Protecting Your Identity During The Holiday Season

Eat, Drink, & Be Weary of Identity Thieves

The holiday season is upon us and with it comes cheerful get-togethers, festive food and drink, shopping sprees, travelling, and gift giving.  However, for identity thieves, the holidays mean pocket-picking, charity and gift card scams, phishing, skimming, and other unscrupulous theft strategies at a time when consumers are distracted with holiday merriment and thus more vulnerable.

Despite the holiday madness, with just 5 shopping weeks left, it is important to be alert and vigilant when it comes to knowing the status of your identity and how to defend it against thieves.

10 Tips for Avoiding Identity Fraud

Click here to learn about resources that can help detect and restore identity theft

Identity Theft is a Booming Business

 By Jake Stroup, About.com Guide   October 21, 2011

There has been a disconcerting trend in the party-line concerning identity theft recently. We all know that you can "prove" anything with statistics by choosing to report numbers that reflect a desired perception. You can even prove the opposite of the truth. What I've seen in the identity theft world is that some law enforcement and government publications prefer to use statistics that make it seem identity theft is on the decline.

But nothing could be further from reality. If anything, identity theft seems to be evolving into a more sophisticated business model, with product vendors, trainers, and even after-market support for the aspiring identity thief. READ THIS STORY

Interested in a Identity Theft Protect Plan and Restoration Services?  Click this link to see how these services can help serve and protect you, your spouse and even your children.

Pasco couple fear losing home to foreclosure for paying mortgage too early

NEW PORT RICHEY — Seventy-year-old Sharon Bullington may lose her home because she paid her mortgage a week early.

That may not make much sense to the thousands of homeowners who are behind on their mortgages in Florida. But it seems it does to Bank of America, which has filed to foreclose on Bullington and her husband, James, 78, who is terminally ill.

When James became ill, the couple encountered financial difficulties because of high medical bills. The couple asked Bank of America to modify the loan.

There was a catch. The couple would have to first officially default on their $1,400-a-month payment. The couple did that and entered into the modification plan, which reduced their payment to $916.

Sharon Bullington made the January payment on Dec. 23, and the bank accepted the money, according to court records.

The next month, she made the February payment over the phone. Weeks later, the money had not been withdrawn from her bank account. After Bullington asked the bank about it, a representative told her she had punched in the wrong routing number. In March, the bank kicked the couple out of the modification plan.

Bullington pleaded for help in a June letter to Bank of America president Brian Moynihan and U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor.

One of Moynihan's aides, Ana Olivera, told Bullington the foreclosure could not be stopped. She wrote in a two-page letter that the payment due on Jan. 1, 2011, had been made in December.

"In accordance with the Trial Payment Letter dated December 15, 2010, it indicates that if you are not able to make each payment in the month in which it is due, you will not be eligible for a modification under the Home Affordable Modification Program," the letter said. This is a stange case, read the full story here

Everyone deserves legal protection. No matter how traumatic. No matter how trivial. Whatever your situation, we are here to help. Learn more about how our services can help you and feel free to contact us anytime.

As Kids Go Online, Identify Theft Claims More Victims

More Usage, More Risk

 Children ages 8-18 spend an average of 10-plus hours per day on a variety of media, according to a recent study from the Kaiser Foundation, making it more important than ever to be aware of the risks involved.

 According to Norton’s Online Family Report from 2010, 41 percent of children have had an anonymous person try to add them as a friend on a social networking site, 63 percent of kids have responded to online scams and 77 percent of kids have downloaded a virus.

The FTC says the mid-teens is a good benchmark age for when parents should begin looking into their child’s credit.

THIS IS A MUST READ FOR PARENTS

 

 

 

Medical Identity Theft: The Harsh Reality

PriceWaterhouseCooper put out a scathing report saying the health industry is under-prepared to address the data-protection needs of patients. The apparent lack has been a poor culture of security within the industry, with over half of the providers surveyed reporting they had some sort of issue with information getting loose when it shouldn't have, and 2/3 indicating that this was the direct result of an inside job.

The harsh reality is that without some sort of protection put in place, it can be just as dangerous to go to the doctor as not when we need medical attention.

CLICK FOR THE FULL STORY

Most Recent Data Breach Affects Millions of Military Personnel

According to the source, the records of 4.9 million former military personnel and their closest of kin were stolen from a truck in San Antonio, Texas. The data back-up tapes stolen had electronic health records stretching back to 1992 until September 7 of this year, the news provider noted. The source explained that the backup tapes disappeared on September 14.

All of the records were through the federal TRICARE health provider, one that services military and government personnel exclusively use.

Read  full story

Nurse faces 51 counts of medical record ID theft at Colo. hospital

Suspect allegedly accessed 85 confidential patient and staff records

Sept. 27--A nurse accused of improperly accessing patient records at numerous hospitals in the Denver metro area faces five counts of identity theft and 46 counts of theft of medical records in connection with his time at Boulder Community Hospital between May 2010 and January 2011.

Cannon Lamar Tubb, 31, worked for a now-defunct Denver nurse staffing agency that placed him as an intensive care unit nurse in numerous Centura Health facilities, the Platte Valley Medical Center and Boulder Community Hospital, according to court documents.

Tubb had a nursing license from Texas that was also valid in Colorado, but his license was suspended in January in relation to prescription fraud, according to an arrest affidavit.

Centura first discovered Tubb had accessed 85 confidential patient and staff records at its hospitals during a computer audit in 2010 and notified Westminster police, where a detective identified at least three cases of identity theft, according to an arrest affidavit.

 

That first victim had filed a complaint after several credit cards were taken out in her name and her husband's name and used to make purchases, including $758 for an Apple iPad. Detectives traced the IP address used to make the purchase back to Boulder Community Hospital, the affidavit said.

Hospital officials said Tubb worked at BCH for 32 days between May 2010 and January 2011. BCH ran an audit on Tubb's computer use at the hospital and sent letters to all patients whose records he looked at, as well as all patients who were under his care.

BY ERICA MELTZER

Daily Camera (Boulder, Colo.)

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