Phished?

It is getting to the point that before you open an e-mail with an attachment, link or request for information you should contact the person who supposedly sent you the message to verify the information actually came from them.

Hackers are developing better ways of disguising their phishing attacks on businesses and innocent people throughout the United States.

Recent headlines like “Online Phishing Attack Exposes Yahoo Accounts,” “Phishing Attack Uses BBB Name,” “Phishing Schemes Targets Area Credit Union,” and “French President Falls for Phishing Scam” illustrate hackers are getting more aggressive and creative in the way the attack.

However, there are more pointed phishing attacks on the rise that personalize the message. For example, phishing attacks today can look like a friendly e-mail from a friend simply asking you to take a look at a video. When you click on the video a pop up asks you to download the latest version of the video. When you click on to download the updated version melicous malware is downloaded on your computer.

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www.rmgrabowski@mainstaycomm.net

Rosemarie Grabowski
308 687 6085

online banking? How dangerous is it?

Sure, the Web makes it simple to manage your money. It also makes your account easier to hack into. Here's a look at the risks and realities -- as well as 9 smart tips that can help you protect yourself.

Joe Lopez will never forget the day he checked his Bank of America account online and realized that more than $90,000 had vanished.



Months before, the Miami business owner had stopped making weekly visits to his local branch, opting instead to conduct his financial transactions entirely over the Internet.



"I absolutely thought it was safe," Lopez said. "And it was convenient."



What he didn't realize were the risks. A malicious virus had infected his computer and, in a matter of minutes, captured his user name and password -- allowing a hacker to transfer $90,348 to a rogue overseas account.



Lopez got most of his money back months later, after a federal investigation and, eventually, a lawsuit. But his experience taught him the hard way, he says, what many experts have concluded: "Online banking is a danger."



Since its debut just a decade ago, online banking has become one of the fastest-growing Internet activities. Roughly 43% of people who use the Internet, or about 63 million Americans, do some banking there, according to a 2006 survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project -- even more than make travel reservations online.



But that growing popularity has also brought increasing anxiety over whether something as private and personal as a bank account can be fully protected in the relatively unregulated and unpoliced world of the Internet.



"It's pretty hard not to do online banking because it is so convenient, and people want convenience," said Atul Prakash, a University of Michigan researcher who conducted a study on the risks of Internet banking. "Nevertheless, there are reasons to worry."



Mia Jozwick, a student at Wagner College in New York City, was duped by a "phishing" e-mail made to look like a message from her bank. Thinking it was an important financial notification, Jozwick responded by firing off her user name and password; she learned it was a scam only after someone emptied her account.



To make matters worse: Thieves were also able to steal her identity, because her password was her Social Security number. It took her a year and help from Identity Theft 911, a service agency, to unravel the mess she found herself in.



"It was a nightmare," she said.

By Carolyn Salazar, MSN Money Published Jan. 28, 2009

Medical identity theft is the nation's fastest-growing form of health care fraud.

Picking our pockets surgically. The thieves going after medical identification numbers don't want someone's medical problems, of course, but there is gold in having data that permit insurance rip-offs and the filing of fake claims.

Securing medical identity is very difficult, according to health care experts, because unlike financial identity theft, there is no straightforward process for challenging false medical claims or correcting inaccurate medical records.

The experts say that there are several forms of medical identity theft, but most involve record theft by people working for health care facilities who then sell the information to organized-crime groups and others that fraudulently bill insurance companies.

Elaborate fraud rings using complicated schemes to maximize the use of stolen medical identity numbers have apparently become more commonplace.

Is this crazy or what? It is bad enough that the public feels insecure about finding a safe haven for their investments these days, but now we all have to worry about some sleazy character stealing our medical identity.

ALERT YOUR CLIENTS

According to the World Privacy Forum, a public interest research group in Cardiff by the Sea, Calif., as many as 500,000 consumers had been victims of medical identity theft as of mid-2006, the latest figures that it has compiled.

As a trusted financial advisory professional, you need to make your clients aware of these scams, which can cost victims thousands of dollars in unpaid charges, a damaged credit history and, even worse, dangerous false details cluttering up medical records for years to come.

You can assist them by urging that they take a more active role in preventing health care fraud by carefully reading and reviewing their medical and insurance documents.

According to the latest statistics from the Federal Trade Commission, 3% of all identity theft victims in 2005 were victims of medical identity theft, which translates into about 250,000 people.

It is easy to see why the problem is growing: Medical identity theft is a profitable business.
A WPF study found that while a stolen Social Security number brings about one buck on the street, a stolen medical identity number fetches about $50. (Come to think of it, this could be a new opportunity for Bernie Madoff now that the Ponzi scheme business has fallen on tough times.)

Identity theft in the health care world adds a layer of complexity because a thief can tap a person's medical information to get care or make false claims, potentially altering the course of the victims' future treatments if he or she doesn't catch and reverse the damage, according to health care experts.

For example, a thief could have a different blood type or drug allergies, and a doctor, nurse or health care facility may not detect the mixed patient files before administering treatment based on the impostor's medical history, not the victim's history.
What's more, victims may find that they hit their insurance caps, or become uninsurable or unemployable, based on medical problems that are someone else's.

TIME-CONSUMING

Spend some time with your clients now to alert them to this vicious scam. They will thank you for it.

Meanwhile, if any of your clients have questions about medical identity theft, direct them to worldprivacyforum.org.

A recent health care study found that 82% of medical identity theft victims discovered the problem only after they had been contacted by a collection agency or noticed money missing from their health accounts.

Fixing the mess can take a substantial amount of time. The study found that victims reported spending an average of 116 hours repairing damage to stolen health accounts.

In cases where accounts were created, the average correction time was 158 hours.

http://www.investmentnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090222/REG/302229989/1008

Rosemarie Grabowski
PC Security & Identity
Theft Protection
308 687 6085

Murky Chatrooms Peddled . . .

Stolen IDs Thieves Put Millions Up For Bid Online Each Year

(CBS) Someone's identity is stolen every three seconds in the United States.

Crooks are making billions buying and selling identities, and most consumers have no idea their information is out there, up for sale.

In the underground world of identity theft, credit card, bank account and Social Security numbers are being bought and sold by thieves around the globe, reported Early Show Consumer Correspondent Susan Koeppen Monday in the first of a three-part series, "Early on the Case: Stolen Identities."

"(Through) the selling of (personal) information en masse, they can make millions of dollars in one transaction, in terms of who they go after. Really everybody is exposed," Tom Rusin, CEO of Affinion Group, told Koeppen. Affinion helps safeguard consumers' identities.

More than 8 million Americans fall victim to identity theft each year, and many don't know their information is being offered on the Internet in chatrooms run by criminals.

A credit card number alone could be worth about $1.50, Rusin says. A name, address and social security number? Probably between $10 and $12.

Affinion's Dan Clement took Koeppen inside several chatrooms.

"I can't believe this is going on," Koeppen remarked. "The average consumer has no idea that people are sitting at computers and doing this sort of thing."

"No," Clement replied. "It's like the commodities market. It's just a different commodity. It's not real commodities, it's people's personal information."

In one, he pointed to identity thieves, security companies like Affinion, and law enforcement. "Everybody in there is kind of a fly on the wall, watching to see what these guys (the thieves) are doing," Clement explained.

Pointing to one entry, Clement said full login info for a Wachovia account with $11,000 in it was up for grabs. The account, he said, was sure to be liquidated, without its owner having a clue it was happening.

Koeppen says they "found entire personal profiles for sale, including names, addresses, phone numbers, credit card information, Social Security numbers, even mothers' maiden names.

One such profile belonged to Kellie Griffin, a working mom from Shreveport, La., who was shocked when Koeppen clued her in."

My jaw dropped when you told me why you were calling," Griffin told Koeppen.

Griffin says she spends hours a day working on her computer, but she has no idea how someone got so much of her information."It's amazing!"


Griffin exclaimed.Griffin says she thought she'd been doing everything right to protect herself, and now she wonders, "What else do they have? Do they know what I look like? Do they have a copy of my driver's license? I don't know what else they have, and I don't know what they've done with it."

In one of the chatrooms, Clement and Koeppen pretended to be a thief pitching two cards.

Within five minutes, the cards began getting some bites from would-be purchasers "checking it out. They're trying to see what the balance is on the card," Clement said.And within 10 minutes, the balance on both cards was nearly depleted."

It's like throwing tuna to the sharks," Clement said.

Koeppen and Clement even struck up a conversation with a scammer who had credit cards for sale.

"Shadow Girl" was trying to sell them credit cards for $6. But Clement "negotiated" and go her to offer four cards for $16.

To protect yourself, Koeppen says you could:

• Monitor your credit reports.
• Shred documents.
• Change your password and user name frequently.
• Hire a service that monitors your information.

These chatrooms are usually overseas, Koeppen says, "so it's hard for law enforcement in the U.S. to crack down and shut them down. And these are sophisticated crooks. You shut one down, the pop up somewhere else."

Rosemarie Grabowski

PC Security & IdentityTheft Protection

308 687 6085

http://www.topsecretfreereport.com/makeadifference-z
http://www.amisafeidentitytheft.blogspot.com/
http://www.mypcsafefreefromspyware.blogspot.com/
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/17/earlyshow/contributors/susankoeppen/printable4608870.shtml

FBI/National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) Release

Annual Report on Internet Crime

The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), today released the 2008 Annual Report on the number of Internet crime complaints received.

A total of 275,284 complaints were received in 2008—up from 206,884 (33 percent) over 2007. Total dollar loss reported in 2008 was $265 million—up from $239 million in 2007. The average individual loss was $931. The chart below shows the number of complaints received and dollar loss totals for the past five years:

YEAR

COMPLAINTS RECEIVED

• DOLLAR LOSS 2008 $275,284 $265 million
  2007 206,884 $239.09 million
  2006 207,492 $198.44 million
  2005 231,493 $183.12 million
  2004 207,449 $68.14 million
  

The report details information related to the volume and scope of complaints, complainant and perpetrator characteristics, geographical data, most frequently reported scams, and results of IC3 referrals.

FBI Cyber Division Assistant Director Shawn Henry said, “This report illustrates that sophisticated computer fraud schemes continue to flourish as financial data migrates to the Internet. It also underscores the need for continued vigilance on the part of law enforcement, businesses, and the home computer user to be aware of these schemes and employ sound security procedures.”

The report is posted in its entirety on the IC3 website.

About IC3The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C). IC3's mission is to serve as a vehicle to receive, develop, and refer criminal complaints regarding the rapidly expanding arena of cybercrime. The IC3 gives the victims of cybercrime a convenient and easy-to-use reporting mechanism that alerts authorities of suspected criminal or civil violations. For law enforcement and regulatory agencies at the federal, state, local and international level, IC3 provides a central referral mechanism for complaints involving Internet related crimes.

Press Releases FBI Home Page

Rosemarie Grabowski

PC Security & IdentityTheft Protection

308 687 6085

http://www.topsecretfreereport.com/makeadifference-x http://www.topsecretfreereport.com/makeadifference-z
http://www.personalidentitytheft.blogspot.com/

Identity Theft Spreading Fast Worst Than A Case Of The Flu!

Identity theft is escalating at a torrid pace.

The Bad News: It has become one of the country’s top problems. The bad guys are finding more ways to steal YOUR and MY identity.

The good news:

You can take control of the situation, become both reactive and proactive guarding yourself against identity theft.

# 1. let’s understand just how bad identity theft has become in this country: The amount of goods and services purchased with fraudulently obtained personal identity exceeded 52-billion dollars in 2004. The Federal Trade Commission says that there is an underground market for credit card numbers, social security numbers and ID documents – organized gangs or web mobs use and sell these documents for as little as $10 each. Some of these groups contain thousands of members.

· The cost is estimated to be six-point-four billion per year. US Department of Justice states identity theft is affecting millions of households in the U.S. each year. According to the FTC, an estimated 10 million adults become victims of identity theft each year.

· Next in line were banking and other types of accounts at 25 percent, personal information was 15 percent, and a combination of several types of identity theft was at 12 percent.The Department of Justice goes on to say that the most common misuse of identity was through credit cards, accounting for 50 percent of all identity theft. The average loss for each identity theft was $1,290.00. Two-thirds of those surveyed said the theft cost them money despite credit card coverage.

· The report also shows consumers face a one-in-three chance of becoming a "cyber victim" about the same as last year. It goes on to say that consumers lost $630 million over the past two years to e-mail scams. A recent State of the Net survey by Consumer Reports which covered more than 2000 households with Internet Access projects that American consumers lost more than eight-billion dollars over the last two years to viruses, spyware and various scams.

· It’s getting worse as computers become more complex and as we do more with them. The average person today suffers through two or more "incidents" with their computer each year - the computer slows to a crawl, crashes altogether, viruses or spyware take over systems and more.

So, Who Is At Risk For Identity Theft?

According to the Department of Justice there are three groups that are most at risk for identity theft: young adults 18 to 24, adults who earn $75,000 per year or more and households in urban .

Press Releases FBI Home Page

Rosemarie Grabowski
PC Security & Identity
Theft Protection
308 687 6085

http://personalidentitytheft.blogspot.com/

Identity theft Fraud and Cybercrime

How Do I protect myself against identity fraud or cybercrime?

Basic steps you can take to protect yourself against identity fraud and cybercrime. Those steps include good quality computer protection, keeping up with Window’s patches, quality passwords and a good dose of common sense.

Thousands of innocent victims are impacted by vicious criminals who are only interested in stealing personal information and money. Today’s cybercriminal is so clever and creative that you never know when or where they may pop up. Every day we see and hear stories about identity fraud and cybercrime.

Quality Computer Protection

I recommend a managed pc security service that handles the your security and computer problems for you at an affordable price. This is a new form of computer repair that is just now starting to catch on. It’s no secret, I am not a fan of free-ware or over-the-counter products. For quality computer protection you need to have a professional grade solution on your computer along with a tech service that will take care of your needs when you need it.

Windows Patches

Make sure you computer is up to date with the latest Windows patches. Microsoft is constantly working to keep up with the bad guys who find holes in their products and are taking advantage of them to commit Identity Fraud and other forms of cybercrime.

Quality passwords

Today, these bad guys have tools that constantly work on decoding passwords. Simple passwords can be solved in a short period of time while it could take days or longer with more complicated ones. There has been much written about the importance of quality passwords. Experts tell us we should include capitol letters, numbers and symbols in our password. They also tell us we should make it rather long further complicating how long it takes a cybercriminal to break your login and password.

Now, make sure you don’t use the same password or passwords in various locations. Once a thief discovers a password he will try it everywhere he thinks you may have applied it. You could be vulnerable to a major theft when you use the same passwords everywhere.

The Rule of Common Sense

When you walk around town you avoid the places you think there are bad guys lurking. You need to do the same thing on the Internet, too. Simply stated we live in a rough and tough world with a lot of bad guys who are hiding out on the Internet. It’s just like they are hiding in the alley ways and dark spots in your town. You can’t see them, but they are there.

My rule of thumb is if you aren’t sure about the situations don’t give any information out. Always be careful and wary of anyone who asks for personal information.

They have been known to be lurking in even the safest places on the Internet. So, always, make sure you don’t give out any personal information unless you are 100% sure you are on a secure site and you are dealing with the right people. Today’s cybercriminal is so clever and creative that you never know when or where they may pop up.

Rosemarie Grabowski
PC Security & Identity
Theft Protection
308 687 6085
http://www.topsecretfreereport.com/makeadifference-x
http://www.topsecretfreereport.com/makeadifference-z

http://www.personalidentitytheft.blogspot.com/

http://www.whitehouse.gov/.