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Thanks, but I already have coverage, from three other data breaches and have my credit files frozen. The credit folks make it a PITA to turn on and off, but it is the best thing to prevent problems.

Bear, we may have to work something out.
Just found that one of our debit cards was hacked.
Been used all over the Metroplex today.
And of course, the bank is closed...

Hey fenderbendertex, have you received a PIN number from the IRS? That's going to help when you file next year. Also, I know the IRS sends you interests if the held your refund. Of course, you'll have to declare that as income if they do.
I hope it gets resolved soon.

Ok, they'll most likely send it to you in January.
Hang in there bud.

Funny how a small Texas bank can get your money back in 1/60 of the time the Federal Government takes just to review your case.

The Most Dangerous Identity Theft Threat

The Huffington Post
08/06/2015

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-levin/the-most-dangerous-identi_b_7945120.html



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http://www.cigarbid.com/...n-this-list#post4044232


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No. That would be against forum rules.

I'm just being a considerate poster.

I scrolled back through my posts. The frequency of attacks and the vulnerability of "secure" servers have to give pause.

And of course if I can help give someone a little peace of mind along the way, I'm glad to help.




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I'm sure this 'explanation' will be used many times other Ashley Madison members, followed by, "That's my story and I sticking to it."

More than 225,000 Apple iPhone accounts hacked

http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/01/technology/apple-iphone-account-hack/index.html


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Have you drummed up any business with this thread?

Nah.

I've had several people ask me if I could help after the fact. I usually can't help at that point, but I send them phone numbers, resources and links.

The programs we sell to non-profits and corporations are modeled after insurance programs. Once someone is in trouble, it's tough to get on our plan. It's like trying to get collision after an accident.

We don't do credit monitoring or fraud alerts. Since the FTC said that ID theft can't be detected or prevented, we focus solely on restoration.

I didn't start this thread, but I am keeping it alive as a public service. Most people don't realize how common identity theft is. Nor do they factor in the financial, medical and criminal devastation it can cause. Most people think it's a fraudulent $400 charge that the bank will refund anyway. That's fraud; we're concerned with identity theft

For instance, a friend of mine was denied a job because his background check revealed that he was on death row in Arizona. The interviewer said "Of course you're not; you're sitting right in front of me. But legal won't let me get past this." Someone got booked and used his info. Now it's on his record. Can you imagine the legal battles (read costs) it'll take to straighten this out?

It's not that I can't sell to someone on this board; it's just not my focus. I'm signing the large national organizations. At the annual membership price, it's hard to pass up.

Out of curiosity I checked my posts. I've posted 13 articles since May 1st. These are just the national stories. What is that, about every two weeks?



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home = hope

Unfortunately this was a HUGE trend last year and continues this year. [See post 68 to see how easy it is to file for someone.] I don't expect this to resolve itself anytime soon. [Post 62 "IRS says thieves stole tax info from additional 220,000"].

Every once in a while I'll come across an article about how to protect your identity. In fact I heard a radio commercial on the way into work about how retailers can protect client data. Both of these are FALSE.

The best some one can do is to take measures to HELP prevent identity theft [firewalls, shredding, passwords, etc.]. But they can only help.

The Federal Trade Commission in a legal brief said that id theft cannot be detected and cannot be prevented. In fact a major id company that promises to lock your identity got fined by the FTC TWICE because of false claims that they could protect a persons identity. The Federal Trade Commission was emphatic: It can't be done.

Should you take measures to help protect your id? YES! And then get a service that will restore it when it gets stolen.

For instance, you wouldn't cancel your homeowners policy because you have smoke alarms. And you wouldn't cancel auto ins because you have a car alarm.

It's good to have both.







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Hackers Steal 5.6 Million Fingerprints of U.S. Government Workers

09/23/2015

Chinese President Xi Jinping comes to the U.S. this week to speak to President Obama about cyberespionage, something China has repeatedly been accused of. While tension has been building, it will be especially high, considering the Office of Personnel Management said Wednesday that 5.6 million workers’ fingerprints have been compromised in an earlier attack, which the CIA says was perpetrated by Chinese hackers.

According to the agency, the hackers won’t be able to do much with the data, but as the New York Times writes, the rise of biometrics everywhere—including iPhones—could mean the severity is being downplayed.

This fingerprint data came in a data breach that contained other personal information from federal employees, contractors and applicants.


http://time.com/money/4046937/hackers-steal-fingerprints/



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Why the Experian-T-Mobile Hack May Bring Financial Doom to Millions

Robert McGarvey

10/05/15 - 11:43 AM EDT

NEW YORK (MainStreet) — The ugly news exploded last week: 15 million applicants for credit at T-Mobile have had their personal information stolen by hackers from a server maintained at Experian, the credit reporting agency. But then the news gets worse: very bad times are ahead for many of those 15 million, due to the nature of the stolen data.

And nobody knows exactly how the hack occurred. “There is not a ton of info on this,” admitted Christopher Budd, a security expert with Trend Micro.

For its part, T-Mobile has busied itself throwing mud at Experian. Said T-Mo CEO John Legere in a letter to consumers: “I am incredibly angry about this data breach, and we will institute a thorough review of our relationship with Experian.”

Experian, right now, shapes up as the bigger loser. Said Clay Calvert, director of cybersecurity for MetroStar Systems: “There are other two other companies [Equifax and Transunion] that monitor credit. Experian will be hurt more than T-Mobile.”


http://www.thestreet.com/story/13312302/1/why-the-experian-t-mobile-hack-may-bring-financial-doom-to-millions.html



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000WebHost gets hacked, exposes 13 million emails and passwords

By Alan Buckingham
Published Oct. 29, 2015 10:46am

The high profile company attacks keep coming these days with Target, Home Depot and, most recently, TalkTalk. Now word comes out that a major web hosting service has also fallen victim, spewing a generous amount of information to anyone interested.

000WebHost is working to resolve the problems, which led to 13 million emails and passwords being made public, but in the meantime it is trying to take precautions to protect users, though it seems a bit late for that.

Visiting the site now defaults to error.000webhost.com and displays information of how to reset your login and password. A message appears at the top reading "Important: Due to security breach, we have set www.000webhost.com website on maintenance until issues are fixed. Thank you for your understanding and please come back later".

Australian security researcher Troy Hunt obtained the data and confirmed its authenticity. In a blog post he wrote "It was very apparent that if this was legitimate, it was indeed a very serious data breach and one that had the potential to impact a very large number of people". In fact, he claims the 13 million estimate is a bit on the low side.

Meanwhile 000WebHost has issued a statement on its Facebook page "We have witnessed a database breach on our main server. A hacker used an exploit in old PHP version to upload some files, gaining access to our systems. Although the whole database has been compromised, we are mostly concerned about the leaked client information".

Accusations have been made that both security researchers and a journalist from Forbes gave 000WebHost ample warning, but the company failed to follow up on these. Now 13 million-plus user names and plaintext passwords are out there.



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I needed a social security number to get a job,,,

pedro,

LifeLock will pay a record $100M to settle FTC allegations it didn’t protect customer data

by Bob Sullivan on December 18, 2015 at 9:06 am

LifeLock has agreed to pay the largest FTC enforcement case settlement ever. The case involves allegations that LifeLock didn’t do enough to protect consumer data — remember, consumers were paying the firm to protect them from ID theft.

On Thursday, LifeLock agreed to pay $100 million to settle accusations that it violated the provisions of an earlier settlement with the FTC.


http://www.geekwire.com/2015/lifelock-will-pay-a-record-100-million-to-settle-ftc-allegations-it-didnt-protect-customer-data/





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Street Gangs Credit Card Fraud

Chris Tyler December 22, 2015

Gangs have changed the way they do things these days, no more of the days of slinging drugs on the streets and robbing people, they have moved on to credit card fraud which takes a lot less risk of getting caught, makes exponentially more money, and if they get caught, carries a lot less prison time for the gang members.

They have gotten a lot smarter, a lot better with their time, and a lot more educated. They make anywhere from upper six figures to millions of dollars everyday.

They pay employees at banks and stores to steal credit card information from customers and also buy people’s identities from various people on the internet, this is becoming gangs newest crime of choice. This money is also used to buy and sell guns to other gangs and they do this all over the world.

This kind of crime is costing the people of this country hundred of millions each year.

http://www.dbtechno.com/entertainment/2015/12/22/street-gangs-linked-to-credit-card-fraud/


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Time Warner Cable Admits 320,000 Customer Passwords May Have Been Stolen

Jamie Condliffe, January 7, 2016

If you’re a Time Warner Cable customer, now is a very good time to change your password. The company admitted late yesterday that it believes personal data belonging to as many as 320,000 customers may have been stolen.

The news came to light after the FBI alerted Time Warner Cable to the fact that it believed that user data, including email addresses and passwords, “may have been compromised.” Reuters reports that it’s unclear how the data was collected, though “there were no indications that Time Warner Cable’s systems were breached.” Instead, data could have been siphoned directly from users via phishing attacks or perhaps obtained from other companies in possession of some Time Warner Cable data, the news organization speculates.

http://gizmodo.com/time-warner-cable-admits-320-000-customer-passwords-may-1751532359



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FYI

These are the 25 internet passwords you must not use

Internet security software firm SplashData has released its annual list of passwords of the worst and most common passwords that you absolutely must not use. If you use any of the ones we list below, you must change them immediately.

They might be easier for you to remember, but they are also equally as easy for hackers to guess. Indeed, many of them are probably preset by malicious software algorithms looking to get into your accounts.

FULL STORY
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/these-are-the-25-internet-passwords-you-must-not-use/ar-BBoqcLp?ocid=ansmsnnews11

Centene Discloses Search for Hard Drives Containing Member Data

Health insurer says six drives with sensitive information of about 950,000 members are missing

By Ezequiel Minaya
Jan. 25, 2016 6:37 p.m. ET

Health insurer Centene Corp. said on Monday that six hard drives containing sensitive information of about 950,000 members are “unaccounted for,” leading the company to launch an internal search.

The Medicaid-focused insurer said that while it doesn’t believe this information has been used inappropriately, it is disclosing the search “out of abundance of caution.” Centene said it had started the process of notifying all affected individuals and appropriate regulatory agencies.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/centene-discloses-search-for-hard-drives-containing-member-data-1453765029?mod=rss_Technology

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I wouldn't worry about it. More than likely, none of these nearly constant data breaches will affect any of us.

Hey Big_Bear....

do some research on these new RFID CHIPPED
credit cards and US Passports:

supposedly they can all be read by theives w/ hand held devices purchased on the internet for around $100 bucks or FREE DOWNLOADED APPS onto cell
phones....all the theives have to do is get near your purse and wallet to read all your C.C. card #'s
5' to 25' away.... depending on what device they use?
Supposedly, manufacturer's are selling blocking sleeves or just one card that blocks your whole
wallet...$15 each-$100 for multiples...not all sleeves block all signals..."STEALTH" brand supposedly does???

^^^ yea,

I know all about medical fraud...

My parents were robbed ( pick pocted w/ diversion tatics) in an elevator at a hosiptal while my Dad was terminally ill....
It takes a " special kind of LOW LIFE SCUM BAG TAG TEAM" to pull that off and then proceed to take $6K-$10K within 3 hours of robbing a sick person at a hospital.
My dad passed away...then 5-6 yrs later , the same LOW LIFE SCUM sold his SSN# to a degenerate who got a
"free" 5 figure operation at a distant hosiptal under my deceased dads SSN #...
friggin scumbags....