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identity In the course of a busy day, you may write a check at the grocery store, charge tickets to a ball game, rent a car, mail your tax returns, change service providers for your cell phone, or apply for a credit card. Chances are you don't give these everyday transactions a second thought. But an identity thief does. Identity theft is a serious crime. People whose identities have been stolen can spend months or years and thousands of dollars cleaning up the mess the thieves have made of a good name and credit record. In the meantime, victims of identity theft may lose job opportunities, be refused loans for education, housing, or cars, and even get arrested for crimes they didn't commit. Humiliation, anger, and frustration are among the feelings victims experience as they navigate the process of rescuing their identity.
Go digital. By paying bills online, you reduce the risk that checks and statements containing personal information may be stolen by identity thieves. And have your paycheck deposited electronically into your account. Monitor accounts online and frequently. Use Lake Elmo Bank's and other financial institutions' websites to check for signs of fraud, and report suspicious or unauthorized activity immediately. Consumers with 24/7 access to account activity are most likely to uncover fraud the fastest. Install and update security software. Make sure you have a firewall, antispyware, antivirus software, and browser security software on your home computer. Never give personal information to callers. Don't respond to phone messages that prompt you to call another telephone number about your account. Similarly, don't send account information via e-mail messages--they're not secure. Use contact information you already have for the financial institutions with which you do business. Order your free credit reports. A regular review of your credit file may detect unauthorized accounts or other fraudulent activity. Go to www.annualcreditreport.com to order one free report per year from Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian. Shred it. Get rid of sensitive papers and statements you no longer need that contain personal information. Finally, change a few daily habits. Mail bills from a locked mailbox; secure sensitive mobile data stored on a laptop, PDA (personal data assistant) or phone; and don't carry your Social Security card in your wallet unless you need it for a specific purpose on that given day. A stolen wallet that contains a Social Security card--as well as your address and other forms of identification--is like handing over your identity to a thief. Report suspicious e-mails or calls to the Federal Trade Commission through the Internet at or by calling 1.877.IDTHEFT.
Contact your financial institution immediately and alert it to the situation. If you have disclosed sensitive information in a phishing* attack, you should also contact one of the three major credit bureaus and discuss whether you need to place a fraud alert on your file, which will help prevent thieves from opening a new account in your name. Here is the contact information for each bureau's fraud division:
Click here for a website that will provide you with some additional information on what steps you should take right away!
What can you do to keep viruses from destroying your computer? . Malicious software programs damage thousands of computers each year that is why it is very important to protect your information by doing a few things. Here are some ideas on how to protect your PC from harmful viruses. Free anti-virus scan. If for some reason you think your anit-virus is not up to date, or you think they've been compromised or you've never had anti-virus on your computer to date, there are free removal detection tools on the [anti-virus] Web sites -- Symantec.com being just one of many. Download it to your machine, scan your machine and if a virus exists on the machine, it will remove it. These free tools are available from trusted anti-virus companies and can detect and hopefully remove it if your machine has been infected. "The tool runs independent of any anti-virus software. Even if you think you're OK, it costs you nothing to download.
Make sure your virus definitions are up to date. As malicious hackers develop increasingly sinister methods of infecting computers, anti-virus software makers are trying to keep up. If you have anti-virus software on your computer, it likely has some kind of built in updater that'll keep it current and protect your computer from the latest threats. Back up your data. This should be done regularly and no one should wait until their computer is infected before doing so. Back up your user data, your critical documents, letters, schoolwork, and pictures, whatever. If you're not doing it, start doing it today. When you back up your files, make sure you back them up to an external or removable device like a USB hard drive or burn them onto a CD or DVD. "If worse comes to worst tomorrow and your computer goes up in flames, there it is safe and secure in another area." Use passwords and make them hard to crack. This is always a good idea, particularly on home/business networks where a family member or co-worker may share documents, printers and more. Password protect your shares [shared documents] and make sure it's not an easy password, because like many virus’s, it will try to guess easy passwords. So make it something a little complex. Instead of using birthdays or pets' names, it is suggested to use a phrase and using both upper- and lower-case letters, something like "ILoveYouMom." Also, you can try substituting symbols for letters. Instead of FIDO try F1DO, using the "1" in place of the "I." Anything that makes it harder to guess makes your computer safer. Secure your network with multiple layers of protection. By adding a firewall at the router level, having up-to-date anti-virus software and by taking other preventive measures, you can add several layers of protection. If the firewall doesn't catch an infection, your anti-virus software should and vice versa. To have "a combination of a personal/business firewall, anti-virus [software] and intrusion prevention or content filtering. Free doesn't really mean 'free.' Be careful when downloading what looks like free software from any Web site, as some include malicious ad-ware and spyware that can cause problems and leave you susceptible to an attack. "Read the user agreement. If you can't understand it or its nonexistent, that's a warning sign don't download it." BEWARE OF SCAMS For more information on the latest internet scams and how to protect yourself from identity theft click on any of the following links: www.onguardonline.gov/index.html or www.idtheft.gov.
NACHA – The Electronic Payments Association has received reports that individuals and/or companies have received fraudulent e-mails that have the appearance of having been sent from NACHA. See sample below. The subject line of the e-mail states: “Unauthorized ACH Transaction.” The e-mail includes a link that redirects the individual to a fake Web page and contains a link which is almost certainly an executable virus with malware. Do not click on the link. Both the e-mail and the related website are fraudulent. Be aware that phishing e-mails frequently have links to Web pages that host malicious code and software. Do not follow Web links in unsolicited e-mails from unknown parties or from parties with whom you do not normally communicate, or that appear to be known but are suspicious or otherwise unusual. NACHA itself does not process nor touch the ACH transactions that flow to and from organizations and financial institutions. NACHA does not send communications to individuals or organizations about individual ACH transactions that they originate or receive. If malicious code is detected or suspected on a computer, consult with a computer security or anti-virus specialist to remove malicious code or re-install a clean image of the computer system. Always use anti-virus software and ensure that the virus signatures are automatically updated. Ensure that the computer operating systems and common software applications security patches are installed and current. Be alert for different variations of fraudulent e-mails. = = = = = Sample E-mail = = = = = = From: Information Subject: Unauthorized ACH Transaction Dear bank account holder,
First you receive a letter and a check in the mail that looks like it is from Publisher Clearing House and many other companies claiming you won a prize. The letter says to call a specific individual at a phone number before depositing the check. The scammers may tell you that you were given an advance on a prize and that some fee, tax or additional payment is necessary. You may be told you are being paid the first installment on millions and that you will receive more after wiring a portion back. Whatever the set-up, the results are the same. If you send money back you'll be out twice. YOU are responsible for checks or monies deposited into your account. When a check or money order bounces YOU will owe the bank the money you withdrew and the scammer will have the additional money sent in his/her pocket!
There's a new type of Internet piracy called "phishing." It's pronounced "fishing," and that's exactly what these thieves are doing: "fishing" for your personal financial information. |
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