University of Toledo, 200 reported incidents of Identity Theft...

At the University of Toledo, there have been 200 reported incidents of credit card and identity theft of students, faculty and staff in the past year, according to Marge Dell, head teller at UT’s Credit Union.

According to Dell, five of those incidents occurred on-campus.

“We had a counselor here that had their identity stolen by her secretary,” she said. “They actually took a mortgage out for their house for $80,000.”

Joseph Slater, professor of law instruction, became a victim of identity theft after someone obtained his social security number and home address in late 2004.

“I would get things in the mail from Circuit City saying, ‘thank you for opening up an account with us. You have reached your $600 limit. Please pay us,’” Slater said.

The man who stole Slater’s identity used his information to max out six credit card accounts with stores in Atlanta, Ga. and was not caught until the seventh account he tried to open... The Federal Trade Commission estimates 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year.

At the University of Toledo, there have been 200 reported incidents of credit card and identity theft of students, faculty and staff in the past year, according to Marge Dell, head teller at UT’s Credit Union.

According to Dell, five of those incidents occurred on-campus.

“We had a counselor here that had their identity stolen by her secretary,” she said. “They actually took a mortgage out for their house for $80,000.”

Joseph Slater, professor of law instruction, became a victim of identity theft after someone obtained his social security number and home address in late 2004.

“I would get things in the mail from Circuit City saying, ‘thank you for opening up an account with us. You have reached your $600 limit. Please pay us,’” Slater said.

The man who stole Slater’s identity used his information to max out six credit card accounts with stores in Atlanta, Ga. and was not caught until the seventh account he tried to open. (See Full Story)

Copy Machines, a Security Risk?

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the good, old-fashioned copy machine. But, as Armen Keteyian reports, advanced technology
opened a dangerous hole in data security...

The House of Representatives has passed a bill outlawing all caller ID spoofing

The House of Representatives has passed a bill outlawing all caller ID spoofing "with the intent to defraud or deceive".

So no more prank calls - but more importantly, no more calls from criminals aiming to trick people into giving away banking information.

The sponsors of the bill, Eliot Engel and Joe Barton, cited an identity theft operation in New York City which netted its operators more than $15 million - and another where a woman used the caller ID of a pharmacist to trick a love rival into taking an abortion drug. See Full Story

Facebook has begun warning its users...

Facebook has begun warning its users to avoid bogus links and fan pages that offer free gift cards because they are scams aimed at stealing user identities.

Facebook Security says it tries to remove these links and pages as quickly as it finds them.

"Watch out for suspicious offers for free gift cards," the site warns. "We've been removing groups and Pages that promise free gift cards but instead trick people into entering information or spamming their friends. If you come across one, report it to us immediately." (Link to full Article)

Colorado patients mailed protected health data; investigation under way

Since March 29, the Boulder Community Hospital (BCH) in Colorado has been contacted by patients of Lafayette, Colo.-based Family Medical Associates (FMA), who were mailed copies of their own protected health information by an anonymous source. An accompanying letter claims that the information was stolen from Community Medical Center’s recycling bins, according to BCH.
Colorado patients mailed protected health data; investigation under way

New Privacy Concern for Americans

There is a new privacy concern for Americans because of a new website called Spokeo.com. All anyone has to do is enter your name on the website and it pulls up a list of personal information from addresses, to interests and even credit scores. Spokeo is a fairly new website but it’s already got many people upset and worried about their p... (Read Full Article)

Citibank apologizes after exposing 600,000 Social Security numbers

Citibank representatives call it a processing error, which doesn’t sound too serious. But for more than half a million Citibank customers who received mail from the credit card company with their Social Security number printed on the outside of the envelope…it was more than a little disturbing. (Read Full Article)