Identity Theft: involves the misuse of another individual’s personal identifiable information for fraudulent purposes.
Identity theft is the fastest-growing crime in the U.S., affecting 1 in 20 consumers.
Medical Identity Theft: occurs when someone uses an individual’s name and personal identity to fraudulently receive medical services, prescription drugs or goods, including attempts to commit fraudulent billing.
Medical identity theft affected 2 million people in the U.S. in 2011.
Data Breach: a security incident in which sensitive, protected or confidential data is copied, transmitted, viewed, stolen or used by an unauthorized individual. Data Breaches may involve:
Credit card numbers
Personally identifiable information
Protected health information
Social Security Number
Trade secrets
Intellectual property
Who/What’s at Stake?
An identity is stolen every 3 seconds!
5 million Americans were victims of identity theft in 2003.
Though businesses of all kinds have reasons to be concerned about their susceptibility to identity theft and fraud, contractors working for the government should be fine, right? Well, not when glitches lurk.
There are enough threats to private information floating out there without us accidentally opening the floodgates. If proper security is kept up at all times, it creates a higher standard that can allow for less laziness and more protection. Unfortunately, even the government can’t keep the possibility of dangerous security gaps at zero. Contractors working for the feds may have learned this the hard way last month, when a flaw in software used by the General Services Administration left valuable information vulnerable to identity theft and fraud, potentially including Social Security and bank account numbers.
With all the news about fraud hitting big name companies, you might think that identity theft training is only for the corporate giants. Think again.
A study recently performed by a subcommittee in the U.S. House has revealed an alarming statistic: small businesses are a target for digital criminals just as celebrity brands like Twitter and Facebook attract fraudulent attention. But unlike those huge companies, smaller names usually have less to spend on security and are therefore more vulnerable to those kinds of attacks. According to a report mentionedin a statement by the subcommittee’s chairman Chris Collins, 60 percent of small businesses hit by online attacks end up closing within six months.
Here are some more rather frightening tidbits, courtesy of the same source: 87 percent of smaller businesses don’t even have an official written security policy. And attacks on companies with fewer than 250 employees apparently make up 20 percent of the total number of instances of online infringement. It’s not just the total gross that draws the attention of data thugs, and just because you’re not raking in billions doesn’t mean you’ll go unnoticed.
Check washing is so simple, you must learn to prevent check fraud
Are check fraud and check washing still relevant in the age of digital payments? If you’re like the average person, chances are you don’t write too many checks anymore. With the convenience of online payment options, nearly universal acceptance of credit and debit cards, and the proliferation of ATMs offering you easy access to money at every turn, why resort to the archaic, labor-intensive method of writing a check?
The simple answer—sometimes we have no other choice! Some places still don’t accept credit cards (Costco if you don’t have an American Express), or they charge an extra fee for them. Some retailers don’t offer online payment options. And frankly, sometimes it’s just an old habit and we haven’t made the effort to find a safer option because we’re stuck in the mindset of “it’s never happened to me” when thinking about check fraud.
Check washing, a highly common form of check fraud, is the practice of removing legitimate check information, especially the “Pay To” name and the amount, and replacing it with data beneficial to the criminal (his own name or a larger amount) through chemical or electronic means. One of the many ways to protect yourself against check fraud is so important that it deserves its very own article.
A foolproof way to protect your checks from being altered, whether by washing or by electronic means, is to use security checks offered by most companies.
Here are some of the features to look for when you’re purchasing High Security Checks. These features will safeguard you not only against check washing, but other high tech forms of check fraud as well:
Safety security paper (visible and invisible fluorescent fibers, chemical-sensitive)
When a waitress says, “Hi, I’m Brianna and I’ll be taking care of you today,” you don’t expect the customer to be thinking, “What a coincidence, my fake name is Brianna.” And you certainly don’t expect said customer to be so bold, or idiotic, as to buy a drink using a fake ID belonging to the very same Brianna she’d stolen it from a week before.
As they say at Applebee’s, welcome to the neighborhood – at least the identity theft neighborhood.
According to a recent 9News story, Brianna Priddy, an Applebee’s waitress in Lakewood, CO was out with friends when her wallet was stolen. Enter the crime-challenged suspect who stole Priddy’s wallet containing cash, credit cards and her driver’s license. The suspect then used the license to cash hundreds of dollars of fraudulent checks, creating a financial and administrative nightmare for Priddy.
Not only are businesses and the government finally taking measures to stop identity theft, consumers are waking up as well.
It doesn't matter if you're the Fortune 500 banker cashing a hefty check or the teller at the front desk: everyone's personal information is valuable. The risks to businesses and major companies, even giants like Apple and Google, are pretty well-known by now. But the threat of a breach looms over everybody, regardless of occupation.
The Federal Trade Commission recently revealed that identity theft was the number one consumer concern of 2012. There were more complaints over different types of identity theft than things like fraudulent lenders and fixed gas prices. That's no fluke: it's the sign of a major threat.
Every dollar counts, now more than ever, as the government searches for ways to wisely spend our money. It’s dismaying to learn that an audit report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) has found that the impact of identity theft on tax administration is significantly greater than the amount the IRS detects and prevents. Even worse, the “IRS uses little of the data from identity theft cases…to detect and prevent future tax refund fraud” according to Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.
The IRS is detecting far fewer fake tax returns than are actually falsely filed. 938,700 were detected in 2011. On the other hand, TIGTA identified 1.5M additional undetected tax returns in 2011 with potentially fraudulent tax refunds totaling in excess of $5.2B.
The study predicted that the IRS stands to lose $21B in revenue over the next 5 years with new fraud controls, or $26B without the new controls.
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Check washing, a highly common form of check fraud, is the practice of removing legitimate check information, especially the “Pay To” name and the amount, and replacing it with data beneficial to the criminal (his own name or a larger amount) through chemical or electronic means. One of the many ways to protect yourself against check fraud is so important that it deserves its very own article.
