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You’d think with all the media attention regarding data breaches, hackers and identity theft, that consumers would be more focused on their privacy and how to protect their information from prying eyes. Surprisingly, almost 70% of the people are clueless about how a criminal might have got a hold of their personal information.

We all have a lot going on in our lives, and this is exactly how identity thieves like us. Ever lurking, these criminals are counting on us being too busy to give any thoug

How many times have you read, or at least caught a headline, of the latest high profile missing child case? How many stories have we heard about the kid who got lost on a hike? His body was found several miles from where he’d been last seen, concluding a several-day search.

What if he had had an iPhone on his person at the time he wandered off in the middle of some vast woods? Sure he could call, but then what? Android and iPhones have a “find my phone” feature that a parent can track down a lost

In 2015, depending on the kind and type of identity theft we are talking about, identity thieves impacted 1.5 million people or more, says the Javelin Strategy & Research report. That’s more than double than for 2014.

The move from stripe cards to chip cards has motivated crooks to fasten their seatbelts and really take off with an accelerated mode of operation. For them, your Social Security Number is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Thieves will use it to set up new accounts in the vi

Do you work for a corporation, especially in the U.S.? You may be at risk for tax return fraud.

ADP is a payroll provider. Hackers were able to acquire tax information of employees of U.S. Bank from ADP. Now, this doesn’t mean that ADP was directly hacked into. Instead, what happened, it seems, their authentication system was flawed and ADP failed to implement a protection strategy for the personal data to keep it safe from prying eyes.

The crooks registered ADP accounts by using the stolen data o

The Identity Protection PIN tool on the IRS.gov site has been temporarily suspended—because it was recently hacked into. The tool provides retrieval of forgotten or lost IP PINs to users who want an extra layer of protection against identity theft.

But some users who received the IP PINs recently via the online tool learned that a thief had used their IP PIN to file tax returns in their name.

So now, for the moment, you cannot use the IRS’s online function to retrieve your IP PIN; meanwhile, the I

Here’s one for the know-it-alls: Kids are 35 percent more likely to become victims of identity theft than are adults. Betcha didn’t know that! This startling news comes from a 2015 Javelin Strategy & Release study.

Needless to say, the bulk of parents aren’t on top of this problem, unaware that thieves go after children’s SSNs like two-year-olds grabbing at candy. Thieves know that kids (and their parents) don’t monitor their credit reports. Thieves know that they can get away with their crime al

13.1 million people were stricken by identity theft last year in America, reports a study by Javelin Strategy & Research which reveals:

• Many people who don’t trust their banks are unwittingly doing things that make crime easier for crooks. This includes not using the bank’s protection services such as e-mail alerts.
• Oddly, there are more victims than ever, but the total amount stolen is less. But that hardly matters when you consider that in the past six years, $112 billion have been stolen.
• 18 per

What are you doing to prevent tax identity theft? Do you even know what steps to take? You’d better, because this crime has tripled since 2010, says the FTC.

A report on foxbusiness.com describes tax identity theft as the act of stealing someone’s personal information, then the crook files a phony tax return in the victim’s name to get a refund. The victim will never see it in their mailbox. And that’s only the beginning of the victim’s problems.

First, your complaint that you didn’t get your chec

When it comes to tossing into the rubbish your old computer device, out of sight means out of mind, right? Well yeah, maybe to the user. But let’s tack something onto that well-known mantra: Out of site, out of mind, into criminal’s hands.

Your discarded smartphone, laptop or what-have-you contains a goldmine for thieves—because the device’s memory card and hard drive contain valuable information about you.

Maybe your Social Security number is in there somewhere, along with credit card information

A group of people who are actively collaborating to commit identity fraud is known as an identity fraud ring. These rings are generally made up of two or more career criminals, often including family members or close friends. These rings work by members either stealing a victim’s identity or sharing personal information such as a date-of-birth or Social Security number. Though many fraud rings occur in large cities, there are a surprisingly high number of rings found in rural areas.

According to

Wow, a lawyer in Memphis got scammed by his secretary—she embezzled over $362,000 from him, says an article on wreg.com. Attorney Jerry Schatz hired Teresa Sumpter, 48, in July of 2013.

Little did he know that his assistant would end up stealing checks from his trust account, forging her signature on them, and opening three credit cards—all in his name. And she named herself as an authorized user.

And what did this conniving little pill do with the stolen money? Sumpter bought several vehicles, pa

There are tried and true ways to protect yourself from identity theft—ways that you may not have even considered. Check them out (no specific order):

1. Evaluate your passwords. Does every online account have a different password or are you using the same one for multiple accounts? Fix this problem immediately.
2. However, make the new passwords at least eight characters ideally, and include symbols, not just letters and numbers. Avoid using actual words or names, or keyboard sequences. Password-crackin

There should be more TV commercials for preventing identity theft—it’s nearly epidemic. But also epidemic is the lack of identity security that people have when traveling. Here are some ways to avoid having your identity stolen while traveling:

• Prior to leaving for your trip, clean out your purse and wallet. Figure out what you really need for the trip, then bring only those items.
• Contact the post office to put your mail on vacation hold.
• Get a home-screen-locking password for your smartphone.
• Equi

Every time you have a medical procedure done, including routine checkups and treatment for minor issues, paperwork is generated. You should have copies of every single paper. This is one line of defense against medical identity theft.

Review your paperwork thoroughly for unauthorized or duplicate charges, mistakes with diagnoses, dates, names, anything that looks odd. Signs of medical identity theft include:

• Being billed for treatment or diagnostics you never received.
• Being told you’ve maxed out y

Okay, so you’re 18 or 19 and in college, and are stressed because you have to be 21 in order to gain entry to a night club or bar where you’d like to drink up a storm and mingle with a “more mature” crowd. Or really, you just want to meet someone.

Life sure is tough, isn’t it? You have to wait till you’re 21, but by then…you may be graduated from college (and a lot more mature, and thus, getting plastered would no longer have appeal). What a bummer, dude! The time to have fun is when you’re young

There are many reasons someone might right-click on your image and “Save image as…”

Porn, Sex and Dating Sites

• A woman might steal your blog headshot and use it for her dating site profile.
• A perv might take the picture of your child off your Facebook page and put it on a porn site.
• A person who runs a racy dating site might take your image and use it to advertise his service.

Scams

• Someone might use, without your knowledge, a photo of your house for a rental scam.
• Your motorcycle, jet ski, boat, puppy

You’ve seen TV commercials and print ads about identity theft, and the “victim” is always an adult. That’s not realistic. The actor-portrayal should be that of a child. Yes, a kid.

Children are 51 times more likely than adults to have their identity stolen, says research from Carnegie Mellon University’s CyLab.

Crooks want kids’ Social Security numbers. And crooks like the fact that kids are debt-free. Wow, with no debt to the child’s name, the thief could easily open up a line of credit in that v

Who has time to think about identity protection when planning a wedding? And why, for that matter? Well, there’s good reason: Marriage begets a change in identities. The months preceding the big day should be when the couple starts taking action to avoid identity theft.

• If you’re using any website or smartphone application to organize your wedding, make sure it’s protected with a password—a long password that contains zero clues about your wedding, identity or anything else personal. An ideal pas

Is it easier for crooks to prey on senior citizens, or is it that most targets are the seniors?

Well, one thing’s for sure: A disproportionate percentage of identity theft complaints come from people 50-plus (though I’m sure some readers would hardly consider 50-somethings to be seniors—but you get the point).

Some scammers go after seniors because they know that many older people have a lot of money saved up. And it’s also no secret that many seniors aren’t as sharp as they used to be, and also a

When you hear the dictum, “You should protect yourself from identity theft,” do you equate this with pushing a wheelbarrow loaded with rocks up a hill? It would actually be more accurate to picture slicing into a fresh apple pie, because identity theft protection is as easy as pie. Check out the following things you should do—without breaking any sweat:

1. Examine your credit card statements once a month to catch any unauthorized charges. Even a tiny charge should not be blown off, since often, thie