Archive for the 'Identity theft prevention' Category

 Predictions: 2012 Identity Theft
Protection Trends

By the AllClear ID Team
Vanessa here from AllClear ID. Last year at AllClear ID we made some predictions about the threats we’d see in 2011. From botnets to WikiLeaks, 2011 was a watershed year for identity theft and technology security issues. So what does 2012 have in store for us?
With an influx of mobile devices, an [...]



 Child Identity Theft Protection
Tips From the FTC

By the AllClearID Team
Jamie here, Chief Investigator at AllClear ID. Recently, I had the opportunity to speak at the Jump$tart National Educator Conference in Washington, DC. Jump$tart is a national organization “dedicated to improving the financial literacy of pre-kindergarten through college-age youth by providing advocacy, research, standards, and educational resources.”
In the presentation I discussed our [...]



 Need Home Loan Help?
Avoid Foreclosure “Rescue” Services

By the AllClearID Team
Juan here from the AllClear ID investigation team. Consumers who are at risk of losing their homes to foreclosure are being targeted and victimized by foreclosure “rescue” services. These services bill themselves as being able to weed through mortgage contracts and paperwork to look for errors and unscrupulous practices by lenders. According to [...]



 Watch Out for Credit Card Skimmers to Avoid Credit and Debit Card Fraud

By the AllClear ID Team
Chris here with the AllClear ID Investigation team. Identity thieves are placing credit card skimming devices everywhere, but particularly on gas pumps, and as we wrote earlier, on outdoor ATMs.
These devices are small and hard for the typical person to detect, but they can be financially lethal. Skimmers are designed to capture [...]



 The Impact of Child Identity Theft

By the AllClearID Team
Jamie here, Chief Investigator at AllClear ID. Child Identity theft can be a devastating experience that affects about 10% of children. This crime often goes undetected for years allowing thieves time to build a complicated web of open accounts and debts that can be difficult to resolve. When child identity theft victims enter the [...]



 Does Your Credit Report Look Off? You May Have a “Mixed File”

By the AllClearID Team
George here from the AllClear ID investigation team. If you’ve reviewed your free annual credit report and something looks off it may not necessarily be identity theft. A very common error at credit bureau agencies is the addition of inaccurate information on a consumer’s credit card, meaning more and more accounts are [...]



 Why College Students Should Think About Identity Theft

By the AllClearID Team
Vanessa here with AllClear ID. We recently went over how college students can be an easy target for identity theft, but a recent survey of college students in the United Kingdom reveals the scope of this problem.  The survey, conducted by the British Government, asked college students about how they protected their online [...]



 Red Flags for Online Loan Scams

By the AllClearID Team,
Vanessa here with AllClear ID. Check out this site. Seems legitimate and professional, doesn’t it? Now click on any link on that website. You’ll see that it’s a totally fake website – actually created by the Federal Trade Commission – to show how easy it is to get entangled in an internet [...]



 Watch Out for Internet Scams This Holiday Season

By the AllClearID Team,
Kelly here with AllClear ID. Cyber Monday, the online equivalent of Black Friday is next week. Over the past few years this “holiday” has steadily increased in popularity as more consumers turn to online shopping for the convenience and great deals. But how do you know if the sweet deal you found [...]



 Your Voicemail Could Be Hacked

By the AllClearID Team
Vanessa here with AllClear ID. You may have heard about Rupert Murdoch and the voicemail-hacking scandal at his company that happened over the summer. However, it’s not just celebrities in England who are at risk.  Breaking into anyone’s voice mailbox can be as easy in the U.S.
It’s done through “caller ID spoofing,” [...]