedly used a stolen identity to buy bigger breasts and thinner arms. The Sun Sentinel reports that Shatarka Nuby was charged with credit-card fraud after the U.S. Postal Service says she committed fraud to buy $9,000 of cosmetic surgery. An accomplice posed as Nuby’s cousin and paid for her surgery using a stolen identity.

The victim’s identity was likely stolen after she dropped a college application — containing many personal details — in a mailbox outside the Tamarac Post Office. The school never received the application. Soon after, the victim discovered five credit cards had been opened in her name and $19,550 in charges racked up.

One of the cards was used at Pinnella Cosmetic Surgery in Fort Lauderdale. Investigators found that the charges were for Nuby replacing her existing breast implants with larger ones and liposuction on her arms.

A federal count of credit-card fraud could carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.

Information Week reports that more than half of social network users post private information online, exposing themselves to malware and identity theft.

A new study by Consumer Reports reveals that two-thirds of online households in the United States use Facebook or MySpace — almost double the number in 2009 — and 40% posted their full date of birth.

About one-quarter of Facebook users with children posted their kids’ names and pictures, which could expose them to predators. Seven percent of those polled include their home address. This, coupled with users’ frequent postings of vacation or travel plans.
Almost one-tenth of respondents had experienced problems such as malware, identity theft, harassment or scams as a result of their participation in a social network.

ConsumerAffairs.com reports that digital photocopiers that retain copied information on a hard drive could pose a threat to your identity, if the copied information includes your personal data.

Hard drives have become routine for the midsize to large photocopiers found in many small and large businesses, especially those built since 2005, and all images scanned on the machines are stored in the hard drive, including documents with personal data such as medical history, Social Security numbers and bank account numbers.

Many of these photocopiers are often connected to an office network and businesses that are accessible to many people. This provides hackers with many opportunities to gain access to the network and steal stored data.

Many businesses fail to consider their copiers when putting a security system in place, putting customers at risk.Businesses should consider purchasing software that scrubs the disk or removes all the data from hard drives. They can also put a password on the copier that cannot be easily guessed, such as a numerical password similar to a PIN. The copier would then require the password to gain access to the stored data.

Even identity thieves need a little help to run a successful operation. According to Blogger News, the FBI recently posted the top jobs in computer crime. Here are the jobs criminals are hiring for:

1. Programmers: They write the actual viruses that end up on your PC.
2. Carders: They distribute and sell stolen data to whoever is willing to take it and burn it onto a white card or make purchases online.
3. IT professionals: Any computer professionals who maintain all the hardware to keep the operation running.
4. Criminal hackers: They’re penetration testers who aren’t legitimate penn testers but black hat hackers. They look for vulnerabilities in networks and plant code to exploit the users.
5. Social engineers: The scammers eho think up all the different scams and communicate with people via phishing emails.
6. Hosted systems providers: The businesses that provide servers for the bad guy to do his dirty work.
7. Cashiers: Provide bank accounts where criminals can hide money.
8. Money mules: Often unsuspecting Americans who act as shipping managers and do the dirty work for the bad guy and open bank accounts too.
9. Tellers: Help transfer and launder money through digital currency’s such as e-gold.
10. Bosses: They run the show, bring together talent, manage, delegate, tell people what to do and maybe cut a head or two off.