Dollar Tree Suspected as Point of Compromise in New Debit Card Breach

KCRA Sacramento is reporting that a large number of people have had their debit cards compromised in Northern California. They all have one thing in common, they used their card (legitimately) at Dollar Tree.

Dollar Tree is a nationwide chain with about 3100 locations that sells everything for a dollar, or less.

From the KCRA story:

Dozens of local victims have come forward in a massive debit card fraud investigation involving Dollar Tree stores.

Federal, state and local investigators are looking into hundreds of fraud complaints from people who suddenly found hundreds of dollars stolen from their bank accounts by a sophisticated ring of electronic bandits who recreated ATM debit cards and are believed to have stolen more than $600,000.

Although KCRA is local to Sacramento, they reported similar activity is suspected from another Dollar Tree location in Northern California (Modesto) and Oregon.

According to a previous article by KCRA, the Oregon breaches occurred in May and June. Of course, Dollar Tree isn't commenting, but is cooperating with law enforcement.

Current story, here.

Previous story, here.

There was another debit card breach recently, which started in Northern California and spread nationwide. At the time - although never admitted - speculation was that the point of compromise was Office Max.

Here is a post, I did on that:

Debit Card Breaches, A Growing Problem

In case you become a victim of debit card fraud, here is an excellent link from PIRG (Public Interest Research Group) on your rights.

Unfortunately - when it comes to our rights - debit cards don't seem to be as safe as credit cards.

Identity Theft Used to Lure Veterans into Telephone Scam

Fraudsters will go to no end in order to trick people out of their money. Now they are using the "fear" of identity theft to lure veterans into paying $9.99 a minute for "identity theft services."

KATU in Portland Oregon is reporting:

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is warning all veterans of a telephone scam regarding the recent data loss by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Kevin Doyle, a V.A. Police Operations Team Leader, says the scam works like this: The caller talks the veterans into believing that they have a resource to assist them with the lost veteran data.

The veteran is talked into calling a 1-800 number. Once the veteran calls the 1-800 number, the veteran is directed to call a 1-900 number. That is when the vet incurs a $9.99 per-minute charge.

Link to story, here.

900 numbers always cost, most telephone companies have 900 blocking - which is a good thing to have - especially if you have children.

I went to the VA website to see if there was any additional information, but couldn't find anything yet.

I did find another recent alert warning about a "telephone scam," where a company called "Paitent Care Group" is calling veterans and asking for a credit card number so they can have their prescriptions filled.

Link to VA alert, here.

To protect yourself from this - never give out any information when solicited by an unknown source. Before telling them anything of a personal nature - verify who you are communicating with a third party means - such as a telephone directory.

Interpol Website is a Fake

Anyone following crime on the Internet knows that fake websites are (too) frequently used in phishing schemes. Normally, these fake sites impersonate legitimate financial sites and try to lure people into giving up personal and financial information - which is then used in identity theft (fraud) schemes.

On occasion, malware could (also) be injected into a system just by visiting a site.

Now they are impersonating an internationally known and (respected) law enforcement organization.

The Register is reporting:

419 advanced fee scammers have created an exact copy of the Interpol website, which is expected to be used to dupe victims into believing they are dealing with the real International Criminal Police Organisation.

Please note that the website is still active and hosted in China.

Full story from the Register, link here.

Warning from the real Interpol site, link here.

Interpol isn't the only public agency impersonated in recent years, others include the IRS and the FBI.

I wanted to add a thought - which is - neither the Register, or Interpol give any specifics as to what the e-mails ask a person to do. There are references to Nigerian fraud, but the site is hosted in China? It will be interesting to see how this progesses.

If anyone has seen one of the actual spam e-mails, I would appreciate a comment on this post.

Nonetheless, a "scam is a scam," and this looks like a scam to me.

Local Governments Can Sell Your Personal Information

I was reading a Truston Identity Theft Blog post that posed the question of whether - or not - it was legal for local governments to sell personal information on line?

Here is an excerpt from the blog post:

The answer is YES. This article in FindLaw tells a gruesome tale of how state and local government is legally allowed to and has been posting your sensitive personal information online. This data could lead to identity theft and is being sucked out for use by data brokers that maintain files on everyone in the United States—and then sell your information to anyone that wants it. It was written by Anita Ramasastry, an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Washington School of Law.

The point of her article is that laws should be enacted - which place greater controls on this process.

I have to agree!

Link, here.

This pretty scary considering - as reported by the Privacy Rights Organization - about 90 million Americans have been compromised - and some of the biggest compromises have happened at the data brokers making billions off of maintaining and selling your information.

Note that I found the Truston blog a pretty good resource - and the gentleman who writes it (Tom Fragala) is a former victim and current advocate of victims. He is developing a new product for identity theft victims that seems to be a lot more "friendly" than a lot of the current ones - and it even allows you to see if you have a problem before spending a single "penny."