We are currently looking for an Official SelfGrowth.com Guide to "Identity Theft". If you have expertise in Identity Theft and your own website and/or product for this topic, please review this form for complete details. The Official Guide Position is part of our Premium Placement Package
If you’re going to drone on and on about how you got hacked by a cyber thief, maybe it’s because you played with your new drone—you know, those rad little flying devices that hover via remote control over your street? Yes, they are hackable.
If you don’t have a drone, ... Views: 790
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 ... Views: 840
As the holiday shopping season quickly approaches, identity thieves are quickly looking for their next victims. In Indiana, government officials are taking steps to stop these thieves in their tracks. Just recently, the state’s Attorney General Greg Zoeller was in Fort Wayne to announce ... Views: 984
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 ... Views: 721
Have you ever tried to take a picture or video of someone with your phone without them knowing? Sometimes it’s possible, but sometimes it’s not. Well, maybe you knew it was coming: “Ghost apps” are available that let you take images and videos without the target’s ... Views: 832
Burglars actually peruse social media to see who’s on vacation. In fact, 69 burglars were interviewed by Edith Cowan University in Australia, and perusing social media kept coming up as a way to find victims.
Keep your cyber mouth shut till you return. Here are more tips:
Get to know ... Views: 940
If the person you are sending an e-mail to pretty much instantaneously receives it, how on earth can you unsend or cancel it? Well, you have several options.
Criptext
This is a browser plug-in that works for Chrome and Safari.
Your message including attachments will be encrypted.
You ... Views: 769
Are you a cyber-blabber? Even a post about your daily afternoon foray to the sub sandwich shop could get you in trouble: A burglar reading this knows when to rob your house. But it doesn’t end there. STOP THE MADNESS!
The Giants: Facebook and Twitter
Be careful what you post on ... Views: 741
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):
Evaluate your passwords. Does every online account have a different password or are you using the same one for multiple accounts? Fix ... Views: 905
That’s a horrible question to ask. There is a very alarming report on nbcsandiego.com, about a dad who regularly checked on his kids in the middle of the night, and one night at 2 a.m., upon checking his 12-year-old daughter’s room, saw that she was gone. The window was open.
He ... Views: 776
The season of giving is now upon us — but don’t forget, it’s also the season of stealing — and no, I don’t mean your wallet or the gift package at your doorstep, but your Social Security number, credit card information, medical records and any other highly ... Views: 714
The words “spying” and “stalking” have negative connotations, but there’s a flipside to the coin: parents monitoring their kids’ online activities and physical locations. And how about middle-aged adults keeping track of the whereabouts of their aged parents ... Views: 702
Even though the highly publicized retail data breaches have involved off-line brick and mortar stores, this doesn’t mean that security is high with online shopping. Scammers and hackers are waiting for you in more ways than you know, such as:
Fake product reviews
Non-existent ... Views: 696
Are you a shredder? I hope so. No identity thief on this planet is going to want to attempt to reconstruct cross-shredded documents.
So what, then, should you make a habit of shredding?
All financial documents and information, including financial information you’ve jotted on a ... Views: 727
Situations that could put your routine or an entire city on hold include:
Tornado
Hurricane
Flood
Blizzard
Power outage
Contagious illness
Your house should already be equipped with supplies for staying inside the house for at least a week, but ideally for two weeks.
Keep a newer ... Views: 775
Thinking of bringing a credit card with you on your travels? You can end up in a jam: You just treated your extended family to fine dining in France. Time to pay; your credit card is declined.
If you try to make a purchase overseas, your credit card company might think it’s fraudulent, ... Views: 1086
Sexting is the act of sending images of a sexual nature via cell phone, often naked pictures. Because texting technology is so readily available and easy to understand, parents should be quite leery of telling themselves, “Oh, MY kid would never do that!” Studies showy your kid ... Views: 761
The holiday season is ramping up. And so are burglars. Even if you don’t get very festive, burglars may still target your home. Your dark, unlit home among all the dazzling festive homes will stick out like a sore thumb. Whether you have 10,000 decorative lights on or none, here’s ... Views: 727
A sharp nine-year-old girl has a biting message to a 51-year-old man, according to an article on myfoxboston.com:
“You deserve to stay in jail because you break into peoples houses. Stop breaking into peoples houses and do something with your life.”
This advice was directed to ... Views: 843
So what will you be doing this holiday season to avoid getting scammed? The scammers really come out of the woodwork during the holidays, waiting to snatch their victims. It’s easier than you think to avoid getting ripped off or getting your entire bank account sucked dry. Here’s how ... Views: 904
As the holiday season creeps upon us, research shows that an astonishing 24% people who are buying online have been duped by scammers. Whether you are buying shoes, electronics or the latest fashions and accessories, research companies are showing that you are at risk of being duped.
When you ... Views: 794
If someone is “borrowing” your Wi-Fi service, there’s more to this than just the nerve of someone secretly mooching off of you.
Their use of your service could interfere with bandwidth and mess up your connection. If they’re a bad guy hacker or even a skeevy child porn ... Views: 869
Please, be humble and consider the possibility that you—yes you—might be committing numerous home security mistakes—that could really cost you if you don’t correct them.
House Alarm Turned Off
Some people only activate it when they are not home and others only ... Views: 919
There’s always a perfect time to assess your home’s safety and security. Do you employ all of the following practices?
Make sure your house’s roofing is fire resistant. If not, get it remodeled.
Not only should you have smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, but you should ... Views: 905
If you are like most people, there are several devices in your home that fight for WiFi connections at any given time. This slows your network, and gives you a shoddy experience. Instead, look into upgrading your system immediately and save some cash too.
The Nighthawk is a 2-in-1 cable ... Views: 721
Most people don’t like that “fall back” time change every November, but you know who does? Burglars. Burglars love to “fall back” because it gives them more time to practice their criminal activities thanks to the earlier veil of darkness. This is also a convenient ... Views: 864
So, who’s on your holiday gift list this year? That list is a lot longer than you think; consider all the names of hackers that have not yet appeared on it. Scammers will do whatever it takes to get on your holiday gift list! Here’s how to keep these cyber thieves out of your ... Views: 795
Define Pwn: Pwn is a slang term derived from the verb own, as meaning to appropriate or to conquer to gain ownership. The term implies domination or humiliation of a rival. And when it’s done by hacking email, the person is effectively pwned. No matter how “private” you ... Views: 796
A phishing e-mail is sent by a cyberthief to trick its recipient into revealing sensitive information so that the crook could steal money from the recipient or gain access to a business’s classified information. One way to lure an employee is for the crook to make the e-mail appear like it ... Views: 753
The Internet has almost as many videos as there are stars in the heavens. And you know that some have to be hoaxes. Sometimes it’s obvious, while other times it’s easy to be fooled. For example, the hoax of the “angel” intercepting a truck just about to run over a ... Views: 786
With Cyber Monday, you don’t have to camp outside in the cold overnight so you can be the first person busting through the doors like on Black Friday. But you still may get trampled to a pulpby cyber scammers waiting for their prey.
How can you avoid these predators?
You know that ... Views: 709
This application for your mobile device will change things in a huge way:
Locks down smartphones with a finger-based biometric password
Multi-factor authentication all-in-one
It’s called BioTect-ID
And why should you consider the world’s first biometric password for your ... Views: 984
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, ... Views: 920
A bug bounty refers to the reward a bad-guy hacker gets upon discovering a vulnerability, weakness or flaw in a company’s system.
This is akin to giving a reward to a burglar for pointing out weaknesses in your home’s security.
But whom better to ask than a burglar, right? Same ... Views: 775
After receiving medical treatment, many people never look over the paperwork (save for bill total) and just shove it into some folder in a file cabinet. But medical identity theft is very much out there; know the signs:
You’re denied coverage because you allegedly have a condition you ... Views: 718
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 ... Views: 725
Do these bank robbers have bricks for brains? They actually posted photos of themselves with wads of the stolen cash on Facebook, says a story on thesmokinggun.com.
The alleged bank robers are John Mogan, 28 and Ashley Duboe, 24, and they’ve been charged with robbing a bank in Ohio. ... Views: 755
It’s about time: a biometric for your smartphone that will change the way you think about biometric security.
This revolutionary biometric comes from Biometric Signature ID and it’s called BioTect-ID, and though it’s a biometric, it does not involve any so-called ... Views: 918
The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) movement has in some ways saved companies money, but in other ways put customer data at risk. Employees are onsite, telecommuting or traveling on business. This means their devices, and company data could be anywhere at any given moment.
A company manager or ... Views: 783
Your child is active online. Did it ever occur to you that he or she uses a fake name so that they can’t be identified by you? Chances are, you, the parent, also uses a pseudonym. It’s very common.
Cyberspace is full of obvious pseudonyms, but a phony name can also be a regular ... Views: 772
Affinity fraud is a common form of investment fraud. It almost always involves either a fake investment or one where the scammer lies about the critical details, such as the risk of losing money, past investment results, or information about the people running the scheme.
Unfortunately, many ... Views: 839
These days, who doesn’t travel with their laptop? But commonality doesn’t make it inherently safe for your sensitive information that’s stored in the device. In fact, traveling with your laptop is inherently unsecure.
Whether you’re traveling for business or to visit ... Views: 807
It’s been stated more than once that WWIII will most likely be cyber-based, such as dismantling a country’s entire infrastructure via cyber weapons. And don’t think for a moment this doesn’t mean murdering people.
A report at bits.blogs.nytimes.com notes that foreign ... Views: 747
You’ve probably heard of the gofundme.com site, where all sorts of stories are posted of people seeking donations. Some are tragic, others are trite. You may be touched by a particular story, perhaps one in which an entire family is killed in a house fire.
You click the “Donate ... Views: 763
LinkedIn is a free service that allows professional people to network with each other. Often, a LinkedIn member will receive an e-mail from another LinkedIn member “inviting” them to join their network. Sometimes, the inviter is someone the recipient doesn’t know, but the ... Views: 723
So you think it’s really a far-out left-field idea: a burglar studying Facebook and other social media to select homes to rob. Well think again.
A survey, conducted by home security expert Friedland, found:
78 percent of burglars use social media to select targets.
74 percent touted ... Views: 850
One in four (25 percent) of college women reported they received unsolicited sexual contact while in college, says the recent Association of American Universities Campus Climate Survey of 150,000 students.
How can on-campus safety be heightened?
Students should have a hardcopy and ... Views: 878
Part of my role as security guy is to keep tabs on the crime climate around the globe. Recently I kept seeing article after article about burglaries with one common theme: “door kicked in”. Don’t believe me? See below. But before you do, probably all of these could have been ... Views: 861
A man was assaulted by three or four men when he arrived home, through his garage door at 5:40 a.m. It’s very apparent that the attackers knew he’d be arriving home at around this time and decided to wait for him, says a report at ksla.com.
This recent home invasion occurred in ... Views: 694
Angee, the new Kickstarter campaign that raised over $250,000 already, will revolutionize home security in more ways than one. Meanwhile, get going on these 20 home security tips:
Keep all doors and windows locked at all times. Yes, on hot summer days it’s tempting to keep windows ... Views: 1017