Setting Up Account Alerts Can Help Protect You From Fraud.
Did you realize that you can have your credit card company and bank notify you anytime there is activity on your account? This tool makes it very easy to catch fraud before it stings your wallet.
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A new check fraud scam has reached the Front Range.
It involves a sizable check that arrives in the mail that, once cashed, can make you an accomplice in a money laundering scheme.
I recently appeared on 9 News to address the concern of a suspicious viewer, Martha, who had received such a check in the mail for $2,240.00. It was drawn on the Brown-Forman Employees Credit Union of Louisville, Ky.
The check came with a set of instructions:
No. 1: Have the check cashed at your bank.
No. 2: Pay yourself $300 after cashing the check.
No. 3: Take the rest of the funds to the nearest Western Union and transfer that balance to an address in San Diego.
Most of us are too busy to monitor every form of identity that is at risk. Unfortunately, victims usually get hit when they take their eye off the ball.
Solution: Purchase a comprehensive identity monitoring service
While a partridge in a pear tree may have been appreciated in 18th century England, it’s not a very coveted item these days! Instead, help out the ones you love (and yourself!) by giving the gift of identity theft monitoring.
Holiday Security Tips: On the seventh day of Christmas, the experts gave to me, 7 fraud alerts
George Bailey had his identity taken away to learn a valuable lesson. His guardian angel was able to reinstate it at the end of the movie, but if your identity is stolen, you may not be so lucky. Sometimes there is no possible way to prevent identity theft. The reality of living in the information economy is that your identity will occasionally be compromised. But don’t worry – if you catch fraud quickly, you won’t lose much.
Solution: Use Automated Account Alerts to Catch Fraud Quickly
Catch holiday identity theft quickly by actively monitoring your checking, debit and credit card accounts.
The key is to catch and resolve fraud within 30 days, before it becomes a headache.
When Target suffered a data breach back in December of 2013, you couldn’t look at a news source without seeing a new story about it. Yet when the Home Depot data breach was revealed recently, it received almost a ho-hum reception in the news. This, even though, it was the biggest data breach in retailing history and has compromised 56 million of its customers’ credit cards! It seems we have come to expect these data breaches to the point where we have become almost complacent.
Consumers, like the companies that breach our data, have become apocalyptic zombies, staring unquestioningly forward as we are attacked from all sides.
I mentioned anti-SPAM software on a 9News piece regarding email scams and ways to avoid them. The anti-SPAM software that I use (and get paid nothing to mention) is called SpamSieve for Apple devices. In the future, I will review anti-SPAM software more comprehensively.
It’s no surprise that identity theft once again tops the “Dirty Dozen” tax scams put forth by the IRS for 2014. They warn that if an identity thief has access to your personal information, such as your name, Social Security number or other identifying information, he or she may use it to fraudulently file a tax return and claim a refund in your name. Think of the implications for the 110 million victims of the recent Target data breach as well as victims of the hundreds of other breaches at other retailers, universities, healthcare providers, government agencies and so on.
KrebsOnSecurity reports that the information from the Target breach alone has reportedly flooded underground black markets and cards are being sold from around $20 to more than $100 each. This data is being sold in hundreds of online “stores” advertised in cybercrime forums. A fraud analyst at a major bank was able to buy a portion of the bank’s accounts from such a store.
If you are one of the 40 million customers who have used a credit or debit card at Target stores in the United States between November 27 and December 15, you’d better start checking your accounts for fraudulent activity. Target confirmed that the data stored on the magnetic strip of cards (customer names, debit or credit card numbers, and card expiration dates) were taken, along with the three-digit security codes (CVVs) often imprinted on the backs of cards.
The type of data stolen would allow thieves to create counterfeit credit cards and, if pin numbers were intercepted, would also allow thieves to withdraw cash from ATM machines. Only in store purchases are at risk, so online shoppers need not worry.
Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder would not comment on how customers’ data were stored or encrypted prior to the attack, saying that would be part of the ongoing investigation. Target immediately notified law enforcement authorities and financial institutions, and the issue is being investigated by the Secret Service and a third-party forensics firm.
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