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Keeping Your Identity a Secret

Shoulder surfing, dumpster diving and phishing, actions performed by criminals that invade, violate and steal a person's identity. Each year millions of consumers have
their identities stolen. The result is time consuming and costly; on average victims spend close to 30 hours and up to $500 cleaning up their personal information after a theft, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

There are several actions you can follow to prevent yourself from becoming a victim of identity theft. Following the recommendations below, courtesy of Universal Protection Service, is the first step to taking a proactive approach to securing your identity.
-- Review bank and credit card statements monthly.
-- Shred any documents that contain personal information including your
home address, phone numbers, birthdates and credit card and bank
numbers.
-- Protect your laptop with a unique code and/or password.
-- Monitor your credit report quarterly.
-- Avoid leaving mail in the mailbox. If you will be gone for an extended
period of time have mail delivery stopped or ask a neighbor to retrieve
it for you daily.
-- Stay alert on the phone. Never give out your social security number or
banking information.
-- Memorize personal passwords and change often.

However, if the unfortunate does happen and your identity is stolen it is important to react quickly.
-- Immediately contact the three credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian and
Transunion, and ask each company to place a fraud alert on your credit
report.
-- Notify your credit card companies and banks by phone and in writing.
-- File a complaint with the FTC and contact the local police department.
-- Make copies of all your documents and keep a record of your actions
while you regain your identity.


For more information visit our web site at www.universalpro.com.

Does VoIP Make It Easier For Scammers?

By, Deb Shinder

If you’re considering switching from the traditional public switched telephone network (PSTN) service to VoIP, you might be wondering whether the change will make you more vulnerable to scammers, help protect you from common scams, or not make much difference at all.

Con games are about as old as human history; there will always be people around who attempt to use deception to persuade others to do something — often, to give them money or something else of value. In today’s electronic world, that something else may be passwords used to access various accounts at financial institutions, etc., or it might be credit card numbers and similar information used to obtain goods and charge them to someone else.

Most jurisdictions have fairly broad laws against fraud that cover both in-person and online scams, and many are now enacting legislation to deal specifically with the types of fraudulent schemes commonly perpehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.giftrated over the Internet. How much of a threat is VoIP? Let’s take a look. Click here for the entire story.

Iceman Put On Ice

A cyber criminal who went by the moniker Iceman has been indicted by a grand jury in Pittsburgh on wire fraud and transferring stolen information.

San Francisco-based Mark Ray Butler, 35, was a prolific identity thief and specialized in stolen credit card numbers, according to the authorities. Now he faces as long as 40 years in prison and fine of $1.5 million. It took a 16-month investigation by the US Secret Service to gather enough evidence against Butler.

Margaret Philbin, spokeswoman for US Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan of Pittsburgh, told the Associated Press that the identity thief was transported to Pittsburgh to be tried as he had sold over 100 credit card numbers to a resident of Pennsylvania. The man cooperated with law enforcement on the case which is why Butler was indicted in a Pittsburgh court. Another witness said that Butler used to routinely hack into institutions like the Pentagon Federal Credit Union and Citibank.

Butler also used to use the aliases of Darkest, Digits and Aphex.