Identity THeft

[ViperRider]

There's a lot of good info on this site, just thought I would share it. Two people I know have gotten their identity stolen recently. Both due to the ATM swiper and cameras setup, got all their money stolen. :tdown: I was reading about this new thing call drive-by-pharming.. yikes, good thing I don't do any online banking. But I do use paypal, and ebay..and many other sites with me and my parents info. Just read through some stuff could save you in the future.


http://www.identitytheftsecrets.com/

[TheGr8Schlotzky]

Re: Identity THeft

the ways of prevention on there seem pretty common knowledge to me

[ViperRider]

Re: Identity THeft

Well i didn't know about that pharming thing, and now I know not to use any ATMs other then my own banks.

[TheGr8Schlotzky]

Re: Identity THeft

Yeah, well as long as you have a password on your network, you should be okay, granted you made it. As far as the ATMs, personally I don't and wouldn't use one from another bank anyway unless i absolutely had to because of the added fees of using another banks ATM in the first place.

[huggercamaro99]

Re: Identity THeft

I also know two guys that had their identity stolen. Some guy ended up opening a credit card in my friends name and spent I think it was $25,000. Its a lot easier than you think for someone to steal you identity.

[black98V6]

Re: Identity THeft

most of this is still done the old fashoned way, stealing your mail or people getting mail that doesn't belong to them. The other main way is through the phone, there are already people running an IRS scam calling people saying they are the IRS and that person has qualified for the tax refund that has been in the news. The bill is still in the Senate. :rolleyes:

Proably the other way for people to get their identity stolen is through phishing scams and mass data theft, where one person or a group of people manage to steal a large number of credit card or SSN's by breaking into some company or organizations database. This happens more than you would know. Just do a search on TJMAX and credit card theft. This is happening every day and companies are covering it up. Either way you just gotta be smart and keep an eye on your accounts and credit reports.

[Nachius]

Re: Identity THeft

This has dramatically increased recently after they have been showing "how" to do this on news stations. They even go as far on the news as showing the "devices" used and tell people they are readily available online for cheap.

As far as the drive by phishing a single password on your network or WEP encryption on your network is not anything but a MINOR setback. passwords and WEP can be broken VERY quickly now a days and if they capture the "right" information at the right time it doesn't matter how secure your network is.

Basically drive by phishing captures ALL data that is flowing around wirelessly and then puts it back together when they've taken in home.

Not that everyone will get this, but some common tips to help secure your wireless:

Use very strong passwords that include upper/lower case, numbers, and special characters at least 8 characters long.

Use not only WEP encryption on your network, but WPA if available with mac address authentication and do NOT broadcast your SSID......

IF anyone is actually interested in my "geeky" babble let me know and I can explain what I'm talking about, but a lot of the things offered to end users as security gives them a false sense of security when there isn't any!

I've been in IT for about 8 years now (better part of my 20s) with quite a bit of dabbling prior to getting into the IT field. I was a consultant for about half that time so I have seen MANY MANY different networks and configurations and have dealt with some very smart individuals!

[ViperRider]

Re: Identity THeft

I have always had encryption on my network, but not until I read up about drive by pharming did I put a password on my router. I'm like paranoid now about buying something online.