Identity theft is a serious subject, and according to recent reports, it's a growing problem. Because identity theft is out of control (personal opinion) and has victimized a lot of people, it's spawned a cottage industry that sells protection at a price. Critics, including the FTC, believe a lot of these identity theft companies are selling services that are supposed to be free.
If you've watched TV in the past year, you've probably seen the ads for FreeCreditReport.com. These ads have urban minstrels (guitar dudes) singing about the woes of people who have had their identities stolen or made poor credit choices. The idea is to get you to go to FreeCreditReport.com, which isn't exactly free. If you read the fine print when you sign up at this site for your free credit report, you are actually authorizing them to bill your credit/debit card $14.95 a month for eternity. This ads up to $179.40 a year.
That doesn't exactly sound like it's free, does it? You can cancel within the first seven days, but given their immense advertising budget, it appears not very many people do or seem to have a problem cancelling the service. Even worse, a lot of people who signed up for their service probably aren't even aware that they could have actually gotten their credit report for free elsewhere.
Under federal law, anyone is entitled to get their credit report for free. To bring attention to this, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has launched an awareness campaign entitled "FTC Releases Humorous Videos with a Serious Message About AnnualCreditReport.com."
AnnualCreditReport.com is the only source authorized to give out free credit reports under federal law. The law, which is part of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, guarantees anyone access to a free credit report from each of the big three credit reporting agencies — Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion — every twelve months.
The reason for this campaign was the large volume of complaints from consumers, who thought they were getting something for free, but were not. The FTC is warning the public not to be fooled by TV ads, e-mail offers, or ads on the Internet.
Please note that little to nothing is done to make sure these ads and or spam messages offering protection are legitimate. These ads and spam e-mails might actually come from fraudsters. Answering one of them might lead to a person having their identity stolen.
There are other reasons not to hand over your personal information to the wrong organization. We live in a world where hackers and identity thieves breach databases with an alarming frequency. If you are handing over personal information to one of these companies, they might be maintaining it in a database where it could be stolen. Also, there is no guarantee that your personal information isn't going to be stolen by a dishonest insider. Because information is often outsourced and electronically transmitted all over the world, a lot of people can end up having access to it. All it takes is one dishonest person to decide to steal it and sell it to someone else.
Information is worth a lot of money, and besides dishonest insiders, data brokers and the credit bureaus sell it all the time for marketing purposes. Having information in too many places is a common denominator in a lot of people who become an identity theft victim.
AnnualCreditReport.com is the only place to get a free credit report authorized by the government. I would trust my information with them a lot more than some of the places I see advertising identity theft protection.
Free reports can be requested online, by phone or by mail. To get your free credit report online go to AnnualCreditReport.com, call 1-877-322-8228, or fill out the Annual Credit Report Request form and mail it to Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. You have the option of requesting all three reports at once or you can order one report at a time. A lot of users of this service order one every few months to monitor their credit on a more frequent basis without having to pay for it.
If you see items on your report that are inaccurate, the FTC provides a tutorial on their site on how to dispute credit errors. If you think you have become an identity theft statistic, you may need to place a fraud alert on your credit report, close compromised accounts, file a complaint with the FTC, or file a police report. A tutorial is also provided to help consumers do this on FTC’s identity theft Web site.
Besides the FTC site on identity theft, I recommend the Identity Theft Resource Center and the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse as excellent free resources to learn how to prevent identity theft and recover from it.
If you think you've been tricked to paying for a credit report, the FTC is asking that you let them know about it by filing a complaint. Additionally, if you receive any spam e-mails offering free credit reports, the FTC asks that you send them to spam@uce.gov.
Spam e-mails offering free credit reports can be phishing attempts, which are designed to trick you into giving up your personal information. They can also contain malicious software, which will steal all the information off your computer, automatically. Either way, answering one or even clicking on a link in one can make you an identity theft victim.
Credit reports don't necessarily catch all forms of identity theft. Sometimes different parts of people's identities are used to forge a synthetic one. This phenomenon has been dubbed synthetic identity theft. Quite often, because a lot of the information doesn't match, the credit bureaus don't pick it up.
Other examples where a credit bureau might not reveal identity theft are medical benefit fraud, employment fraud, government benefit fraud, some forms of check fraud and when it is used to commit crimes of other than a financial nature.
In the recent past, this has been discovered by many during tax season, when they get a bill for taxes that an identity thief never paid to the government. A lot of experts recommend that you watch your yearly Social Security statement carefully because of this. Identities are stolen to file fraudulent tax returns or used to obtain employment.
As a bonus, I am going to include what I consider an interesting post from Kelly Sonora over on the e-Justice blog. In this post, Kelly provides 25 tools that can be used to monitor information about yourself, see what is being said about your business, search for information about yourself and find public records that relate to your personal information. A prudent person can even set up alerts on some of these tools so they are automatically notified of any new information.
Please note, Kelly's blog post is not sanctioned by the FTC, but nonetheless, I think it's a neat set of tools that a lot of people might find useful.
As a final bonus — here is a parody (courtesy of the FTC) warning us all the the guitar dude's free credit report isn't free:
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Downadup/Conficker Worm Disables Computer Security
If you were a hacker or a e-scam artist with malicious intent, would it be valuable to disable a machine's security system? Most of them find it relatively easy to take command and control of unprotected machines, but fully patched and protected machines pose more of a challenge.
Since late last year, hackers have developed a new tool that attacks protected machines, known as the Downadup/Conficker worm. This worm is being called a complex piece of malicious code that is able jump network hurdles, hide in the shadows and even defend itself against security measures, according to a recent report by Symantec.
Symantec has documented its blog posts on this subject in this report, which are available on their site. They also have a blog post by Ben Nahorney that attempts to put this complex threat into terms that can be understood by the general public.
Just this month, Symantec identified the third version of Downadup/Conficker, which has an even more powerful punch designed to take down computer security systems. This version has been dubbed the W32.Downadup.C variant and is still under analysis. The payload from W32.Downadup.C is set is to be triggered on April 1st, and if it is, the damage from it could be huge. SC Magazine aptly summed this up in an article called, "No Joke — Conficker Worm set to explode on April Fool's Day."
Since Downadup/Conficker has the ability to replicate itself — even on USB drives and network shares — by cracking passwords, it can spread like wildfire and wreak havoc on systems.
The report concludes that this is only the beginning of the Downadup/Conficker threat. If you take the time to read through the report, it shows how this malware is evolving and changing to avoid attempts to stop the spread of it.
It is being reported that Downadup Conficker has enabled one of the largest botnets to be formed on the Internet because of the number of systems that aren't protected from it. Of course, it appears that once infected, the worm itself might prevent the patches from be downloaded on a machine.
Botnets generate all the spam we see in our in boxes and are the vehicle of most fraud, phishing and financial misdeeds seen on the Internet. They consist of infected computers that have been taken over and form a super computer capable of spreading a lot of garbage. Of course, becoming infected can also mean that all your personal and financial information will be data-mined and used by less than honest people to steal money or commit other types of crimes.
Information can be stolen to commit espionage or even provide a fake identities, which are then used to support other more serious criminal activity. Although a lot of espionage is industrial, it is on record already that Downadup/Conficker infected computers at the U.K. Ministry of Defence and the Houston Municipal Courts which suggest a more sinister intent than merely committing financial crimes.
Since the beginning of the year, there are different estimates of how many computers are infected, but all them seem to agree it's somewhere around nine million.
Microsoft has announced a $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the authors of this code. It has also announced an industry-wide coalition to fix the threat that Downadup/Conficker poses. Included in this coalition are ICANN, NeuStar, Symantec, CNNIC, Afilias, Public Internet Registry, Global Domains International Inc., M1D Global, AOL, Verisign, F-Secure, ISC, researchers from Georgia Tech, the Shadowserver Foundation, Arbor Networks and Support Intelligence.
Microsoft also provides information on patches and the latest developments on Conficker/Downadup on its site. It also has another page where you can learn more about these types of threats and how to stay safe online.
Since late last year, hackers have developed a new tool that attacks protected machines, known as the Downadup/Conficker worm. This worm is being called a complex piece of malicious code that is able jump network hurdles, hide in the shadows and even defend itself against security measures, according to a recent report by Symantec.
Symantec has documented its blog posts on this subject in this report, which are available on their site. They also have a blog post by Ben Nahorney that attempts to put this complex threat into terms that can be understood by the general public.
Just this month, Symantec identified the third version of Downadup/Conficker, which has an even more powerful punch designed to take down computer security systems. This version has been dubbed the W32.Downadup.C variant and is still under analysis. The payload from W32.Downadup.C is set is to be triggered on April 1st, and if it is, the damage from it could be huge. SC Magazine aptly summed this up in an article called, "No Joke — Conficker Worm set to explode on April Fool's Day."
Since Downadup/Conficker has the ability to replicate itself — even on USB drives and network shares — by cracking passwords, it can spread like wildfire and wreak havoc on systems.
The report concludes that this is only the beginning of the Downadup/Conficker threat. If you take the time to read through the report, it shows how this malware is evolving and changing to avoid attempts to stop the spread of it.
It is being reported that Downadup Conficker has enabled one of the largest botnets to be formed on the Internet because of the number of systems that aren't protected from it. Of course, it appears that once infected, the worm itself might prevent the patches from be downloaded on a machine.
Botnets generate all the spam we see in our in boxes and are the vehicle of most fraud, phishing and financial misdeeds seen on the Internet. They consist of infected computers that have been taken over and form a super computer capable of spreading a lot of garbage. Of course, becoming infected can also mean that all your personal and financial information will be data-mined and used by less than honest people to steal money or commit other types of crimes.
Information can be stolen to commit espionage or even provide a fake identities, which are then used to support other more serious criminal activity. Although a lot of espionage is industrial, it is on record already that Downadup/Conficker infected computers at the U.K. Ministry of Defence and the Houston Municipal Courts which suggest a more sinister intent than merely committing financial crimes.
Since the beginning of the year, there are different estimates of how many computers are infected, but all them seem to agree it's somewhere around nine million.
Microsoft has announced a $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the authors of this code. It has also announced an industry-wide coalition to fix the threat that Downadup/Conficker poses. Included in this coalition are ICANN, NeuStar, Symantec, CNNIC, Afilias, Public Internet Registry, Global Domains International Inc., M1D Global, AOL, Verisign, F-Secure, ISC, researchers from Georgia Tech, the Shadowserver Foundation, Arbor Networks and Support Intelligence.
Microsoft also provides information on patches and the latest developments on Conficker/Downadup on its site. It also has another page where you can learn more about these types of threats and how to stay safe online.
Don't Bail Out a Scam Artist
Recently, I've noticed all kinds of ads and spam e-mails promising to deliver a bail out of one kind or another. While we're finally going to see a few average people bailed out, most of these ads and spam e-mails have one purpose and one purpose only — to provide a revenue stream to a scam artist.
On March 4th, the FTC issued a warning that consumers might get stung by one of these bail out schemes and that these scams are showing up in many different forms.
A lot of these scams claim they can assist someone in qualifying for a bail out and all you need to do is to provide them with a little information or a small payment (preferably using a plastic instrument) to reap a too-good-to-be return on your investment. Plastic is quickly becoming the preferred payment option of criminals and semi-legitimate marketing gurus, alike.
Common spam e-mail messages ask for your banking information so the money can be direct deposited into a bank account. In most of these scams, the exact opposite occurs, or the money in the account is stolen. There are also a lot of spoofed spam e-mails that appear to come directly from a government agency, which ask you to verify that you qualify for a payment by providing them with personal/financial information. If responded to, they either clean out your financial resources or use your good name to steal from a financial institution.
The FBI, IRS and Federal Reserve have recently reported their names being spoofed (impersonated) in a variety of spam e-mails designed to scam people of their hard-earned resources. Of course, a lot of the e-mails and e-ads use the names of Barack Obama and Joe Biden to make their come-on appear more legitimate, too.
Some of these e-mails contain links, which lead to websites that download all kinds of malicious software and spyware on a machine. Normally, the intent in these instances is to steal personal information or take command and control over a machine.
Not all these come-ons come in spam e-mails, either. Much to my dismay, I did a search on the word "Stimulus" and found several ads offering a questionable bail out. After doing this, I went to my local coffee house and picked up some of available free magazines and found questionable bail-out offers in them, also.
When it comes to advertising dollars, those accepting the money aren't required to perform any due diligence on what is being advertised.
In some of the so-called semi-legitimate come-ons (my personal opinion), there might be a clause in small-print that allows them to charge your card a small fee over a long period of time.
While these so-called legitimate marketing ploys are nothing new, they are being seen used in some of the pay for bail out products being hawked all over the place.
If you've signed up for any of these deals, it might pay to review your statements, carefully. Of course, in today's world, it pays to do this on a regular basis, anyway.
If you see any of these scams and want to complain about them, the FTC provides an electronic means of doing so. I've provided a link for anyone, who might be interested in doing this. You can also complain by calling 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357).
Last, but not least, I'll point to a site called the Bank of Obama (Because Everybody Deserves a Bail Out). On this site — which appears to be somewhat of a parody — you can send your friends an imaginary check. At least this site delivers what it claims to — an imaginary check.
On March 4th, the FTC issued a warning that consumers might get stung by one of these bail out schemes and that these scams are showing up in many different forms.
A lot of these scams claim they can assist someone in qualifying for a bail out and all you need to do is to provide them with a little information or a small payment (preferably using a plastic instrument) to reap a too-good-to-be return on your investment. Plastic is quickly becoming the preferred payment option of criminals and semi-legitimate marketing gurus, alike.
Common spam e-mail messages ask for your banking information so the money can be direct deposited into a bank account. In most of these scams, the exact opposite occurs, or the money in the account is stolen. There are also a lot of spoofed spam e-mails that appear to come directly from a government agency, which ask you to verify that you qualify for a payment by providing them with personal/financial information. If responded to, they either clean out your financial resources or use your good name to steal from a financial institution.
The FBI, IRS and Federal Reserve have recently reported their names being spoofed (impersonated) in a variety of spam e-mails designed to scam people of their hard-earned resources. Of course, a lot of the e-mails and e-ads use the names of Barack Obama and Joe Biden to make their come-on appear more legitimate, too.
Some of these e-mails contain links, which lead to websites that download all kinds of malicious software and spyware on a machine. Normally, the intent in these instances is to steal personal information or take command and control over a machine.
Not all these come-ons come in spam e-mails, either. Much to my dismay, I did a search on the word "Stimulus" and found several ads offering a questionable bail out. After doing this, I went to my local coffee house and picked up some of available free magazines and found questionable bail-out offers in them, also.
When it comes to advertising dollars, those accepting the money aren't required to perform any due diligence on what is being advertised.
In some of the so-called semi-legitimate come-ons (my personal opinion), there might be a clause in small-print that allows them to charge your card a small fee over a long period of time.
While these so-called legitimate marketing ploys are nothing new, they are being seen used in some of the pay for bail out products being hawked all over the place.
If you've signed up for any of these deals, it might pay to review your statements, carefully. Of course, in today's world, it pays to do this on a regular basis, anyway.
If you see any of these scams and want to complain about them, the FTC provides an electronic means of doing so. I've provided a link for anyone, who might be interested in doing this. You can also complain by calling 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357).
Last, but not least, I'll point to a site called the Bank of Obama (Because Everybody Deserves a Bail Out). On this site — which appears to be somewhat of a parody — you can send your friends an imaginary check. At least this site delivers what it claims to — an imaginary check.
Friday, February 27, 2009
FTC Site Teaches Public How to Avoid Bad Deals
March 1st through the 7th is Consumer Awareness Week. This year, the Federal Trade Commission (along with an army of partners) are providing a user-friendly set of free e-tools designed to help the average "Joe or Jolene" safely navigate the murky waters they face in the current economic environment.
Besides teaching us how to make the most of our financial resources, the tools also teach how to avoid the underground army of not very honest people who are spreading more economic doom and gloom with too-good-to-be-true schemes designed to take advantage of the grim economic situation.
The Web site for the 11th annual National Consumer Protection Week is now up and running. Launched by the Federal Trade Commission and its NCPW (National Consumer Protection Week) Steering Committee partners, the site gives people free tools to make smart business decisions in today’s economy. The information on the site is designed to help the average person get the most value for their money, whether they are trying to improve their credit history, tell the difference between a real deal and a rip-off, or protect their mortgage from foreclosure or foreclosure rescue scams. It explains their rights under various laws and tells how to file a complaint or seek assistance from the appropriate government agency.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, scam artists, fraudsters, hackers and flim flam artists follow the headlines and use the current economic downturn to part people from their hard-earned (and ever-dwindling) financial resources. The NCPW Web site has tools (educational resources) to teach people how to recognize a ripoff, sniff out a scam and ensure they are getting value for their dollar in today's marketplace.
The site has tips on a wide range of topics from partner organizations. These tips include from how to get a free credit report to how to spot a telemarketing scam and how to deal with debt to how to deter and detect identity theft and from how to avoid home and auto repair scams. Also included is detailed information on how to file a complaint with the appropriate agency if you do run into an issue.
Of course, on a personal level, I always recommend reporting them if you spot a problem and are able to avoid becoming a statistic, also. This can prevent a less educated person from becoming a victim and is a good deed.
The FTC partners involved in providing this information include the AARP, the Comptroller of the Currency, the Consumer Federation of America, the Council of Better Business Bureaus, the Federal Citizen’s Information Center, the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Trade Commission, the National Association of Attorneys General, the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators, the National Consumers League, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the U.S. Postal Service.
The FTC also just released the top complaints they received in 2008. For the ninth year in a row, identity theft came in at number one. 1,223,370 complaints were received in 2008. 313,982 (26%) were related to identity theft.
Not surprisingly, with all the data breaches seen recently, credit card fraud was the most common form reported. This was followed by government documents/benefits fraud at 15%, employment fraud at 15%, phone or utilities fraud at 13%, bank fraud at 11% and loan fraud at 4%.
Other complaint categories included Third Party and Creditor Debt Collection, Shop-at-Home and Catalog Sales, Internet Services, Foreign Money Offers and Counterfeit Check Scams, Credit Bureaus, Information Furnishers and Report Users, Prizes, Sweepstakes and Lotteries, Television and Electronic Media, Banks and Lenders, Telecom Equipment and Mobile Services, Computer Equipment and Software, Business Opportunities, Employment Agencies and Work-at-Home, Internet Auction, Advance-Fee Loans and Credit Protection/Repair, Health Care, Auto Related Complaints, Travel, Vacations and Timeshare Plans, Credit Cards, Magazines and Buyers Clubs and Telephone Services.
Please note these are statistics where people were victimized. The information on the NCPW site is designed to keep people from becoming one (a statistic).
Besides teaching us how to make the most of our financial resources, the tools also teach how to avoid the underground army of not very honest people who are spreading more economic doom and gloom with too-good-to-be-true schemes designed to take advantage of the grim economic situation.
The Web site for the 11th annual National Consumer Protection Week is now up and running. Launched by the Federal Trade Commission and its NCPW (National Consumer Protection Week) Steering Committee partners, the site gives people free tools to make smart business decisions in today’s economy. The information on the site is designed to help the average person get the most value for their money, whether they are trying to improve their credit history, tell the difference between a real deal and a rip-off, or protect their mortgage from foreclosure or foreclosure rescue scams. It explains their rights under various laws and tells how to file a complaint or seek assistance from the appropriate government agency.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, scam artists, fraudsters, hackers and flim flam artists follow the headlines and use the current economic downturn to part people from their hard-earned (and ever-dwindling) financial resources. The NCPW Web site has tools (educational resources) to teach people how to recognize a ripoff, sniff out a scam and ensure they are getting value for their dollar in today's marketplace.
The site has tips on a wide range of topics from partner organizations. These tips include from how to get a free credit report to how to spot a telemarketing scam and how to deal with debt to how to deter and detect identity theft and from how to avoid home and auto repair scams. Also included is detailed information on how to file a complaint with the appropriate agency if you do run into an issue.
Of course, on a personal level, I always recommend reporting them if you spot a problem and are able to avoid becoming a statistic, also. This can prevent a less educated person from becoming a victim and is a good deed.
The FTC partners involved in providing this information include the AARP, the Comptroller of the Currency, the Consumer Federation of America, the Council of Better Business Bureaus, the Federal Citizen’s Information Center, the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Trade Commission, the National Association of Attorneys General, the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators, the National Consumers League, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the U.S. Postal Service.
The FTC also just released the top complaints they received in 2008. For the ninth year in a row, identity theft came in at number one. 1,223,370 complaints were received in 2008. 313,982 (26%) were related to identity theft.
Not surprisingly, with all the data breaches seen recently, credit card fraud was the most common form reported. This was followed by government documents/benefits fraud at 15%, employment fraud at 15%, phone or utilities fraud at 13%, bank fraud at 11% and loan fraud at 4%.
Other complaint categories included Third Party and Creditor Debt Collection, Shop-at-Home and Catalog Sales, Internet Services, Foreign Money Offers and Counterfeit Check Scams, Credit Bureaus, Information Furnishers and Report Users, Prizes, Sweepstakes and Lotteries, Television and Electronic Media, Banks and Lenders, Telecom Equipment and Mobile Services, Computer Equipment and Software, Business Opportunities, Employment Agencies and Work-at-Home, Internet Auction, Advance-Fee Loans and Credit Protection/Repair, Health Care, Auto Related Complaints, Travel, Vacations and Timeshare Plans, Credit Cards, Magazines and Buyers Clubs and Telephone Services.
Please note these are statistics where people were victimized. The information on the NCPW site is designed to keep people from becoming one (a statistic).
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