idfraudwatch asked:

(2 of 5) Identity fraud gang operating in London caught on CCTV stealing post, which was used to fraudulently open bank accounts with overdrafts, credit cards and mobile phone accounts. The gang members have been identified as Kingston University students, and are operating in the Kingston-upon-Thames borough of London. Identity fraud is a fast growing crime that is dominated by Nigerian gangs operating predominately in London, and particularly target blocks of flats. The gang were able to fraudulently open bank accounts with large overdrafts at high street banks through internet applications with just details from a bank statement. They then intercepted the mail returned by the banks with the online username and password details. The gang gained access to this apartment block from a fellow Kingston University student who was living in the apartment block and was colluding with them by giving the gang the access codes to the front door. According to Experian (largest UK credit agency) In 2009, it took an average of 416 days for fraud victims to realize they have been attacked. This gave fraudsters more than a year to compromise their victims accounts, build up debts in their names, destroy their credit ratings and then move on to someone else. press.experian.com www.experian.co.uk Protect yourself by regularly monitoring your credit reports from Experian, Equifax and Call Credit. Pay particular attention to searches on your credit report for companies that you havent …

jake asked:


Recently found four credit cards on my credit report, I didn’t open any of them. Just wondering how long you have to dispute these?

Jeff Kiser asked:




The LifeLock identity theft prevention company began providing identity theft services in 2005 and calls itself the “industry leader”.

For individuals and families, the LifeLock service primarily consists of asking credit bureaus to set fraud alerts on your name and Social Security number, redoing this every 90 days; get your name removed from pre-approved credit card and junk mail lists, redoing this as the requests expire; and request free credit reports for you every year. These reports are sent directly to you.

For businesses, the company offers basically the same services, but also includes public relations support.

All of these actions are things that you can do for yourself, and really do not take all that much time. The benefit of having LifeLock do them for you is that they will actually remember to do them on a regular basis, which needs to be done as these requests do expire.

Not only that, but they will review your credit reports and verify activity that could be suspicious or evidence of identity theft, such as contacting you to ask whether or not you are actually applying for a new credit card or changing your address.

In addition, LifeLock also provides a limited guarantee that provides assistance in recovering your identity, up to a million dollars, including attorney and investigator fees, as well as any money lost due to the identity theft as a result of a failure or defect in the service.

The service costs $10 a month per adult as well as $25 per year per child under 16, should you choose that option. But note that personally freezing your credit at each of the three credit bureaus costs $10 apiece.

Now, you might be wondering why you would need to get identity theft protection for minor children. Sadly, protecting your child’s identity – even though they won’t personally have credit cards or a credit history – can be just as important as protecting your own. Identity thieves do not care how old a victim is. LifeLock recognizes this, and protects even your kids.

So is this identity theft prevention service worth the price? It depends on your needs. If you have the confidence, patience and willingness to do it yourself, it can be done for less money. However, if you are the type of person who wants peace of mind and does not want to mess with having to do the work yourself, the LifeLock service is a no brainer.

David Lee George asked:




Are you a recent identity theft victim? Well join the club, thousands of Americans have suffered from this crime and the number continues to grow. The fact is that identity theft is quickly becoming the fastest growing crime in the United States and there are only a few ways to protect yourself, and those don’t always work. The best way is to look into a protection company that monitors your personal information to make sure no one using it. They monitor your social security number, credit score, credit cards, and everything else, as well as protect that information to keep it out of harms reach. The sad truth is that even they can fail at times.

Identity theft is no joke but if there is some good news its that like all crimes, once it becomes more common, the road to recovery is faster. Years ago you had to wait months and even longer as there was an investigation to prove you were an actual victim. This was near torture for a person if their bank accounts were emptied as they awaited a verdict. Now so many banks and companies are use to this crime that they replace your stolen funds with in weeks.

While its great news that you can get your money back so fast, one thing that is usually not fixed is your credit score. This can cost you big if you are looking to take out a loan any time soon. To fix your score fast simply sign up for credit repair. The process of credit repair is great because it is affordable, it can be done in weeks, and it can fix a score no matter the reason it was lowered. It is so effective that you can save months and even years trying to fix it yourself.

Andy Bolton asked:




The last few years has seen the rise of a very special kind of criminal, the kind that does not break in to your home and wreck it but breaks into to your identity and ruins your life. The problem is that Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes around and the public awareness of how easy it is to have your life turned upside down is relatively low. Over the last year it has been reported that ID theft has cost the UK economy over 1.7 Billion alone.

Nearly 25% of the population in the UK has either been directly affected or know’s someone who has had an identity theft incident. When a criminal steals your identity its not just your money that he or she can take it’s a lot more damaging. A criminal may also target the following areas which will affect your credit rating preventing you from being able to obtain a loan or mortgage. You may find you have problems with your passport which will certainly affect your well deserved holiday that you take each year or business trip.

In some cases people have used information to obtain duplicate driving license enabling them to steal hire cars and then have them stripped down and shipped leaving you to carry the can. If someone was to hire a hundred thousand pound Ferrari using your license and then sell the car to a chop shop it would not look to good for you.

When it comes to identity theft you can not rely on someone to protect you at all you have to realize that its all down to you and that you need to make the right moves to protect yourself and your data at all times. It is important to have the ability to shred sensitive documents like bills and bank statements these are often the first type of document targeted. These documents lead to people being able to apply for credit cards in your name.

Online fraud is where you are most at risk from identity theft as the amount of information that people put online is so tempting to criminals to pick up and use. It is surprising about the amount of details people are prepared to put online in the face book profile (face book is just used as example but there are many social sites that have well exposed details available).

People are still managing to get caught by even the basic elements of Identity theft if you get an email with a an attachment from someone or something you are not certain delete it. Only open email attachments from people who you are certain of also beware of other types of email – ones claiming to be your bank or eBay. I can tell you that you only get emails from eBay in the eBay mail box when you log in that are about your account.

Keep up to date with your anti virus and also look out for news about viruses as the criminal often has a quite a substantial amount of resources to find your details. I recently had two of my websites hacked and that was quite a pain as 500 emails per hour where sent from them sites and that has cost me substantial loss of faith.

I have now rectified the problem with much stronger passwords always using the best available password generation programs. Look after your data both at home and online and make sure that you are unique and no one else is taking your identity shopping and stealing money, data and your credibility.

cougars43 asked:


So I was reading an article put on by yahoo, about Memorial Day Weekend sales, and it said to make sure the website asking for your credit card information begins with “htts” rather than “http”. Why is that? (You can see the paragraph for yourself):

Be smart about your identity. In general, online shopping is as safe–or safer–than in-person shopping, especially if you stick to name-brand stores. But to go the extra mile, always make sure that the Web page asking for credit card information begins with “https” instead of “http,” and E-mail the company with questions if you’re unsure. Most credit cards offer additional safety measures, such as 100 percent fraud protection. Just make sure to check your monthly statement when you get the bill and report any suspicious activity immediately.

Andrew Regan asked:




Many people will not experience a crime like identity fraud during their lifetime. However, the crime is not uncommon; most of us will at least know someone who has been a victim of ID theft, if we ourselves have not been. Because of this fairly high proliferation of identity fraud – particularly during times when the economy is tough – it is advisable that you get to know a little more about this crime, how to tell when it’s happening to you, and what to do about it.

The first step in identification is quite obvious, really. If you’ve had your bank or credit cards stolen or have lost them, you could become a victim. The same goes for entering your bank details on dodgy sites that do not have the small padlock indicating a seal of online security or have an untrustworthy URL when it should be straightforward. Prevention in these cases is easy: for lost or stolen cards, cancel them immediately. And as for online security, simply ensure that all websites you deal through are trustworthy and secure.

However, identity fraud can occur even when you’re being careful, and if you notice money disappearing from your account and being spent on things you know you didn’t buy then it is quite likely that you have had your bank details stolen. We all pay for this, eventually – in higher prices and increasingly expensive credit card terms, even if we ourselves are not affected by such crimes. That’s why it’s important to do your best to prevent becoming a victim to identity fraud.

What’s worse is that, although many banks are good natured about identity fraud, some will refuse to reimburse you should you be unable to prove that you did not buy what has appeared on your card. Therefore, insurance is important – on your cards and on other important possessions, like home contents insurance should the identity fraud prove to be an exceptionally bad case that can affect more than just your bank balance.

If you’re worried about online security, it may be wise to acquaint yourself with some of the most common fraud occurrences that happen online. This can particularly involve email accounts, which many trust unquestioningly when they should consider certain emails more carefully. For example, never give your details to anybody from another country claiming to wish to transfer funds into your account that you’d then pay back, keeping some for yourself. In addition, never trust any lottery win emails – especially if you never played in that draw! Finally, acquaint yourself with ‘phishing’ and watch out for it – it is the biggest email scam likely to succeed.

Identity fraud can be a scary and violating occurrence – so ensure that your cards are well looked after and that the websites you deal through have the https:// in the URL, as well as the security padlock demonstrating that they are safe. This could save you the stress, time and possible loss should you become a victim of this crime.

B. Carson asked:




Getting proven id theft solutions is important because being a victim of ID theft is a personal crime. In fact 70% of the victims of ID theft often feel very angered and in disbelief. In fact this crime costs businesses and individuals a total of $221 billion last year. A lot of money is lost as a result of identity theft. Most people feel that destroying their private records and statements might be enough to protect them from being a victim of ID theft.

They may even go as far as to safeguard their Social Security number. Often this is not enough protection from the scarring crime of ID theft. In fact those that simply shred documents to protect their Social Security number often become the victim of ID theft at some point in their lives.

And usually by the time they figure out that they’ve been a victim it is already too late. Usually by the time they find out they are already hundreds of thousands of dollars in credit cards and loans taken out on their name.

And the first hint of the crime is when they start receiving phone calls from creditors about past due bills that they have no idea about. There are better id theft solutions to preventing this crime from happening to you. It is much better to take advantage of professional id theft solutions that will guarantee you financial protection in case you ever become a victim of this crime.

There are even services that will offer $1 million guarantee in case this crime ever affects you. The best identity theft protection services usually have fraud and resolution assistance, e-mail alerts of key changes, internet scan for misuse of Social Security numbers and of course ATM and credit card protection for wherever you shop.

piflover asked:

1970s public information film originally uploaded by youtube user adarchive. A gang of Cockney wide boys takes a class in how to steal credit cards.