Identity Theft

Want to go to the 2012 London Olympics? This email isn't your ticket

Stella M. Chavez Sep 10th 2010 @ 3:45PM EST Filed Under: Identity Theft, Consumer Ally

If you read an email that says you've won tickets to the 2012 Olympics in London, don't be fooled. It is yet another lure by scam artists intent on getting your personal information, the Better Business Bureau warns.

The BBB says the fake emails use the U.K. National Lottery logo making them look like they're legitimate. The emails tell recipients that their e-mails have been chosen as "one of 10 lucky winners." The emails instruct recipients to call a "global telephone" number and give their a lottery confirmation number for details about their winnings. Recipients are also instructed to send an email that includes their full name, address and date of birth.

Continue reading Want to go to the 2012 London Olympics? This email isn't your ticket

Warning: E-mails pretending to be from FedEx can wreak havoc

Beau Brendler Sep 3rd 2010 @ 6:00PM EST Filed Under: Technology, Identity Theft, Consumer Ally

If your mailbox has been bombed the last couple of weeks by e-mails appearing to be from FedEx and claiming a package sent to you has gone undelivered, blame Zeus, king of criminal bots, for helping to release another Kraken on the Internet. The bogus spam e-mails are still finding their way into mailboxes as you read.

This is far from the first time the FedEx brand and its domain has been spoofed. But these e-mails are written to seem like they are coming from a staff person (often with a Hispanic name) inside FedEx, using a @fedex.com suffix. Some are sent with a subject line saying "Fedex Invoice copy" and "Fedex Item Status."

Unlike other falsely FedEx-branded malware attacks, this one contains an attached image instead of text, according to technology specialist Graham Cluley at U.K.-based Security firm Sophos.

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ID Lifeguards charged thousands for unwanted protection, says lawsuit

Linda Doell Sep 2nd 2010 @ 5:30PM EST Filed Under: Identity Theft, Consumer Ally

A California company allegedly charged thousands of Illinois consumers for identity protection services they didn't sign up for, according to a lawsuit filed today by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

The lawsuit alleges that ID Lifeguards Inc., and its owner, Arthur Natanyan of Burbank, Calif., broke the state's consumer fraud law and duped consumers into buying identity protection for $12.95 a month after they responded to sales offers for other products on third-party websites. Between September 2009 and March 2010, the company charged $157,562 for services that showed up on the phone bills of 5,071 Illinois consumers under miscellaneous charges, court papers said.

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Parents urged to monitor their children's credit reports

Stella M. Chavez Aug 26th 2010 @ 6:30PM EST Filed Under: Family Money, Fraud, Identity Theft, Consumer Ally

The Better Business Bureau and FBI are warning consumers to beware of scammers trying to sell them "credit privacy numbers" to help boost their credit scores.

These digits could actually be Social Security numbers belonging to children. FBI officials have been looking into the problem, which they discovered during their investigation of the mortgage fraud crisis. They say thieves are obtaining the numbers using computers to find those that are dormant.

"People can use them to establish fake credit and then run up that credit [line]," Chris Thetford, a spokesman for the BBB in St. Louis told Consumer Ally.

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Identity theft protection: 12 tips to help consumers

Stella M. Chavez Aug 26th 2010 @ 7:00AM EST Filed Under: Family Money, Identity Theft, Consumer Ally

Identity thieves always look for ways to steal your personal information. It seems like hardly a week goes by without hearing about a major data theft or of people who've become victims of this type of crime.

So, how do you protect yourself?

Here are a dozen tips courtesy of several attorneys general, the Federal Trade Commission and the National Crime Prevention Council:

Continue reading Identity theft protection: 12 tips to help consumers

Catching companies that give your e-mail address to spammers

Jason Cochran Aug 17th 2010 @ 12:00PM EST Filed Under: Extracurriculars, Technology, Fraud, Identity Theft

Into every life, a little spam must fall. About half the e-mail sent every day is junk. You can be as careful as you want with your e-mail address, yet somehow, word gets out, and the junk flows in. But there is one thing you can do to trace leaks when they occur, and it's free.

The secret is to create a new e-mail address every time you open a new account or contact a company. For example, when you deal with United Airlines, you might make an address called United12345@yahoo.com. For Dell, it might be DellAddressForMe@hotmail.com.

Then, when spam comes in, you can look at the address it was sent to and know who leaked your details. If spam starts trickling in via AcmeBirdSeed3923, you'll know that it was Acme that's got the leak, since it was the only company that uses that particular e-mail address.

Continue reading Catching companies that give your e-mail address to spammers

'Dislike' button on Facebook a scam

Gergana Koleva Aug 16th 2010 @ 5:35PM EST Filed Under: Identity Theft, Consumer Ally, In the News

A new Facebook button that many of the social network's users have been craving has cropped up and is showing in random status updates urging consumers to get it so they can "dislike" other posts. While it may look tempting -- demand for a 'dislike' option has been surging for a while among the website's 500 million members -- it's a scam, designed to install malicious spyware on consumers' computers and potentially steal their identity, warns the Better Business Bureau.

The button appears alongside a message stating, "I just got the the Dislike button, so now I can dislike all of your dumb posts lol!!" or "Get the official DISLIKE button now", and is followed by a link. Facebook does not have a "dislike" button.

Continue reading 'Dislike' button on Facebook a scam

Staying safe when selling on Craigslist

Josh Smith Aug 11th 2010 @ 2:00PM EST Filed Under: Technology, Fraud, Identity Theft, Consumer Ally

Selling items on Craigslist can be an easy way to clean out the clutter and make some extra cash, but the online marketplace isn't always the safest place to buy and sell, as Craigslist itself warns users. To demonstrate the hazards and gain some attention for its name and services, the anti-virus and security company CyberDefender, staged what it called a "sting" operation on Aug. 3.

Cyber Defender placed ads in six Craigslist categories. Four of the ads received responses from phishing operations, each trying to trick the advertiser into revealing its private account information. Some of the responses arrived withing 24 hours of the ads' placement.

Typically, the phishing e-mails would direct the advertiser to a fake Craigslist web page in which they were instructed to enter the account information to confirm the their identity and/or ownership of the advertised items. With the private information collected, the phishing outfit would then follow up with a deluge of phishing attempts seeking eBay and PayPal login information, according to Achal Khetarpal, Director of CyberDefender Research Labs.

Continue reading Staying safe when selling on Craigslist

Russian hackers target job-seekers with counterfeit scam

Beau Brendler Jul 29th 2010 @ 5:00PM EST Filed Under: Fraud, Identity Theft, Consumer Ally

A rogue Russian counterfeiting operation cranked out $9 million worth of fake checks and cashed them using two familiar ruses for duping consumers: posting fake "help wanted" ads to job-search sites, and convincing applicants to act as "money-mules" to bulk-cash bogus checks.

Continue reading Russian hackers target job-seekers with counterfeit scam

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