Pre-Approved Credit Offers

Your personal information is traded between merchants, credit providers and the credit bureaus and unfortunately there is no law that can stop this practice, it can only be regulated. But these regulations do not properly address the security of your information as it gets exchanged. Pre-approved credit offers are one of the easiest ways to become a victim of identity theft because often these offer letters do not make it to their intended destination. Also, they are often thrown away whole, sometimes still in their envelopes. This risk can be avoided by shredding every piece of paper that contains any information of yours, but it would be best to simply opt out of pre-approved offers and one of the most convenient ways to accomplish this is when you enroll in an identity protection plan, since the plans will take care of removing your name from all pre-approved offers and junk mail lists.

Accessing to Public Records

Public records are the information that’s freely and easily available to anyone. This includes bankruptcy records, court records, fictitious name filings, marriage registration, real estate property records etc. All of this information can be accessed by anyone and it is often available at no cost. A person can get a great deal of detail about you from these records and it can be utilized to get credit or redirect your mail to an alternate location where an identity thief can receive it and learn even more about you.

Online Phishing Scams

One of the most common causes of identity theft is online phishing. This is still an effective method for identity thieves. If you have a Paypal account, you have more than likely received an email at one point or another asking you to verify your information by following a link that’s provided in the body of the email. Once you go to the website and enter in your information you’re typically redirected to a page that tells you that your information has been verified leaving you to think that you did the right thing, when in fact you just rendered your login information to the thief who operates the site. These emails are normally written to give the recipient a sense of urgency, normally expressed in the subject line that says something to the effect of “your account has been compromised” and that you must verify it now before it gets suspended. It’s a good trick that’s worked very effectively over the last five years, but more people are becoming aware that these are nothing more than identity fraud attempts.

Spear Phishing Scams

Because phishing alone is no longer as effective, identity thieves have become more resourceful and have gone so far as to target individuals specifically. This is normally done when they have learned more about the victim and realize that there’s potential for high gains by gathering even more information rather than just steal a credit card number. If identity thieves believe that you have major assets they might be able to exploit they will use more sophisticated methods for getting you to voluntarily surrender your information. This can be in the form of a direct phone call or an official looking letter from your financial institution in which they list information that looks and sounds official. They could also use public record information to inform themselves about you and sell you on the idea that they are a legitimate party trying to solve an issue for you.

Internet Security and Old Browsers

Another one of the common causes of identity theft are internet users who are simply not aware of the dangers of being connected to the internet without the proper protection. To protect against identity theft properly everyone needs to have Antivirus and firewall protection to keep malicious programs from entering your computer system. There are a number of malicious programs that can be installed on your system in passive mode that can compromise your personal information. Programs such as keyloggers are one of the many ways hackers get access to your information. These programs record every keystroke you type especially when you’re online then transfer this information to the thief. In other words any information you type can be seen by someone else including bank account login information, credit accounts and any other online destinations you normally access.

Old browsers are another serious problem that you have to address, but luckily it’s a simple fix. The older versions of Internet Explorer have a series of security holes and no one should ever access the internet using Internet Explorer 6 or below. All browsers are free to download and install, among the safest browsers available are Mozilla Firefox and Opera. Although no browser is 100% secure, you have more security features in Firefox and Opera.

Spam and pirated software

No matter how long you’ve been online, you probably have heard the word spam a number of times. Spam is a term used to describe the unsolicited emails that you receive on a daily basis that typically promote products. Spam is also a danger because of malicious code that can potentially run when you open these emails. Often these products are pirated popular software that’s offered at a huge discount. Even if you don’t buy the software, accessing the destination sites in these emails can be dangerous if your computer system is not properly protected. Also using pirated software is an easy way to fall prey to identity thieves. The software that you download free from these sites is often coded with Trojans that work silently gathering your sensitive data. So even though it may sound like a good offer, you’re better off deleting spam.

The premise of these scams is to basically grap the attention of the individual and suck them into the scam by presenting a situation in which the victim must cooperate immediately or face serious consequences.

Those who are not familiar with phishing scams, may feel uneasy when they receive emails directly from the IRS and it is not tax time yet, or from the FBI. This is enough to get anyone a little nervous.

Email phishing scams are very common and identity thieves use any angle to get vicitims to follow through and volunteer the requested information. What we want to make sure all readers understand here about  phishing scams through email, is that you should never answer to them, or even open them. The IRS will NEVER send you an email asking you to verify any information or to communicate anything tax related. Neither will the FBI, these are governement organizations with strict security policies.

It’s a little harder for these scams to take place via regular mail, which is why you mostly see phishing scams go through email spam inboxes. A good policy to implement for yourself would be that if it’s in your spam emailbox then simply empty it out, don’t even bother sorting through the emails for you’ll find nothing of interest.

The phishing scams may also come through phone calls, it is definitely possible for the IRS to call you in order to handle specific matters related to your taxes. However, be wary of the person calling you. The IRS assigns ID numbers to all its employees and they typically identify themselves with these ID numbers and then their names. You should also take note of the phone number they’re calling you from. If you do not have a phone that shows the caller ID number, get one! They’re relatively inexpensive. If the area code and phone look out of the ordinary (something other than 1-800, 1-866, 1-888 etc) then you should be somewhat concerned especially if you were not expecting the call.

The IRS, FBI or any other government organization contact citizens through regular mail. If the IRS wants you to know that you owe taxes they’ll write you about it. If the FBI needs anything from you they’ll either write you about it or show up at your front door.
Again, the best thing you can do about these email phishing scams is to ignore and delete them.

These data breaches expose consumer information and occur due to the inadequate security implementations by companies that handle consumer information. They also occur due to employees from these companies simply helping themselves to the available information in their databases and either committing the crime themselves or selling the information to criminal rings.

So what’s the outlook of identity theft in 2009?

Experts predict that the schemes used in identity theft will get more sophisticated in 2009 and occur with more frequency. Conditions are seemingly perfect for scammers right now, we’re in the midst of a really bad economy, with high unemployment and foreclosure rates. So there is a lot of opportunity to expose information from consumers in these predicaments.

Expect more real estate scams that involve bogus mortgage rescue loans targeting home owners facing foreclosure. The same goes to consumers with poor credit or overwhelming credit card debt, plenty of chances there for bogus offers that promise debt consolidation at low rates and claim that poor credit history doesn’t matter.

Unemployed consumers will also run risks by being contacted by scammers with the promise of a job, when in fact all they’re doing is physhing for information.

As consumers continue to tighten up their wallet and cease unnecessary spending, thieves may resort to more conventional methods like check stealing and dumpster diving. Check out our free identity theft prevention guide for tips on how to avoid these.

Online identity theft will continue to rise and it will become the main playground for identity thieves. More websites are popping up that cater to the black market of identity information and credit for thieves.

Data breaches show no sign of slowing down, as more and more companies are not able to keep up with the high costs of implementing information security systems that can properly protect data. 638 cases of data breaches is way too many in a single year and it’s an indication that companies are struggling as much as consumers to keep up with costs.

More scams will be uncovered this year, and more methods will be revealed as well, it’s unfortunate that there aren’t better methods in place to prevent identity theft completely but with availability of information on the internet and through public records it’s nearly impossible to keep up.

Financial Scams – Take for example the banking crisis, ridden with folds, mergers and takeovers and the constant news coverage that keeps consumers on the alert. This gives scammers the opportunity to send out phishing e-mails claiming that personal account information is needed because of the many changes taking place in the banking sector. McAfee, the virus protection company began seeing phishing reports related to the crisis shortly after the failure and sale of Washington Mutual Bank in late September of 2008.

Job Scams – Thieves may also run their scams in the job sectors, with the numbers of companies folding under economic pressure and laying off so many workers. Identity thieves once again will phish for those unsuspecting victims who are hoping to get a call from a job recruiter, with the intention of simply getting the candidates to provide personal information.

Foreclosure/Mortgage Rescue Scams – The number of foreclosures will continue through 2009 and this is another area where scammers will continue to take advantage of desperate home owners who are trying to save their homes from repossession, especially if the home has retained some equity value. Scams in this area may come in the form of mail or even phone calls.

Phony IRS Scams – These scams will almost always occur in the form of email, since it is more difficult for scammers to use regular mail and too risky. The premise of the scam is always the same, you must follow links included in the email to update your records or to sort out a problem in which you owe back taxes. The phishing scams are always made to sound urgent and severe consequences are suggested if immediate action is  not taken.

Credit Debt Consolidation Scams – Once again due to the bad economy, some of us may be inclined to use our credit cards to get us out of tough times, but when the balances begin to grow and payments are not affordable anymore, you may consider consolidating your credit card balances. Many scammers are aware that these are often the opportunities that consumers seek in bad economic times to avoid the high interest rates, and may take the first step in contacting consumers about great consolidation offers that promise to repay their debt for pennies on the dollar.

Whatever approach the identity thieves take, please consider that if you did not request for the information you must proceed with care. Particularly if the offers come to you via email. For more information on email and other online security measures review our related articles.