SHOPPING ONLINE

KNOW THE SELLER.Use online merchants who are membersof well-known certification programs suchas Verisign or the Better Business Bureau.

PAYMENT OPTIONS.Pay with credit card instead of cash orwiring money. You can delay payment andseek a credit from the card issuer if theproducts or services are not delivered.

PASSWORD PRIVACY.Create complex passwords. Do not usea password that gives personal infor-mation about you, such as birthdate,and do not use the same password formultiple sites.

PAPER TRAIL.Print and save copies of all transactionsso that you can match them up toaccounts and bills later on.

SECURE SITES.Use secure sites only. Look for the keyor padlock at the bottom of your webbrowser, and when you, pay look for theURL to change from http to shttp or https.

SAFE SOFTWARE.Install reliable virus protection andanti-spyware software on your PC. Donot fall for scamware or false claimsthat your site has a virus and that youmust respond.

SECURE COMPUTERS.When youʼre away from home, do notsave private information onto computersused by the public. In public places,log out completely and do not savelogin information.

DONʼT GO PHISHING.Do not respond to emails or instantmessages that ask you to provideaccount information or your personaldata for verification, and donʼt followlinks to websites in such emails either.

FACEBOOK FOLLIES.Social media sites are increasingly usedby retailers to promote sales. But theyare also increasingly used by scammersand people masquerading as friends.Go directly to the retailer site to takeadvantage of a deal.

NO HOLIDAY FORIDENT ITY THIEVESDuring the winter holiday season, more than any other time, you arevulnerable to identity theft. Youʼre doing more shopping, youʼre in ahurry, the crowds are bigger, offers and sales are flying fast and furious,cash and credit cards are out and about, festive decorations distract,and the good feelings of the season lead you to let down your guard.Sad but true. Here are some tips to protect yourself online, at thestore and at home.

AT THE STORECLEAN YOUR WALLET.Make your wallet clean and lean. Take only thebasics such as credit card, checks or cash youneed for the day. Never carry your SocialSecurity card around with you.

PURSE POLICY.If you must take a purse or pocketbook, use onethat zips and hangs in front of you.

BE VIGILANT.Malls and stores are crowded. Be aware of othershoppers standing nearby; they may be copyingyour credit card information or taking cellphonepictures. Or they may be traditional pursesnatchers and pickpockets.

ATM ACTION.Avoid ATMʼs that are not bank branded; othersare easy to run a scam on. Use ATMs that are inbright light or have a security guard. Beware ofskimmers; these are unauthorized gadgets thatcan capture and store your information.

COLD SHOULDER.When you use a card in a store, watch out forshoulder surfers, people looking over yourshoulder when you enter your PIN. Donʼt beafraid to tell them to back off.

CARS AND VALUABLES.Do not leave valuables in your car. Glove com-partments are often the scene of a crime. If youmust, place pocketbooks and other items in thetrunk; it is a little harder to access.

RETAIN RECEIPTS.Keep all receipts and, when you have matchedthem to bank and credit card statements, shredthem rather than putting them in the trash.

HOME SWEET HOME

HOME SAFETY.The holidays brings more people into yourhome. Fun, but it makes it easier to have acheckbook, financial statement, wallet orcellphone stolen. A fireproof wall safe is agood investment.

POSTAL PROTECTION.Mail envelopes containing checks or othersensitive information inside the Post Office.Watch out for bills or other mail that comes ona regular basis; failure to receive these couldsuggest mail theft.

GIVE CHARITY WITH CARE.We all want to support good causes. But be surethat telephone or door-to-door solicitations arelegitimate. Insist on the personʼs identificationand documentation.

MONITOR STATEMENTS.Most holiday identity theft can be caughtrelatively quickly by monitoring checking, debitand credit card accounts, and other financialstatements.

THE GIFT THAT KEEPS GIVING.Give yourself and your loved ones the gift of anidentity protection system that can monitor keyonline accounts, furnish updated credit reports,and even provide insurance for any losses.

The age of innocence is over.Children are an excellent targetfor identity theft, since theircredit records are spotless, theydo not make use of their credit,and no one may notice the theftfor years. More than half a millionchildren a year are victims.There are two ways to prevent most childidentity theft. One is to protect their SocialSecurity number. This is the number mostasked for by the government for taxpurposes, for doctors and hospitals, forbanks and businesses, and for schools,daycare centers and sports teams. As aresult, it is the most open to attack of allchildrenʼs documents. Recommendedsafeguards include keeping the SocialSecurity card and other important docu-ments, such as the birth certificate, lockedin a safe place. Further, when a medicalprovider, bank or institution asks for theSocial Security number, always ask why.It is your right to refuse to provide itunless the reason is sound. Do not givethe number to your child before theyneed it. Be skeptical of any telephone callor website that asks for the number. Andnever, ever, put it online for any purpose.Finally, check your childʼs credit reportsfrequently and ask for a Social Securityearnings record. The latter can alertyou as to whether someone is using thenumber to apply illegally for a job.

The second key to preventing child identitytheft is to monitor their computer use.There are predators out there who threat-ening both safety and identity. To combatthis, talk to your kids and educate them tokeep personal information private whenthey are online. Children should not usetheir real name in an email account orgive too much detail on social networkingsites. You can help them. Check out thesites your kids visit, see what kinds ofinformation they are being asked for, beselective about what websites they havepermission to see, and become familiarwith your rights to control or delete yourchildʼs personal data under the ChildrenʼsOnline Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).This legislation, enforced by the FTC,gives parents control over what informa-tion websites can collect from their kids.All websites for kids under 13, or anygeneral site that collects information fromkids, are required to comply. Finally,report any website that you believe haswrongly collected or disclosed informationfrom your kids.

CHILDREN AT RISK

This is particularly troubling today; stolenpassports can be used for acts of terrorism aswell as for more common crimes such asillegal entry, money laundering and narcoticstrafficking. Minor alterations to the picture,name and description in a passport makesit appear as if it belong to the identity thief.Some basic tips for softening the blow of alost or stolen passport: travel with copies ofmajor documents, like birth certificate andmarriage certificate, as well as the passport;keep copies separate from the originals; knowthe phone numbers and addresses of the U.S.embassy or consulate for the relevant coun-tries. If your passport is lost or stolen, reportit promptly to the State Department.

Two new forms of digital passports add atechnological twist to the risk of passport theft.One is the U.S. Passport Card, a relativelysimple card that is good for travel within NorthAmerica. More than a million Americans havebeen issued these cards. They contain RFID

microchips which transmit a signal so yourmovement across borders can be automaticallyrecorded. A second digital security document,the Biometric Passport or U.S. ElectronicPassport, is also becoming commonplace.These are true international travel passportsand replace old-style passports as they expire.The Biometric Passports store lots more dataon the chips, including facial or iris recognition,fingerprints, digital photos, personal data, andmore. As you go through passport control,those features are electronically checked.

No sooner have these new digital passportsbeen implemented than reports are surfacingthat the microchips on the devices can beread by scanners from 20 or 30 feet away.Many security experts argue that the system,though encrypted, is not secure enough and issusceptible to identity theft. Others say thesystem is safe. But in a telling YouTube clip,an ethical hacker can be seen driving aroundSan Francisco, reading off the numbers ofpeopleʼs digital passports inside purses andpockets, and transferring them to the laptopcomputer in his car. Expert advice for protect-ing yourself: keep the digital passports intheir sleeve since they cannot be read in thatcircumstance. And, of course, the same safetyrules as in the old days for making sure theseitems do not fall into the wrong hands.

PASSPORT TO TROUBLEPassports have long been a common form of identitytheft. In the wrong hands, they enable fake identificationand travel. Lose control of your passport and you mayas well say goodbye to your whole identity.

WATCH A VIDEO ABOUTDIGITAL PASSPORT THEFT

REPORT A LOST OR STOLENPASSPORT TO THE STATEDEPARTMENT

THE FED CHIEFNo one is safe from identity theft, not even FederalReserve Chair Ben Bernanke. His personalchecking account became a target after his wifeAnna's purse was stolen from her chair at aCapitol Hill Starbucks. It contained her SocialSecurity card, checkbook, credit cards and IDs.Someone started cashing checks on their bankaccount just days after the purse was stolen.The thefts helped inspire an ongoing investigationinto a sophisticated ring. “Identity theft is a seriouscrime that affects millions of Americans eachyear,” Bernanke said in a statement. “Our familywas but one of 500 separate instances traced toone crime ring. I am grateful for the law enforce-ment officers who patiently and diligently work tosolve and prevent these financial crimes.”

CO-WORKERS COMPROMISEDAdeniyi Adeyemi, a computer technician wasindicted on 149 counts of grand larceny, ID theft,money laundering, fraud, computer tampering andunlawful possession of personal identification in-formation. The Manhattan DA accused 27-year-oldAdeyemi of committing theft against more than150 of his co-workers at the at the Bank of NewYork Mellon, using their identities to steal morethan $1.1 million from charities and non-profitorganizations over seven years. Adeyemi allegedlyopened more than 30 accounts with banks andbrokerage firms in the names of co-workers, anddeposited stolen funds. He also hijacked theironline banking profiles and wired money stolenfrom their accounts into other fraudulently openedbank accounts. The DA said credit reports fordozens of the ID theft victims and other personallyidentifying information were found in the defendantʼsapartment. A storage locker contained notebookswith hundreds of names, Social Securitynumbers, account number and credit cards.

DOCTORING THE RECORDSDr. Lisa Barden, a Southern Californiaobstetrician and mother, has been arrestedon 276 felony charges of identity theft,forgery, possession of controlled substancesand burglary. She's an admitted painkilleraddict. To facilitate her Vicodin habit, shedelivered babies and then stole the identitiesof the new mothers. She used the identitiesto obtain prescription painkillers at 43 differ-ent pharmacies across the Coachella Valley.Barden's scheme ended with an arrestoutside a Palm Springs hospital where she'sdelivered hundreds of babies. "It's fraud.She's lied. She's cheated," said RiversideCounty Deputy District Attorney JeanneRoy. Barden has agreed to plead guilty tothe narcotics-related charges against her.She says she would like to practice medicineagain but would look for a job that would notrequire her to write prescriptions for narcotics.

TRUE STORIES

MAILBOX MADNESSA stakeout at a Malibu shopping center led to thearrest of previously convicted identity thief, PhillipMacksoud. His wife Dawn escaped after trying tohit an officer with her car. The couple had spentbetween $10,000 and $20,000 using credit carsopened in the names of people in the Los Ange-les area. Focusing on an area with lots of wealthypeople and easy to access mailboxes, the crooksbegan forwarding the victimʼs mail to a PO Box ina nearby town. The box was rented with a fakeidentification card with Macksoudʼs picture. “Atthat point it was clearly evident that this was acase of identity theft,” said Detective MichaelRosenberger. “They had been using peopleʼsnames and information to order items either on-line or over the phone and have them shipped to[the PO Box]. Then they came and picked themup.” Rosenberger said that “easily accessiblemailboxes the genesis of the crime.”

DISC DRIVE DISAPPEARSAlmost half a million Connecticut residents are atrisk for identity theft after a portable disk drivedisappeared from Health Net. The company is aregional health plan. The drive included healthinformation, Social Security number sand bankaccounts for all 446,000 Connecticut patients, ac-cording to Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.The information had been compressed, but not

encrypted, although a specialized computer pro-gram is required to read it. Health Net officialssays the information was saved in an image formatthat cannot be read without special software, butthat it contained personal information for manypast, as well as present, Health Net members.

RETIREES HITArizona State Assistant Attorney General VinceRabago says retirees are easy targets and Arizonais the top state for reporting identity thefts. BillMcKenna, 85, and his wife Dorothy learned thehard way. McKenna had worked for a major automanufacturer for 34 years and because healthexpenses were high, his company set up a HealthReimbursement Plan for retirees through WageWorks. “On Oct. 27, we checked our Health Reim-bursement Account to see if our ʻrolled overʼ monieswere indeed there and secure,” Dorothy McKennaexplained. “To our shock, the account was empty.Our first call was to Attorney Generalʼs TerryGoddardʼs office. After a detective was assignedto the case, they found that a fraudulent accounthad been set up at a small bank in Californiausing a debit account. The fraudulent accountowner had withdrawn all the money from the ac-count. After been told of the crime, Wage Worksreimbursed the couple all $7,200 in the account.Bill said, “If Dorothy hadnʼt checked the account,we wouldnʼt have found out,” he said.

UNCHARITABLE ACTA 47 year old Decatur GA woman, Marsha Lynn Foster, wastaken into custody after being charged with soliciting donationsfrom local merchants in a fraudulent manner. The police say sheclaimed to be a representative from Stars and Stripes and saidshe was collecting for Toys for Tots, a reputable charity organi-zation. However, Foster was apparently not affiliated with eithergroup. It turned out there were active arrest warrants againsther, including charges of Identity Theft and Theft by Deception.Local authorities are urging citizens, when approached for dona-tions, to ask for a photo identfication, get a business card andliterature about the charity, and do not give money immediatelybut take time to verify.

Check washing takes place to thetune of $815 million every year inthe U.S. alone. And it is increasingat an alarming rate. The processturns every check into a blankcheck by “washing” already writtenchecks with a chemical solvent,and rewriting it so the criminal canreuse it. Sometimes the entirecheck is rewritten. Often, only therecipientʼs name is changed, so allyou see on your bank statement isthat the check went through for theright amount. It may take months forthe companies you owed to notifyyou. The damage adds up fast.

CHECK WASHINGCAN CLEAN YOU OUT

There are a few simple tips to pro-tect yourself from this scam. First,make sure your mail is as secureas possible: drop it off at the postoffice or a USPS mailbox. Youcannot control check theft com-pletely, but you can do your best.Second, change the pen you use.Standard ballpoint pens are theeasiest to wash, with felt tip androller-ball pens close behind.Many tests have shown that gelpens are the hardest to wash offand some companies are startingto market special inks which ad-here to the paper. You may alsoseek out permanent markers withtips fine enough for check writing.Third, many checks are nowprinted on chemically sensitivepaper that will discolor whenchemicals are used on them. Askyour bank if they have checksprinted on this paper.

Finally, consider online bill paying.You can save time, avoid theproblems of check washing – anda whole range of other check-re-lated threats – by ditching thecheckbook and paying your billsonline. Most billers now let youmake payment online throughtheir website and most banks nowprovide a sophisticated online billpay option. There are also third-party services, many of whom col-lect bills for you and send emailalerts when payments are due.Weʼll explore the advantages ofonline bill pay in the next editionof PROTECT. For now, just knowthat these options are exist andare an increasingly secure way toavoid old-fashioned check writing.

Paper-related identity theft is at anall-time high, affecting hundreds ofthousands so far in 2009. Personalidentifying information is oftenstored in databases over whichwe have no control over. But manyimportant print documents are inour control. Think tax returns, creditcard and brokerage statements, bills,checks, receipts, junk mail and pre-approved credit lines. Unfortunately,many people simply throw olddocuments like these in the trashwithout giving a second thought.

The fact is that criminals “dumpster dive,”the amusing name for the very unfunnyprocess of searching through trash for private,confidential, and sensitive documents.These documents should be destroyed,

and shredding is an effective way to destroydocuments, turning them into undecipher-able waste. All shredders destroy paper,many also shred CDs and DVDs with ease,and heavy-duty models handle staplesand paperclips.

Experts say that the items to be shredded gowell beyond financial documents. The list in-cludes bank information, budgets, cancelledor blank checks, credit card offers and otherjunk mail, credit card information, employeeevaluations, financial statements, incometax records, insurance coverage, investmentinformation, legal papers, medical recordsand personal bills. If you work out of a homeoffice, other items might include accountspayable and receivable, blueprints, buildingand computer access codes, customer lists,estimates and invoices. Most people can makedo with a shredder of their own but there arealso shredding services for high volume needsor documents with particular sensitivity.

In addition to the common sense desire toprotect yourself by shredding, there is some-times a fiduciary duty to do so. For example,clients may provide you with confidentialinformation that you must protect, employ-ees are entitled by law to having personaldata kept secret, and there are regulationsin certain areas that require the destructionof information before disposal. Laws such asHIPAA (healthcare) and Gramm-Leach-Bliley(finance) require specific physical safeguardssuch as shredding to meet compliance.

SHRED, SHRED,

SHRED

LEARN MORE ABOUTPAPER SHREDDERS

SEE SOME OF THE LAWSTHAT REQUIRE SHREDDING

Your credit report, and knowing what isin it, is vital to your economic health.You need a clean report to apply for amortgage on a house, to buy a car, or tofinance any big ticket item. You need toknow how the reports work so that youcan work to improve your credit scores.You need to monitor it for errors anddiscrepancies, which happen often,and to make sure no one has stolenyour identity is running up debts in yourname. Since credit reports are updatedall the time, itʼs also good to checkyour credit report regularly with the threecredit bureaus, Equifax, Trans Unionand Experian; some say at least oncea year while many experts recommenda quarterly review.Because understanding your credit report is soimportant, we have planned a series to exploreindepth whatʼs in your report, how mistakes aremade and corrected, how credit scores work, howyou can improve your scores, and more.

UNDERSTANDING YOURCREDIT REPORT

This first feature in our plannedseries looks at the basics ofwhatʼs in your credit report.Whilte each agency formatsand reports credit reports dif-ferently, all share some basics.

IDENTIFICATION.Name, address, birth date,employer and Social Securitynumber are all there to identifyyou. These are not used inthe credit score.

ACCOUNTS.Lenders report on each accountyou have established with them.These reports include the typeof account such as credit card,auto loan and mortgage, thedate the account is opened,your credit limit or amount ofthe loan, the account balance,and your payment history.

INQUIRIES.When you apply for a loan,lenders ask directly for a copyof your credit report. Theseinquiries are listed, so youcan see everyone who has ac-cessed it in the past two years.Some are voluntary, the onesyou authorized, and some areinvoluntary, such as lenders whoorder your report before mak-ing pre-approved credit offers.

COLLECTIONS.Credit agencies collect publicrecord information about youfrom state and county courts,and from collection agenciesabout overdue debt. This dataincludes bankruptcies, foreclo-sures, suits, wages garnish-ments, liens and judgements.

NEXT ISSUE:

HOW MISTAKES ARE MADEAND HOW TO FIX THEM