Identity Theft

In my opinion, the Internet is becoming a spy’s best friend. Today, thanks to the web and other applications, stealing someone’s identity or spying on them is becoming increasingly easy. It seems to be happening quite often with ATM and bankcards as well. All you need is a name and a little personal information and you can get just about anything you want. For example...

...If I check your mailbox on a regular basis I am bound to find a box of checks, a new credit card or a new ATM card in there sooner or later. Or if I want to get my own card with your information, I just need to find your social security number in a bill in your trash can and then I can apply for a new card and have it sent to the vacant house down the street.

Little by little, our lives are being moved into the digital world of electronics and most of our personal information is being stored and transmitted without us even knowing it. People are checking your voice mail without you knowing about it, others are finding your credit card and other interesting receipts in the trash and all the while your risk of identity theft is increasing at rapid rate.

Some of the Identity theft scams that are going around on the Internet right now are done with emails. Someone sends you an official looking email from eBay or PayPal asking you to log in to your account and verify certain personal information, “to protect your account” when all the while, the place that you have just logged into is not where you thought it was and Mr. Scammer has just made off with your private information.

One of the newest ones is to receive an official looking email that appears to have come from the National Lottery in the United Kingdom claiming that you have just won a few hundred thousand dollars. In your excitement, you reply to the email and get a quick response from the would-be scammer asking you to fork over some private information so that they can prove who you say you are, as if they even know in the first place. But if you are foolish enough to provide them with your name, address, phone number, your mother’s maiden name, and social security number; that is all they need to get a new credit card on your behalf but have it sent to a different location…

One of my personal favorites is a professional looking letter sent to an email address telling the recipient about an important business proposition and if he cooperates in helping the sender with this financial matter, he could be handsomely compensated. The scam it not so much identity theft, but it could be with the information he is looking for. The scammer goes on to say that if you would be willing to help him convert or transfer his millions of dollars into its proper place, then you can get a percentage of it for helping. The problem, that the scammer needs to first transfer the money into a United States bank account of someone he trusts (you in this case), and if you’ll give him your bank routing and checking account numbers, he will kindly transfer hundreds of millions of dollars into your account and then into another, leaving you with a certain percentage of the transfer in your account. Well if you are dumb enough to give it a try, what you will find, is that the scammer has no intentions of making any deposits to your account at all, he simply calls the bank and withdraws what ever you got in there.

Another personal favorite of mine is where people from other parts of the world such as Ukraine or Africa hang out in their local Internet café spending all of their time in chat rooms looking for people to scam. They find a nice person to take advantage of by first getting to know him or her and then after a few hours or days, they drop some kind of sad story about how their mom or brother needs some kind of an operation and they ask if you know of any way, they can come up with a few dollars hoping that you’ll volunteer to send them $20, $30 or more dollars. These predators who prey on people in chat rooms trick thousands of people into giving them money, personal information, bank account information and pretty much just about anything a scammer can dream up.

Cameras are another curious invention that seem to be popping up all over the place. No matter where you go, there are cameras everywhere. Whether you’re standing in line at the bank, waiting for the ATM machine or walking into your local grocery store, your smiley face is appearing on more computer screens than you think. Depending on where the cameras are, your license plate is probably a popular target for cameras too. Most people are completely unaware that they are being photographed, videotaped, and recorded in almost every aspect of their lives.

With the advent of the Internet and IP (Internet Protocol) address, you can simply attach a camera to a computer and broadcast images and video to anywhere in the world. Many businesses and companies are having their surveillance systems integrated with their computers and Internet connections so that they can monitor what is going on at the office from home or from anywhere in the world for that matter. In addition, people are using “live cams” all over the Internet for recreational use, filming all sorts of people, places and things with and without anyone even knowing about it. These “live cams” are actually quite scary because most of the people being filmed have no idea that they are on camera or worse yet, that anyone on the Internet can watch them.

Writing this paper gives me chills just thinking that anyone could be watching my children and me at any moment. I could be loading groceries at the store, parked in front of an ATM machine, or backing out of my driveway and someone somewhere with a “live cam” could be filming and broadcasting my every step to the entire world.

Another scary thing to think about is your personal identification number that most people refer to as their Social Security card. Right on the back of your Social Security card, it plainly says that it is not to be used as a piece of identification, but I don’t have to tell you how many municipalities and financial institutions require it. In fact, just call your local cell phone provider and start asking questions about your bill and they will not even talk to you unless you first “verify who you are” with the “last four digits of the primary account holder’s social security number” and like sheep, we give them everything they ask for with no regard for who might be listening. It seems like every place of business these days require it or they deny you service.

The problem is, that number is more dangerous than most people image. It can be used to get your credit report, apply for a new bank card, get a new post office box or even apply for a new Block Buster card if you want to rent movies under someone else’s name. Your Social Security number was originally setup for government benefits and was only to be used by that agency, but years later in our ignorance we have slowly let it become our primary identification number. In fact, most people think it is supposed to be used for identification such as on college ID’s, IRS tax forms as well as payroll and other financial matters when it fact, nothing could be further from the truth. But decades after its inception, what can we do about it?

Well not much really except to protect it as best as we can and try to keep it from getting into the “wrong hands”. Your Social Security number is showing up on just about everything you own from health ID cards to grocery store check cashing cards. So how does one person keep it from getting into the wrong hands when we don’t even know how many hands are handling it in the first place?