June 7, 2010 by Terry.

http://www.examiner.com/x-32429-Salt-Lake-City-Immigration-Examiner~y2010m6d5-Utahs-identity-theft-protection-law-comes-too-late-for-11-month-old-child
In case the link disappears in the future, here is the story:

June 5, 11:49 PMSalt Lake City Immigration ExaminerRonald Mortensen
[quote]
In March 2010, the Utah state legislature passed SB251 which requires all employers with 15 or more employees to protect children from illegal alien driven, job-related identity theft by using a status verification system such as E-Verify.

SB251 enters into effect on July 1, 2010 which is too late to protect an 11 month old Utah child who is the victim of identity theft.

Monica Zamora Vazquez, 28, an illegal alien, was arrested for using the identity of the child to get a job. She faces charges of identity fraud, theft by deception and possession of a forged writing device. These are felonies.

The 11 month old victim of the crime had been denied taxpayer funded medical assistance to help pay for treatment for heart problems because Ms. Vazquez was earning income under the victim’s Social Security number.

Like millions of other illegal aliens, Vazquez had obtained a Social Security card in her name with another person’s number on it.

According to a senior official of the Social Security Administration, approximately seventy-five percent of all illegal aliens have a fraudulently obtained Social Security number.

The Social Security numbers of children are especially valuable since illegal aliens can use the number for many years before the child or his parents become aware of the problem.

It is estimated that 50,000 Utah children have their identities being used, primarily by illegal aliens to get jobs. In Arizona, 1.1 million children are believed to be impacted by this crime.

In addition to being denied critically needed taxpayer funded medical benefits as occurred in this case, victims of illegal alien identity theft have their credit ruined, may be saddled with arrest records, be pursued by the IRS for unpaid taxes on income earned under their Social Security numbers and may even have their medical records corrupted with life threatening consequences.

SB251 was passed specifically to prevent adults from using the Social Security numbers of children to get jobs.

If all employers used E-Verify, no adult could use a child’s Social Security number with her own name as Ms. Vazquez did because E-Verify matches the name, Social Security number and date of birth.

Even if the name and Social Security matched, a child’s date of birth being used by an adult would raise flags.

Utah employers and Hispanic organizations strongly opposed efforts to protect children from this type of identity theft.

Business groups have been accused of sacrificing Utah children to identity theft in order to increase their profits while Hispanic organizations are accused of willingly sacrificing American children for the benefit of illegal aliens.

Legislation is now being considered to close the loophole in the law that allows employers with less than 15 employees to continue to hire illegal aliens using the stolen identities of children.
[unquote]

Posted in IDT- Children, IDT - SSAN, IDentity Theft Victims | Print | No Comments »

May 29, 2010 by Terry.

Medical IDentity Theft can leave your health/dental/vision records with ‘hazardous to your health’ issues.

Problems victims of Medical IDentity Theft could face are serious as insurance maxed out to its lifetime limit, leaving you with years spent untangling paper trails and your medical records permanently altered, being misdiagnosed or mistreated, putting you in a coma like an IDTheft victim in Utah

some other stories:

Medical ID Theft a Growing Problem

Medical Identity Theft On The Rise

2 mar 2010
“…Such thefts can cost the victims money, but also risk physical harm, because inaccurate medical information, such as blood type, may be recorded in patient records. The thieves are often health care insiders, such as accounting department staff. …”

Posted in IDT - Medical | Print | No Comments »

April 22, 2010 by Terry.

New Social Networking tool, from your Mobile Phone! Pros and Cons

Using your mobile phone and this new mobile app, taking a photo of someone, you may be able to discover more about them, before you walk over to introduce yourself [and maybe get wallop up-side the head or major what-for from them].

“A new social networking tool allows mobile phone users to identify people just by taking a photo.”

Of course, the author of this story brings up the topic of Identity Theft, which peaked my ears.

Read full story here:
http://bigpondnews.com/articles/Technology/2010/04/18/New_stalking_app_for_mobile_phones_452367.html

Wrap up your week with a Successful Thursday.

Terry Kohler
Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist
Talk Solutions Today

featuring Premier Services for your Personal and Business Legal needs and IDentity Theft / Data Breach issues Before, During, and After the event.

Posted in News Alerts, IDentity Theft | Print | No Comments »

April 20, 2010 by Terry.

Heard today that YOUR Tweets will become record at the Library of Congress.  Someone could use those Tweets and discover things of the Tweetie and put the puzzle pieces together.  Who has time to do that?  Criminals who don’t live a real life, don’t have a real job,…

Apparently The Library of Congress will store archived copies of every public Tweet ever sent, beginning with the company’s founding in March 2006. That means Twitter planned keeping Tweets from the beginning.  The archives will be stored digitally with the intention of preserving Tweets related to important historical events.  Digitally means they can use algorithms and other programs to figure Tweetie’s “anything” out.  If you ever go into hiding, don’t Tweet coded messages to your family or friends, they will find you, and I don’t mean your family or friends.  News reports said that every public tweet…

Google has also announced a new product, called Google Replay, which allows users to search for and access Tweets from a specific moment in time, also aimed at finding and accessing Tweets related to historical events.  These two words seem to be common.  But I bet they are very loosely used.

“twitter to be archived” is the phrase I used today to learn more — but be sure to click on NEWS instead of the usual WEB search.  Here is one intersting result:

http://www.circleid.com/posts/20100414_us_library_of_congress_to_acquire_entire_twitter_archive/

I mentioned IDentity Theft in the beginning.  Think the Library of Congress won’t suffer a data breach.  The IRS did.  How secure is their data/computers supposed to be?

See if places you have been to in some form has lost data:  http://www.privacyrights.org/ar/ChronDataBreaches.htm#CP
The 14 bulleted items at the top of the page may be of some valuable info for you.

Posted in IDentity Theft | Print | No Comments »

March 10, 2010 by Terry.

Story by Wired:

• By Kim Zetter
• June 27, 2008  |
• 11:52 am  |
• Categories: Crime

LifeLock is in the news again.

The identity theft protection firm whose CEO lists his Social Security number in ads for the company is being sued by Namesafe, a competitor in the identity theft protection market, for allegedly stealing the company’s corporate identity and deceptive trade practices.

According to papers filed in Tennessee, Namesafe claims that LifeLock stole its trademark and deceptively diverted traffic meant for Namesafe’s web site to LifeLock’s own web site.

The suit claims that LifeLock purchased sponsored ads on major search engines and portals such as Google, Yahoo, MSN and Hotbot that tricked users into landing on its site. Namesafe says the ads have disappeared since they were discovered, but it provided screen shots of the search results pages in its complaint. The company doesn’t know for sure if the ads disappeared after it filed its suit but believes that is what occurred.

The company says that when users did a search on the word “Namesafe,” sponsored ads appeared at the top of search result pages, which included a link for “Namesafe” and “Namesafe.com.” But when users clicked the link, it took them to LifeLock’s web site instead. The name LifeLock appeared in the ads next to or beneath “Namesafe” and “Namesafe.com,” but Namesafe says the ads were clearly designed to fool Namesafe customers.

“It’s like me taking out a newpaper ad for LifeLock.com and putting my phone number in it,” said Namesafe founder and CEO David Ridings. “It’s the same thing but on the internet scale. The purchasing of an ad that says Namesafe.com is deceptive and confuses consumers.”

Namesafe launched its web site on February 25th and said it discovered the problem about a month ago in Google search results. Ridings says his company filed an informal online complaint with Google asking it to investigate. Google responded by saying it would not get into issues over the legalities of who can purchase brand name ads. Ridings says Google did not, in its response, confirm that LifeLock had purchased such ads.

Namesafe spokesman Dick Marsh said the company decided to file the lawsuit after he discovered recently that the problem was occurring on other search sites as well. Marsh sent a press release to reporters after the company filed the suit.

I asked Ridings if his company sent a cease-and-desist letter to LifeLock before filing the suit or sent the company any inquiry asking it to explain the ads. He said Namesafe did not and defended the company’s decision to file suit instead.

“This was not an honest mistake,” he said. “We made a decision to do what we needed to do to get them to come down. We have a lot of television and radio ads and with every passing moment there’s more potential for a consumer to be confused.”

LifeLock released a statement denying that it purchased ads using Namesafe’s brand name:

“Following notice of a pending lawsuit from WSMV in Nashville, TN on Thursday, we immediately began an investigation and determined that LifeLock Corporation has never purchased any competitive branded search terms. To be clear, LifeLock Corporation has never used the ‘NameSafe’ name in LifeLock ad copy,” the statement reads.

Google has not yet responded to requests asking about the ads. I’ll update this post if I hear back from the company.

This is not the first lawsuit against LifeLock. The company has been the target of class-action lawsuits from customers questioning its protection claims as well as a suit from credit reporting agency Experian for acting on consumers’ behalf to place alerts on their credit accounts.

The company was also the target of much controversy last year after a reporter uncovered information about the background of one of LifeLock’s founders, who has since resigned.

LifeLock Sued for Corporate Identity Theft

Posted in IDT - Businesses, News Alerts | Print | No Comments »

March 10, 2010 by Terry.

Here is Press Release from Federal Trade Commission (FTC) about Lifelock:

For Release: 03/09/2010

LifeLock Will Pay $12 Million to Settle Charges by the FTC and 35 States That Identity Theft Prevention and Data Security Claims Were False

LifeLock, Inc. has agreed to pay $11 million to the Federal Trade Commission and $1 million to a group of 35 state attorneys general to settle charges that the company used false claims to promote its identity theft protection services, which it widely advertised by displaying the CEO’s Social Security number on the side of a truck.

In one of the largest FTC-state coordinated settlements on record, LifeLock and its principals will be barred from making deceptive claims and required to take more stringent measures to safeguard the personal information they collect from customers.

“While LifeLock promised consumers complete protection against all types of identity theft, in truth, the protection it actually provided left enough holes that you could drive a truck through it,” said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz.

“This agreement effectively prevents LifeLock from misrepresenting that its services offer absolute prevention against identity theft because there is unfortunately no foolproof way to avoid ID theft,” Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said. “Consumers can take definitive steps to minimize the chances of having their personal information stolen, and this settlement will help them make more informed decisions about whether to enroll in ID theft protection services.”

Since 2006, LifeLock’s ads have claimed that it could prevent identity theft for consumers willing to sign up for its $10-a-month service.

According to the FTC’s complaint, LifeLock has claimed:

• “By now you’ve heard about individuals whose identities have been stolen by identity thieves . . . LifeLock protects against this ever happening to you. Guaranteed.”
• “Please know that we are the first company to prevent identity theft from occurring.”
• “Do you ever worry about identity theft? If so, it’s time you got to know LifeLock. We work to stop identity theft before it happens.”

The FTC’s complaint charged that the fraud alerts that LifeLock placed on customers’ credit files protected only against certain forms of identity theft and gave them no protection against the misuse of existing accounts, the most common type of identity theft. It also allegedly provided no protection against medical identity theft or employment identity theft, in which thieves use personal information to get medical care or apply for jobs. And even for types of identity theft for which fraud alerts are most effective, they do not provide absolute protection. They alert creditors opening new accounts to take reasonable measures to verify that the individual applying for credit actually is who he or she claims to be, but in some instances, identity thieves can thwart even reasonable precautions.

New account fraud, the type of identity theft for which fraud alerts are most effective, comprised only 17 percent of identity theft incidents, according to an FTC survey released in 2007.

The FTC’s complaint further alleged that LifeLock also claimed that it would prevent unauthorized changes to customers’ address information, that it constantly monitored activity on customer credit reports, and that it would ensure that a customer always would receive a telephone call from a potential creditor before a new account was opened. The FTC charged that those claims were false.

In addition to its deceptive identity theft protection claims, LifeLock allegedly made claims about its own data security that were not true. According to the FTC, LifeLock routinely collected sensitive information from its customers, including their social security numbers and credit card numbers. The company claimed:

• “Only authorized employees of LifeLock will have access to the data that you provide to us, and that access is granted only on a ‘need to know’ basis.”
• “All stored personal data is electronically encrypted.”
• “LifeLock uses highly secure physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard the confidentiality and security of the data you provide to us.”

The FTC charged that LifeLock’s data was not encrypted, and sensitive consumer information was not shared only on a “need to know” basis. In fact, the agency charged, the company’s data system was vulnerable and could have been exploited by those seeking access to customer information.

The FTC and state settlements with LifeLock bar deceptive claims, and prohibit the company from misrepresenting the “means, methods, procedures, effects, effectiveness, coverage, or scope of any identity theft protection service.” They also bar misrepresentations about the risk of identity theft, and the manner and extent to which LifeLock protects consumers’ personal information. In addition, the settlements require LifeLock to establish a comprehensive data security program and obtain biennial independent third-party assessments of that program for twenty years.

The Attorneys General of Alaska, Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia participated in this settlement.

In addition to LifeLock, the FTC complaint named co-founders Richard Todd Davis and Robert J. Maynard, Jr., who will be barred from the same misrepresentations as LifeLock.

The Commission vote to authorize staff to file the complaint and the settlement with LifeLock and Richard Todd Davis was 4-0. The Commission vote to authorize staff to file the settlement with Robert J. Maynard, Jr. was 3-1, with Commissioner J. Thomas Rosch dissenting. The documents were filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona.

The FTC will use the $11 million it receives from the settlements to provide refunds to consumers. It will be sending letters to the current and former customers of LifeLock who may be eligible for refunds under the settlement, along with instructions for applying. Customers do not have to contact the FTC to be eligible for refunds. Up-to-date information about the redress program can be found at 202-326-3757 and at www.ftc.gov/lifelock.

NOTE: The Commission files a complaint when it has “reason to believe” that the law has been or is being violated, and it appears to the Commission that a proceeding is in the public interest. The complaint is not a finding or ruling that the defendant has actually violated the law. Stipulated judgements are for settlement purposes only and do not constitute an admission by the defendant of a law violation. Consent judgments have the force of law when signed by the judge.

In addition to announcing the LifeLock case, the FTC’s Northeast Regional Office sponsored an event to kick off National Consumer Protection week. The goal was to alert consumers to the top complaint categories in the Northeast Region and to arm consumers with the tools to recognize and protect themselves against all types of fraud. Also participating were the Better Business Bureau serving Metropolitan New York, the New York Attorney General’s Office, the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, and AARP.

The Federal Trade Commission works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in English or Spanish, click http://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov or call 1-877-382-4357. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to more than 1,700 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. For free information on a variety of consumer topics, click http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/consumer.shtm.

MEDIA CONTACT: Claudia Bourne Farrell
Office of Public Affairs
202-326-2181STAFF CONTACT:Maneesha Mithal or David Lincicum
Bureau of Consumer Protection
202-326-2771 or 202-326 2773

(FTC File No. 072-3069)
(Lifelock)

Posted in News Alerts | Print | No Comments »

March 10, 2010 by Terry.

I couldn’t say it any better than Wired.com, so here is their story:

Lifelock Dinged 12 Million

Lifelock Dinged $12 Million for Deceptive Business Practices (Wired.com)

By Kim Zetter, March 9, 2010

The CEO of Lifelock, Todd Davis, became famous for advertising his Social Security number on television ads and billboards promising his $10 monthly service would protect consumers from identity theft.

The company also offered a $1 million guarantee to compensate customers for losses incurred if they became a victim of identity theft after signing up for the service.

But the Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday that the claims were bogus (.pdf) and accused Lifelock, based in Arizona, of operating a scam and con operation. The commission announced, along with 35 state attorneys general, that it had levied a fine of $12 million against the company for deceptive business practices and for failing to secure sensitive customer data. Of that amount, $11 million will go to refund customers who subscribed to the service. Consumers will receive a letter from the FTC and their attorney general explaining how to take part in the settlement.

The FTC said that Lifelock, which advertises itself as “#1 In Identity Theft Protection,” engaged in false advertising by promising customers that if they signed up with its service their personal information would become useless to thieves.

“In truth, the protection they provided left such a large hole … that you could drive that truck through it,” said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz, referring to a Lifelock TV ad showing a truck painted with the CEO’s Social Security number driving around city streets.

The company, he said, used scare tactics to convince potential customers they would be unprotected from identity theft without its service, and of warning them in letters that they were at a high risk of identity theft.

“I was a recipient of one letter,” Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said.

For the annual subscription fee, Lifelock promised customers that it would place fraud alerts on their credit accounts with the three credit reporting agencies. As a result, the company said, thieves would not be able to open unauthorized credit or bank accounts in their name.

But Leibowitz said the promises were deceptive because thieves could still rack up unauthorized charges on existing accounts — the most common type of identity theft. It also couldn’t protect thieves from obtaining a loan in a Lifelock customer’s name.

In fact, Lifelock CEO Davis was the victim of identity theft in 2007 when a thief used his widely advertised Social Security number to obtain a $500 loan in Davis’ name.

Lifelock also promised customers that sensitive data they provided the company to perform its protection services — such as their Social Security number, name and address and bank card information — would be encrypted and protected in other ways on Lifelock’s servers and accessed only by authorized employees on a need-to-know basis.

“Your documents, while in our care, will be treated as if they were cash,” the company promised.

In truth, the FTC said, until at least September 2007, the company failed to provide “reasonable and appropriate security to prevent unauthorized access to personal information stored on its corporate network” either in transit through the network, stored in a database or transmitted over the internet.

None of the data was encrypted, said the FTC, either in storage or in transit. The company also had poor password management practices for employees and vendors who accessed the information. Lifelock also failed to limit access to sensitive data to only those people who needed access.

What’s more, the company failed to apply critical security patches and updates to its network and “failed to employ sufficient measures” to detect and prevent unauthorized access to its network, “such as by installing antivirus or antispyware programs on computers used by employees to remotely access the network or regularly recording and reviewing activity on the network,” the complaint said.

The latter is particularly ironic. Lifelock often promoted its services to companies that experienced data breaches, convincing them to offer a complimentary Lifelock subscription to people whose data was compromised in a breach. All the while, the FTC claims, Lifelock was making its own customer information vulnerable to a breach.

“As a result of these practices, an unauthorized person could obtain access to personal information stored on defendants’ corporate network, in transit through defendants’ corporate network or over the internet, or maintained in defendants’ offices,” according to the complaint.

According to the terms of an FTC settlement agreement with Lifelock to settle the allegations, the company must inform consumers about the limitations of its service. The company will also have to implement a data security program to protect the customer data it handles.

“As long as the company is honest and up front and lets consumers know what they’re getting and has adequate security safeguards for customer information, we wish them well,” said Leibowitz.

Lifelock said in a statement that, in October, it “rolled out the next generation of identity theft protection services that provide even better and broader protection to its valued members.” The company added that its new-and-improved service, which was not the subject of the FCC inquiry, has prevented more than 5,000 fraudulent credit applications.

The company and its owners have been at the center of controversy for a number of years. According to an investigative report by the Phoenix New Times in 2007, Lifelock co-founder Robert Maynard Jr., was suspected at one time of being an identity thief himself and stealing his father’s identity to obtain an American Express card. He had also been the target of another FTC investigation involving a previous business venture unrelated to Lifelock. Maynard resigned from the company after news of his past was published, but he continued to work for the firm as a contractor.

See also:

• Lifelock Sued for Corproate Identity Theft
• Police Say Lifelock Founder Coerced Unusable Confession From Identity Theif
• Lifelock Founder a Shady Identity Thief?
• Lifelock Founder Resigns Amid Controversy

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March 3, 2010 by Terry.

 Check yours at:
http://patriotupdate.com/stories/read/2928/Are-you-really-a-conservative-Take-this-short-political-quiz-and-find-out

The RED DOT on the Chart shows where you fit on the political map.

Your PERSONAL issues Score is 80%.
Your ECONOMIC issues Score is 100%.

According to your answers, the political group that agrees with you most is…

Request more information about libertarianism

LIBERTARIANS support maximum liberty in both personal and

economic matters. They advocate a much smaller government; one

that is limited to protecting individuals from coercion and violence.

Libertarians tend to embrace individual responsibility, oppose

government bureaucracy and taxes, promote private charity, tolerate

diverse lifestyles, support the free market, and defend civil liberties.

Request more information about libertarianism

…………………………………………………………….

14,685,689

.

THAT’S HOW MANY TIMES THE QUIZ
HAS BEEN TAKEN SO FAR SINCE 1995.

…………………………………………………………….

Other Political Philosophies

Left (Liberal)
Liberals usually embrace freedom of choice in personal matters,

but tend to support significant government control of the economy.

They generally support a government-funded “safety net” to help

the disadvantaged, and advocate strict regulation of business.

Liberals tend to favor environmental regulations, defend civil liberties

and free expression, support government action to promote equality,

and tolerate diverse lifestyles.

Centrist
Centrists espouse a “middle ground” regarding government control

of the economy and personal behavior. Depending on the issue,

they sometimes favor government intervention and sometimes

support individual freedom of choice. Centrists pride themselves on

keeping an open mind, tend to oppose “political extremes,” and

emphasize what they describe as “practical” solutions to problems.

Right (Conservative)
Conservatives tend to favor economic freedom, but frequently

support laws to restrict personal behavior that violates “traditional

values.” They oppose excessive government control of business, while

endorsing government action to defend morality and the traditional

family structure. Conservatives usually support a strong military,

oppose bureaucracy and high taxes, favor a free-market economy,

and endorse strong law enforcement.

Statist (Big Government)
Statists want government to have a great deal of power over the

economy and individual behavior. They frequently doubt whether

economic liberty and individual freedom are practical options in

today’s world. Statists tend to distrust the free market, support

high taxes and centralized planning of the economy, oppose

diverse lifestyles, and question the importance of civil liberties.

Posted in IDT - Political | Print | No Comments »

February 28, 2010 by Terry.

This brought a good laugh - Well, at least I enjoyed it:

Little Johnny is not an Obama fan:

A teacher asked her 6th grade class how many of them were Obama fans.

Not really knowing what an Obama fan is, but wanting to be liked by the teacher, all the kids raised their hands except for Little Johnny.

The teacher asked Little Johnny why he has decided to be different… again.

Little Johnny said, “Because I’m not an Obama fan.”

The teacher asked, “Why aren’t you a fan of Obama?” Johnny said, “Because I’m a Republican.”

The teacher asked him why he’s a Republican.  Little Johnny answered, “Well, my Mom’s a Republican and my Dad’s a Republican, so I’m a Republican.”

Annoyed by this answer, the teacher asked, “If your mom were a moron and your dad were an idiot, what would that make you?”

With a big smile, Little Johnny replied, “That would make me an Obama fan.”

—————————————–
:

Posted in IDT - America | Print | No Comments »

December 30, 2009 by Terry.

Have some peace of mind while knowing it is reported that only about 19% [per Utah stats — around 28% for rest of country] of IDentity Theft is related to ‘financial’ id theft. It is the balance of that 100%, and the approximately 27,000 “reported” cases per day, that one may want to be concerned about.

Enjoy the holidays and have fun.

You should check out this great site I joined called Blastoff Network. It’s a customizable page that combines the best news, videos, music, and social networking with cash-back shopping from the biggest retailers such as Target, Best Buy, and Tiger Direct. Check out Blastoff Network at http://my.blastoffnetwork.com/viralvideo/223126412 or visit my Blastoff Homepage at http://my.blastoffnetwork.com/talktoday

Posted in Internet | Print | No Comments »