Consumer News » identity fraud

Rumanian eBay information thief arrested

Alan — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 02:44:18 +0000

Authorities in the investigation of organized crime in Rumania have arrested Liviu Mihail Concioiu on suspicion of a major phishing attack on eBay and other entities. The investigation, which has been going on since May 2009, was conducted in collaboration with U.S. Embassy agents in Bucharest, as well as internal eBay security staffers.

According to the reports, Concioiu used more than one phishing attack on eBay’s files to access confidential information about both employees and customers. Basically, the scammer sent phishing emails to more than 3,000 people and succeeded in getting passwords to the financial data banks of some of eBay’s ‘high end’ customers. They also broke into and disrupted eBay’s auction marketplace, and the total cost of the attacks has been estimated at more than $3 million, or £1.9 million

In another phishing scam, Concioiu and as yet unnamed accomplices managed to withdraw more than $400,000 from bank teller machines in Italy by creating fake bank cards with data stolen from user accounts.

Spear phishing, as this type of targeted cyber crime has come to be known, is certainly not unusual, but eBay spokesmen said that the arrest constitutes a major victory against fraud and theft on the Internet. They said that the company is working closely with law enforcement agencies worldwide to protect their customers and to uncover and prosecute phishers and other thieves who threaten the user community.

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New anti-identity theft tool

Alan — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 20:57:28 +0000

Global information services Experian announced the launch of Identity yesterday, a tool that businesses can use to verify identities that want to produce higher authentication rates to reduce the risk of account and identity fraud.

Last year over 5,000 victims of identity fraud sought out aid from Experian in an attempt to get their identities back, which was a 20% up compared to the year 2008. Experts at the company expect fraud to grow more during the course of this year and hence sensed that individuals and companies need protect customers and their employees from the increasing problem.

The Identity IG tool allows for additional security and electronic verification by asking customers to answer a list of generated questions that only the actual consumer should be able to answer. The set of questions are not based on past answers so cannot be stolen.

By making use of the mass of consumer data offered by Experian, businesses can validate a consumer identity instantly and thus reduce the need for customers to remember their password or carry paper ID.

Every time that an individual is validated they are asked to set questions to use next time during the security process those creating a new log-in every time while protecting themselves from identity fraud.

Director of Fraud and Identity Solutions, Nick Mothersaw, stated that businesses face a large loss of reputation and finances if they become involved in identity fraud. Thus, they need to be take advantage of the best tools on the market such as the Identity IQ to protect themselves.

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Identity theft on the rise

Alan — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 02:59:24 +0000

There was a large increase in the incidents of identity fraud that were reported during 2010 according to the UK Fraud Prevention Service CIFAS. The results found a growth of 14% as compared to 2009.

In particular, the number of people who reported they were victims of impersonation in which a criminal takes on someone else’s identity in order to purchase goods fraudulently or access personal details has increased year end by 22%.

The intense focus of the media on identity theft has increased awareness of the problem among consumers but even though the media offers tips for how to reduce the personal threat of being victimized, the numbers of such crimes continue to increase.

According to figures from CIFAS, on average over 275 people become a victim of some form of identity theft each day.

With the increase in identity fraud, it is an excellent idea to purchase some type of identity protection insurance to protect you should a criminal get their hands on your personal information.

CIFAS Chief Executive, Peter Hurst, stated that the recession may be partially to blame for the increase in such crime because as the UK continues to climb out of the economic hole there have been obvious changes in the patterns of fraud taking place with more application fraud at first followed by takeover fraud which has transpired into a strong emergence of identity fraud.

Hurst added that as the economic recovery continues to progress it is almost a guarantee that fraudsters will start to work harder at taking advantage of the fact.

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Consumers need to be careful with identity theft protection companies

Alan — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 02:53:05 +0000

A new court ruling just made it a bit harder to fight against scams related to identity theft because the process of identity theft protection is now a bit more difficult than it already was with dozens of businesses making claims that they can protect you against fraud without the proper credentials.

Identity fraud expert, Joe Santini explained that fraud alerts were never perfect although many companies would like you to believe this was so. Instead, he stated that a fraud alert that is placed on a credit file means that a credit company must make sure they take the proper steps to carefully open a new line of credit for you to ensure you identity.

This practice does not actually protect your bank account or any of the credit cards that you have, it only protects new line of credit from being opened.

Thus, if you already have purchased identity theft protection or are thinking about buying one, you may want to take a minute to step back and investigate what you are actually paying for and if there are alternatives to the bills that come along with such services.

However, the bills should not keep you away from an identity theft, given that the epidemic is growing across the nation with identity thieves rejoicing over the new law that will aid them.

It should however make you look a little closer at any serve that you choice and keep in mind that now the government can only do too much protect you in the case of such a situation.

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Keeley Hawes suffers identity theft while making drama about identity theft

Alan — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 01:32:13 +0000

Ashes to Ashes and Spooks star, Keeley Hawes, watched life imitate her role in the new ITV drama Identity as she became a victim of identity theft. The plot line of Identity involves an elite police unit that is in charge of crimes related to identity fraud, and the actor himself now is in the same situation after a worker at her home stole her credit cards and proceeded to run up a bill totaling £7,000.

Equifax, the credit agency, stated that personal information is now the most valuable asset in the 21^st century scam arsenal. .

Neil Monroe from Equifax stated that a fraudster only needs three pieces of personal information in order to take someone’s identity therefore it is key that people watch their online activity and documents carefully.

ID fraud has even spread as far as Twitter, the popular social networking service, with users sending fake messages after hacking into legitimate accounts. Many politicians and celebrities have fallen victim to this epidemic including Ed Miliband.

In the television show, Hawes plays the lead of the identity unit, DSI Martha Lawson, whose role is to take down imposters.

Monroe continued to say that it is much easier to prevent identity theft than it is to fix it as it can take hundreds of hours and years to clearly fix an individual’s records.

He offered a few measures to protect your identity including keeping your pin safe and varied between cards, updating your virus protection on the PC regularly, and avoiding common verification information such as your mother’s maiden name or date of birth.

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ID fraud on the increase

Alan — Fri, 07 May 2010 02:34:47 +0000

New figures show that the number of people who are victims of identity fraud has increased by about 20% during the first part of 2010, when compared to the first three months of 2009. In fact, during the first three months of 2010 almost 27,000 people fell victim to a fraudulent activity.

Out of these people, about 45% of the frauds are successful and go undetected by banks, which means that consumer simply loses the money due to the fact the bank will not refund the money. The data comes from Cifas, the fraud prevention agency.

In the past fraudsters were successful by using an old address of the victim, but now a bit over half of all cases involve the use of the current address of the victim, which Cifas representative Richard Hurley said will make an application look more legitimate, which makes it harder for the fraud to be detected.

The release of the figures come at the same time as Which? issued a warning that millions of people are still placing their accounts at a high risk of fraud by writing down their pin and then keeping the note somewhere in their handbag or wallet.

Martyn Saville of Which? said that the results of their latest survey show that there are too many people taking risks with their finances because they do not take basic precautions to protect themselves. Saville continued to note that writing down your pin and keeping it with you like leaving the front door open and hoping nobody walks in.

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