1	WHAT IS IDENTITY THEFT? This is the fastest growing crime in the WORLD today!
2	WHEN SOMEONE ELSE BECOMES YOU. Name Address Phone number Social security number Email address Account number Password Credit Card number Any other identifier specific to you
3	WHY IMPERSONATE ME? To commit FRAUD! I can’t scam for long if my victim knows who I am and where I’m at. That’s why I become you!
4	FACTS AND FIGURES OF ID THEFT OVER 10 MILLION VICTIMS LAST YEAR OVER 5 BILLION LOST BY CONSUMERS NEARLY 50 BILLION LOST BY BUSINESS LOSSES MAY TOP 78 BILLION THIS YEAR 607 HOURS (76 WORKING DAYS) SPENT TRYING TO CLEAN THIS UP. $1,500 IS THE AVERAGE OUT OF POCKET EXPENSE INCURRED. 4 , 9-11 HIJACKERS OBTAINED ID’S BY FRAUD (49 PIECES OF FRAUDULENT ID)
5	MORE FACTS 240- THE NUMBER OF DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF STATE ISSUED ID’S 6,422-THE NUMBER OF DIFFERENT ENTITIES THAT ISSUE U.S. BIRTH CERTIFICATES 14,000- THE NUMBER OF DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF BIRTH CERTIFICATES IN CIRCULATION
6	HOW DOES SOMEONE STEAL MY IDENTITY? There are a number of ways to do this but they all fall into two categories. LOW TECH HIGH TECH
7	EXAMPLES OF LOW TECH DUMPSTER DIVING MAIL THEFT TELEMARKETERS ERRANT CREDIT CARD RECEIPTS DISCARDED COMPUTER HARD DRIVES BURGLARY CAR PROWLING
8	EXAMPLES OF HIGH TECH SPAM EMAIL (VIRUSES) SPOOFING/ “PHISHING” HACKS, OR DATABASE INTRUSIONS HI TECH IS THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND THE PHENOMENAL RISE IN ID THEFT AROUND THE WORLD
9	WHAT KINDS OF CRIMES CAN BE COMMITTED IN MY NAME? Take over an existing account- bank, credit card, email, buyer or seller accounts. Open new fraudulent accounts anywhere. Make purchases or apply for loans or credit in person or ONLINE. Manipulate Social Security benefits through monitoring obituary notices. Services with utilities or phone companies. INTERNET SCAMS
10	SOME INTERNET SCAMS ADVANCE FEE LOANS LOTTERY AND INHERITANCE SCAMS CHARITY SCAMS CREDIT CARD LOSS PROTECTION WORK AT HOME SCAMS NIGERIAN EMAIL SCAM BOGUS CREDIT CARD OFFERS BUYERS CLUBS AND TRAVEL SCHEMES INVESTMENT SCAMS PYRAMID SCHEMES INDIVIDUAL SALES AND ONLINE AUCTION FRAUD!
11	WHY DO ID THIEVES/SCAMMERS USE THE INTERNET? ANONYMITY- The reason for the ID theft. COST EFFICIENCY A HUGE and ever growing base of Internet Novices = Billions of potential victims. New Technology applied to OLD SCAMS. NOBODY’S LOOKING! Less than 4% of the 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the U.S. have the capability of tracking Internet scammers, and THE SCAMMERS KNOW IT!
12	HOW DO I KEEP THIS FROM HAPPENING TO ME?/ LOW TECH PREVENTION, THE DO’S Shred or burn all personal or financial information before discarding it (remember the dumpster divers). Keep your financial and personal records in a safe and secure place. If you don’t receive mail for several days call the Post Office, your mail may have been forwarded elsewhere. Watch for shoulder surfers when entering a PIN at an ATM, or writing a check at the store. Order a Credit Report once a year.
13	MORE LOW TECH DO’S Make photocopies of all your credit cards (both sides) and close unused credit card accounts. Report missing credit cards immediately. Be aware of when your card expires, if you don’t receive a new card call the issuer. If you ordered a new card and it doesn’t arrive, call the issuer. If possible, outgoing mail should be deposited at a secure location (flagging). Try to avoid the use of a social security number for ID purposes.
14	LOW TECH PREVENTION, DON’T DO THESE! Never give personal information over the phone unless you initiate the call and you trust the recipient. Never leave incoming mail in your mailbox, empty it quickly. Never leave credit card, ATM or bank receipts behind. Never let your credit card leave your sight (most credit card skimming takes place at full service gas stations and restaurants). Don’t carry too much “stuff” in your wallet or purse. Don’t put too much information on your personal checks.
15	COMPUTER SCAMS/ HI-TECH PREVENTION USE COMMON SENSE! If it sounds too good to be true…IT IS! Listen to that little voice of yours and don’t be afraid to walk away. DELETE…DELETE…DELETE.
16	HIGH TECH PREVENTION Never allow someone else unsupervised use of your computer. Use good passwords…a minimum of 8 characters, case sensitive, with a combination of numbers, letters, and symbols, for example… ptH3$2k*mn1. Never leave passwords or account information where someone else could find them.
17	BEWARE OF IMPOSTERS SPOOF’S are legitimate looking sites, pop-ups, or emails that appear to come from well known companies and for a variety of reasons they will request or demand that you update your account or personal information. This is called “PHISHING”, and it’s an attempt to harvest or pirate your ID. Phishing is the hottest, fastest growing, and the most troubling and damaging venue for ID Theft. Legitimate sites and companies NEVER do this. DO NOT REPLY, or click on any links in this message. DELETE…DELETE…DELETE, or forward to www.antiphishing.org.
18	BEWARE OF ATTACHMENTS Attachments can carry a virus, worm, or Trojan horse, any of which can enable the sender to use your computer remotely as a “proxy”, or “zombie” in order to victimize others, while pretending to be you. They can also pack “key-logging” capability, which will allow the sender to monitor your keystrokes. If you receive an unexpected email attachment from a friend, verify with a quick email to that friend before opening.
19	VIRUS, WORM, TROJAN HORSE These are malicious programs that can cause damage to your computer and to you as well by allowing your personal information to be compromised.
20	VIRUS A virus is a piece of computer code that attaches itself to a program or file so that it can spread from computer to computer. Most people get viruses from opening and running unknown email attachments. The good news is that a true virus does not spread without a human action to move it along, such as sharing a file or sending an email attachment to someone.
21	WORM A worm is like a virus in that it replicates and moves from one computer to another but it does not need to rely on human interaction to replicate or travel. Once inside your system (you opened an email, or downloaded a program) it can do these things on its own, and can replicate in huge volume, greatly slowing or bringing down entire networks.
22	Trojan Horse As in mythological Greece, the Trojan Horse will appear as a “gift”, such as useful, online downloadable, software. When in fact it will contain viruses and or worms that can compromise your computer security and make personal and financial information vulnerable. Trojan Horses spread when people are lured into opening a program because it looks useful and appears to come from a legitimate source.
23	DISABLE AUTO-PREVIEW If you have an older computer and it auto-previews, or automatically opens entire emails as they come in, disable this immediately. This is tantamount to opening the e-door to everything out there. Your computer may trust, but you shouldn’t.
24	GET A FIREWALL Firewalls help block unauthorized access to your computer and make you virtually invisible on the net. If you use High Speed access such as Cable modem, Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL), Wireless access, or Satellite access a Firewall is an absolute necessity. If you’re not sure check out www.zonelabs.com for a free downloadable firewall
25	DOWNLOAD AT YOUR OWN RISK Downloading can provide a hacker with the perfect method (Trojan Horse) for transmitting a computer virus or worm into your computer system. Downloading is as dangerous as opening email attachments. Before entering sensitive information into an online site look for https:// in the website address (URL). If you see only http:// be wary the “s” stands for secure and ensures that your information will be encrypted. Be careful of vendors you don’t know. Look for a verification logo, such as VeriSign, or GeoTrust and click on these to determine the authenticity of the site.
26	OPEN THOSE EMAIL HEADERS There is much more to an email header than; TO, FROM, DATE, and SUBJECT. Set your email system to expose the full header. This allows you, and me to see the full route by which the email traveled on its way to you. The information in that full header will help me find the sender. A scammer can forge the initial or closed header, but he can’t forge what comes after it leaves his computer. Go here for instructions; http://www.spamcop.net/fom-serve/cache.19.html
27	BE CAREFUL ABOUT WHAT YOU TELL THE WORLD Don’t send personal information unless you trust the recipient. Look for the security lock in the toolbar. Again look for https:// in the URL, and look for a verification logo. Someone else could be listening. No matter how many precautions you take with your computer, if you send personal information to a non-protected terminal, or a terminal that is already infected then you compromise your own safeguards.
28	SLAM SPAM At minimum 95% of all SPAM emails are some kind of scam. It’s often the prelude to a “phishing expedition”. The majority of online scams come at you in the form of SPAM emails and pop-ups. Don’t hit the “unsubscribe” button as this merely verifies that your email address is active. Delete, or forward to uce@ftc.gov, or spam@uce.gov. Use filters to eliminate as much of this as possible and don’t forget to regularly update those filters.
29	USING A PUBLIC COMPUTER Be aware of who is watching you. Don’t do personal business if at all possible, but if you do make sure you erase your tracks by deleting cookies and use history before leaving. Always log off before you leave the computer.
30	TIPS WHEN BUYING ONLINE Set up a separate email account for all of your online purchasing or selling. Save every email received from the other party involved in your transaction, and don’t forget to open those headers. Check the references of the other party involved. Always pay with a CREDIT CARD, and use the same card for all of your online purchases.
31	PAYING WITH A CREDIT CARD This is not normally the way a scammer obtains a credit card number, it’s not time efficient. If you get scammed your money comes back home to you and the Financial Institution becomes the victim. Financial Institutions have investigative assets around the world, you don’t. If you pay by check or money order and you get scammed…you will not get your money back and look at how much information you give up when you send a personal check.
32	WHAT DO I DO IF THIS HAPPENS TO ME? Contact me immediately should you become a victim of ID Theft or Credit Fraud. Contact the three Credit Reporting Agencies and file a “Fraud Alert” on all current accounts and personal information. Keep a log of who it is you speak with (not just the agency or company, but the individual’s first name as well). Contact your police. Get and keep a copy of the police report (you may need it months from now). Do not agree to, or attempt to pay any fraudulent debt incurred as a result of an ID crime. Refer any caller to me.
33	HERE’S HOW TO REACH ME LEW REED 871 GEORGE WASHINGTON WAY RICHLAND, WA 99352 WORK) 509-942-7608 HOME) 509-734-8913 FAX) 509-942-7517 lreed@ci.richland.wa.us