Bank Employee Charged with Identity Theft, Fraud

Employee with access to PII comits ID Theft. This is why the FTC wants all businesses to tighten up their policies and procedures. I find it interesting that this has been going "over an eight-year period."

Just another article about ID Theft being an inside job.

http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/community/news/sec/blog/bank-employee-charged-with-identity-theft-fraud/?cs=37196

Check Washing

We've discussed this in some of my classes.

Thieves can remove ink from your check and re-write it without compromising any safeguards, including your legitimate signature. Takes forgery to a new level.

Here is a great illustration if YouTube lets the video stay up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwUTvIyRvdk

Watch this if you write checks, or accept them for that matter.

Norton Risk Assessment Tool and Videos

Norton has a very interesting and entertaining Online Risk Calculator and several videos posted here http://www.everyclickmatters.com/victim/assessment.html to help illustrate the issue of Identity Theft and the "cybercriminal black market."

They remind us that Identity Theft has surpassed the criminal drug trade according to the US Department of Justice.

The assessment will even tell you what they estimate your value to be on the black market.

And then they offer some illuminating videos to illustrate the point. I found it entertaining. You may find it more disturbing. We have discussed these issues in class.

I enjoyed taking the test and particularly the videos at the end which are also available in the top navigation via the link "Explore Digital Dangers."

Consider visiting the site and taking the quiz and watching the videos. I've provided links directly to three of the videos, Bank of Nikolai, S.O.L. and Cyber Hunting in my list of Identity Theft videos at the right.

I do want to comment on the low value they may estimate your Identity to be worth. I have seen other studies with low values for credit card, social security number and other information. Remember, in a supply and demand economy, a low demand (price) indicates a high supply (availability). This may be because there is so much stolen data available. PrivacyRights.org estimates at least 339,674,601 records have been compromised in the US since 2005 as of October 2, 2009. The US Census Bureau estimates today's US population to be 307,645,025. More data has been compromised than there are people living in the country.

Also, I like to point out that if a thief steals your car, he can sell it or part of it only one time before he is out of inventory, but if a thief steals your Social Security Number or Driver's License Number he can sell that information until he gets tired of repeating it because he can't run out of inventory, he can only decide when and if the information is too risky or unprofitable to resell again. So the low value of Identity Theft information supports the fact that there is a lot of information out there that thieves want and it is easy for them to obtain, not vice-versa.

ID Theft Resources and TX AG Abbott Enforcement Actions

As the current November 1, 2009 Federal deadline to comply with the Red Flags Rules approaches, I thought I would recap some of the currently available resources and some of the enforcement actions already taken by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott related to Identity Theft and its impact on you and your business.

The FTC currently mandates all Businesses to adopt an IDTheft Program bu November 1, 2009 here http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/07/redflag.shtm.

They have published this website tp help you figure out what to do http://www.ftc.gov/redflagsrule

The Texas Workforce Commission interpreted the FTC mandate, years ago, in the first four pages of their Winter 2007 newsletter http://www.twc.state.tx.us/news/tbt/tbt0107.pdf

Our Texas Attorney General has filed enforcement actions against companies such as CVS Pharmacy, Lifetime Fitness, Radio Shack, GAB Robins, B&F Finance McAllen, L.L.C, Nino Tax of Brownsville, Cornerstone Fitness and others for violating the Texas "Identity Theft Enforcement and Protection Act" and fined them over $1.8 million collectively.

I recommend that any business, especially in Texas, pay close attention to these issues when crafting their policy to comply with these State and Federal laws.

To help reduce your risks and mitigate your damages should you have a customer, client, news reporter, disgruntled employee, law enforcement officer or even the AGs office discover that you have violated one or more of these laws either knowingly or unknowingly, you should take action immediately to ensure that you have taken reasonable steps and complied with these laws before it is too late.

Do not wait until you experience a break-in, theft or data breach at your company. By then it may already be too late. Attorney General Abbott has stated

"The Office of the Attorney
General will continue aggressively
enforcing identity theft laws and
protecting Texas consumers."

http://www.oag.state.tx.us/agency/weeklyag/2007/0607data.pdf

130 Million Records in Heartland Payment Systems Indictment

I posted about this in February. I may update that later. They say 130 Million Credit Cards were compromised. That is almost half the US population. The article also mentions two accomplices were Russian.

I will update this post later to comment on the numbers involved between this, TJ Maxx and the Checkfree.com breach on Dec 2, 2008.

A federal grand jury has indicted three people on charges of hacking into the files of the credit and debit card processing giant Heartland Payment Systems last year in what the Justice Department is calling the largest identity-theft case ever prosecuted.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/17/AR2009081701915.html

FTC Delays Red Flags Enforcement Until Nov 1, 2009

The FTC has once again delayed their enforcement of the Red Flags Rule in a further effort to make sure all business has adequate time to comply with the Rule as detailed in their latest press release quoted and linked to below.

I will post or update another entry about the website (http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/redflagsrule/index.shtml) they provide to assist business with compliance because they point out on that website that circumstances may change and require you as a business owner to implement a written Identity Theft plan.

FTC Announces Expanded Business Education Campaign on 'Red Flags' Rule

To assist small businesses and other entities, the Federal Trade Commission staff will redouble its efforts to educate them about compliance with the "Red Flags" Rule and ease compliance by providing additional resources and guidance to clarify whether businesses are covered by the Rule and what they must do to comply. To give creditors and financial institutions more time to review this guidance and develop and implement written Identity Theft Prevention Programs, the FTC will further delay enforcement of the Rule until November 1, 2009.

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/07/redflag.shtm

Free Annual Credit Reports

As you may know, we are all entitled to a Free Annual Credit Report under FACTA or the FACT Act.

Be aware that if you visit another site to obtain your "free credit file disclosure" that it may impact your credit rating. I am posting this information to my blog to clarify this issue.

AnnualCreditReport.com provides consumers with the secure means to request and obtain a free credit report once every 12 months from each of the three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies in accordance with the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act).

AnnualCreditReport.com is the only service authorized by Equifax, Experian and TransUnion for this purpose. The three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies have always encouraged consumers to regularly review their credit reports.

AnnualCreditReport.com is the official site to help consumers to obtain their free credit report.