Child Identity Theft Expert – Part IV Protection

In Parts I – III we talked about how easy it is for your child’s identity to be kidnapped and who does it; now let’s get to the heart of…

Protecting Your Children

Acting now on behalf of your child will protect them from consequences common to child victims:

  • Starting adulthood with a credit rating low enough to scare away the hungriest of loan sharks
  • Being denied a first loan, credit card or apartment rental because of a crime committed 10-15 years earlier (the passage of time makes this crime very hard to clear up)
  • Being denied access to college or a new job
  • Having a warrant out for her arrest for crimes that she didn’t commit

In the same way that you can’t protect your children from every bruise and scrape, you can’t entirely remove the risk of identity theft. You can, however, prevent or soften the fall if it does happen. Take these steps first:

  1. Stop giving out your child’s personal information. Until you are confident that it is absolutely necessary to receive the services desired, withhold their personal information. More than 80% of organizations that ask for your child’s Social Security Number don’t actually need it to establish services. If you must give it, ask them how they will use it, how long they will keep it and how it will be protected while they have it. Vigilance is highly effective. Never carry your child’s SSN with you.
  2. Order a free credit report for your child at least once a year. All three major credit reporting bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) offer one free credit report per year per individual. Order one for your child at the same time you order yours and review them both for any red flags indicating fraudulent activity. I recommend that you order the first one (Equifax) right now; order a second report (Experian) in 4 more months; order the third report (TransUnion) four months after that and then repeat the process the following year. For a more convenient option, use an identity monitoring services for you and your family.
  3. If you find evidence of fraudulent activity, contact the police, the source of the fraud and all three credit bureaus. Filing a police report helps to establish your child’s innocence in an official way. Have the credit bureaus FREEZE your child’s credit for maximum protection. Keep detailed records of all correspondence between yourself, the police, the merchant and the credit bureaus. It will come in handy should you ever find yourself in court, as I did.
  4. Educate your children on the importance of protecting their personal information. Teach them about the value of their personal information: their name, address, phone numbers, email address, Social Security Number and any passwords and PIN numbers. Reinforce that they own their private information and that it should not be shared with friends, over the internet or with anyone whom they don’t know or trust. Education is absolutely the best financial gift you will ever give to them. Because you love and protect your children as much as I do, you should start this process immediately.

In the case of child identity theft, an ounce of prevention is worth a lifetime of financial security. Don’t let the center of your universe become just another statistic.

After losing his business to data breach and his reputation to identity theft, John Sileo became America’s leading identity theft expert. He speaks to audiences around the world about protecting personal and professional data. To learn more, visit www.ThinkLikeASpy.com or John’s LinkedIn Profile.

Child Identity Theft Expert – Part III

If you’re thinking “this couldn’t happen to my child,” think again! Let’s look at

Who Does This?

The identity thief is not always a stranger. In many cases, it’s a relative with bad credit who takes advantage of a child’s pristine credit. Conveniently, these family members generally have access to the information necessary to maximize the fraud with little attention.
This seems absurd, but imagine a parent who is strapped for cash, has a bad credit score and needs to buy groceries. In this case, short-term thinking blinds the relative or friend to long-term consequences. In other instances, the child’s future is not taken into consideration at all.

Frankly, it doesn’t take much to get the crime underway; all a criminal needs is the child’s name and Social Security Number. These pieces of personal information are exposed in a variety of ways:

  • When registering for daycare, schools and recreational sports
  • On medical, dental and hospital records
  • When joining organizations like the Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, etc.
  • When the above information is permanently stored and accessed by volunteers or employees
  • When one of the above organizations is breached by a hacker or malicious software
  • When an adult befriends your child on a social networking site (MySpace, Facebook) and eventually socially engineers private information out of them

The Three Basic Types of Child Identity Theft

Child Identity theft generally falls into these 3 categories:

  1. Financial identity theft occurs when the name and Social Security Number is used to establish new lines of credit.
  2. Criminal identity theft happens when the criminal uses the child’s identity to obtain a driver’s license or substitutes the child’s identity if caught in a criminal act.
  3. Identity cloning entails using a child’s identity (via information collection or a black market ‘purchase’ of personal information) for financial, criminal and governmental purposes. The most common form of cloned identity theft is committed on behalf of undocumented workers looking for an identity that will keep them working in this country.

For parents, cleaning up the disaster of identity theft for their children is costly and incredibly time consuming. Getting a new Social Security Number is almost impossible, and rarely the best option.

Taking steps right now to protect your child from this horrible crime is one of the greatest investments you will ever make in their financial and emotional future.

Tomorrow, I will cover the steps on How to Protect Your Children from Identity Theft.

Child Identity Theft Speaker John Sileo

Child Identity Theft Expert – Part II

 

Were you surprised the other day when I said that your children are highly attractive targets of identity thieves because they have untouched and unblemished credit records?  Let me tell you just how easy it happens.

How Does It Happen?

All an identity thief needs to ruin your child’s bright financial future is her name and Social Security Number.

“Shouldn’t my child’s age show up on any credit background check, shouldn’t the merchant recognize that the person in front of them buying a car on credit isn’t seven years old?” you ask.

Yes, it should, but the people screening the credit report rarely give it the time and care necessary to detect fraud.

All too often, background checks involve simply matching the name and the Social Security Number provided. This leaves doors wide open for scandalous minds to wreak havoc on your child’s perfect credit. The most unsettling part is that the age of the applicant (in this case, the person posing as your child) becomes official with the credit bureaus upon the first credit application. This makes clearing a sabotaged credit record even more difficult because you have to prove to the credit bureau that your child is only seven and isn’t responsible for thousands of dollars of debt.

In no time at all, your child could have a maxed out credit card, unpaid bills and a huge mortgage for beachfront property across the country. You might not discover the illegal purchases until your child opens a bank account, applies for a job, tries to get a driver’s license or enters college. At that point, you are left with the time-consuming dilemma of cleaning up someone else’s fraudulent mess. If only clearing up a credit report was as easy as cleaning up after your kids.

Do the gaping holes in our current credit system and the audacity of criminals leave you enraged? Me too. And it is imperative that you use your anger as fuel to protect and prepare your children’s future before it is too late.

Child Identity theft is the fastest growing sector of the identity theft “industry,” and the numbers are staggering. Although it’s difficult to estimate exactly how many children lose their identities since the crime can go undetected for years, the FTC states that 5% of identity theft cases target children, which translates into 500,000 kidnapped child identities per year, and growing. The Identity Theft Resource Center discovered that in 54% of the cases, the child was under the age of six.

In my next blog, I’ll talk about Who Does This.

Identity Theft Speaker, John Sileo

Child Identity Theft Expert: A Growing Concern – Part I of 4

Are you as protective of your kids as I am of mine?

My wife and two highly-spirited daughters are more than just the center of my universe – they are the compass by which I set my course in every aspect of life. If something is not good for the family, then it isn’t good for me. And that means that I want to do everything in my power to keep them safe.

You and I are called on to protect our children from many things, starting in the womb. Even before they are born, we practice good preventative care. We take specially designed pre-natal exercise classes, coax ourselves to eat right for their benefit, learn CPR and Love and Logic and screen regularly for signs of trouble. Once they are born, we provide the best nourishment, the finest medical care, ample playtime, rest and an infinite flow of unconditional love. You get the point… we do everything in our power to prevent complications and to give them the best chance to grow up healthy, happy and in harmony with the world around them. That is our responsibility, our purpose and our joy.

But how often do you check their credit report? Their WHAT?! I can feel the surprise in your blank stare. I can hear your questions:

“Check my kid’s …credit report? But she is only seven! She doesn’t even have her front teeth yet, let alone a credit card! There are so many years to go before we need to worry about that. Right?”

Unfortunately, no. Because children have untouched and unblemished credit records, they are highly attractive targets. Child identity theft is profitable, hard to detect and a nightmare to recover. Thieves steal a child’s identity early on, nurture it until they have a solid credit score, and then abuse and discard it.

How Does it Happen?

Identity Theft Expert John Sileo – Video Tips

Facebook Status Update Leads to Robbery

When you are ‘friends’ with people on Facebook that you are not actually friends with, how do you know whether they have good intentions?

A recent segment on CNN discusses the risks that you may be taking while updating your Facebook status. You don’t know who is looking at your private information because it’s truly not private – it’s public. Keri McMullen found this out the hard way after she posted a simple status message that she was going to see a band with her fiancé. It only took the burglars calling the venue to find out what time the show was to let them know when they could break into her home. The burglars showed up 35 minutes after the McMullens left for the concert.

It is that simple. You post a casual message to your “friends” that could turn into a nightmare where, like Keri, you lose upwards of $11,000 in personal property. They were lucky that they had cameras installed in the home and were able to catch the perpetrators on film. After posting pictures of them on her Facebook page (a good use of social networking), another friend recognized the intruders as Keri’s high school classmates.

Keri’s experience shows other Facebook users that, even though you may have known an individual at one time, if you do not interact with them and know their character now, then how can you trust them? Remember you don’t have to be Facebook friends with everyone you have ever spoken to. By keeping your ‘friends’ limited, you are lessening your risk of becoming a victim. No matter what privacy setting you have on your Facebook profile, your posts are public, permanent and exploitable.

John Sileo is an an award-winning author and keynote speaker on identity theft, internet privacy, fraud training & technology defense. John specializes in making security entertaining, so that it works. John is CEO of The Sileo Group, whose clients include the Pentagon, Visa, Homeland Security & Pfizer. John’s body of work includes appearances on 60 Minutes, Rachael Ray, Anderson Cooper & Fox Business. Contact him directly on 800.258.8076.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgwQPhpRPd0&rel=0]

Comcast Asks for Your Social Security Number

Here is a nice letter we received by a woman who not only attended an identity theft speech, but works for the finest document shredding company in the world, Fellowes. Thanks for sharing your experience.

Hi John! I hope all is well!  Before I get to my experience today with Comcast, I just want to say that I’m very glad you’re continuing to partner with Fellowes as our Identity Theft spokesman. Our sales force STILL talks about your presentation from two years ago at our National Sales Meeting!! Your message definitely has an impact…

As such, here is an interesting story that happened to me earlier this afternoon, and it instantly made me think of you.  I tried to set up cable and internet services through Comcast on their website, and at the end of the set-up sheet they inform you that you must “chat” online with one of their analysts in order for them to process your service request.  Which is obnoxious, but apparently necessary.

So I wait my turn in the queue and then the analyst starts asking me some additional questions that weren’t captured in the initial service request.  Things like: do I have any questions, is this the service I wish to activate, what is my Social Security number.  Of course, I did NOT give it out!  The analyst gave me the standard assurance that it was company policy, and they would never give out my information.  But I could NOT believe they had a live person ask for it in the first place!  The first thing that went through my mind was your “Think Like a Spy” motto—honestly, what would prevent someone from just writing that number down off the screen as I gave it out??  Not to mention the fact that all of those chat conversations are probably logged, for quality assurance purposes.  So who knows how many people have access to that data.

Their solution to me not providing my SSN?  Driver’s License number and birthdate.  To a live stranger on the other side of the screen.

Needless to say, my skin was crawling by the end of the session.  I can only image the number of people that give away their info without even batting an eye. I’m still disturbed by it, and I’m actually tempted to write Comcast a little note telling them as much.

I’m not sure how many other companies have people set up services this way, so if you haven’t heard of this scenario before, it might be something to look into!  Here’s hoping this is not a wide-spread practice…

Unfortunately, asking for your Social Security number when it isn’t actually needed is a very common practice. You can avoid Comcast identity theft. The answer? Don’t give it!

John Sileo is an an award-winning author and keynote speaker on identity theft, internet privacy, fraud training & technology defense. John specializes in making security entertaining, so that it works. John is CEO of The Sileo Group, whose clients include the Pentagon, Visa, Homeland Security & Pfizer. John’s body of work includes appearances on 60 Minutes, Rachael Ray, Anderson Cooper & Fox Business. Contact him directly on 800.258.8076.

 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YQZ838LMsU&rel=0]

Nigerian Scam Takes a New Form

Nigerian scams happen everyday to thousands of victims in various ways: email, snail mail, fax, Facebook and for the first time in our experience, the “Contact Us” page on our website. This is significant because it shows the the technology of the Nigerian crime rings has advanced enough to foil the Captcha device on our website.

Nigerian scams (more accurately known as advanced-fee fraud) have been around for ages and were named because they originated in Nigeria. To create the scam, criminals generally claim that there is a large sum of money that can only be released to a relative of some deceased member of royalty.  Victims are asked to provide a bank account into which the money can be transferred and are promised a large percentage of the money for performing the service. In some cases, victims may also be asked to pay a fee or a series of fees for the release of the money.  Once the victim has provided account information, the criminals will often drain their bank accounts, and occasionally use that information to open new, fraudulent accounts.

If you have never seen one before I highly recommend you read this. They change frequently and recently have been taking more complex forms, but the intention is always the same: to steal your money in exchange for the prospect of wealth that never materializes.  After seeing how they try to lure you into helping them with a compelling story,  you will be able to spot them with ease and protect yourself form becoming a victim.

From: refugee camp (helise)
Date: July 24, 2010 4:11:08 AM MDT
To: john@192.241.219.145
Subject: Contact Submission [ThinkLikeASpy.com]

===================================================================
Below is a contact request from ThinkLikeASpy.com
===================================================================

Name: helise
Email: refugee camp
Phone:
Company:
Location:


Comments:
Dear friend,
My nane (sic) is Miss Helise Mambo Robert.I am constrained to contact you because of the maltreatment I was receiving from my uncle since the death of my parents. She has taken away all my late father’s treasury and properties from me since the unexpected death of my beloved parents. Meanwhile I wanted to escape to the Europe but he hides away my international passport and other valuable traveling documents. Luckily, He did not discover where I kept my father’s file which contained important documents. So, I decided to run to the refugee camp where I’m in a the Refugee now.
My late father of blessed memory deposited the sum of Fifteen Million five hundred thousand US Dollars.(US$15.5M)some where with my name as the “next of kin”.The money was inherited from my father who was the Chairman of the Zimbabwe Gold Mining Corporation before he was assassinated by the country’s president, Robert Mugabe. However, I shall forward you with the necessary documents on confirmation of your acceptance to assist me receive the fund in your country for further investments on my behalf. As you will help me in an investment, and I will like to complete my studies when I will come over to your country as I was in my 1st year in the university when the crisis started.This is the reason why I decided to contact you.
The money has been lodged with a company, since 2008. I now want to move this money abroad and invest it in Profitable ventures, as the time is now ripe for such move.I was in the school when my father and mother were assasinated (sic) by the president.Our houses and other properties were distroyed (sic).The group pretended to be rebels but we knew that it is the president that sent them because he has disagrement (sic)with him on the issue of killing the white people who are farmers in my country.My father opposed the killing and my father told him that he will expose him if he goes ahead in killing the with farmers.

WHAT I ASK YOU TO DO:

1.Firstly to assist me move this money to any stable country abroad.
2.To assist me invest the money in profitable ventures in your country or any other suitable country where you have good connections.
3. To help me re-locate me to the suggested country.
4. To manage the money in a profitable manner, preferably a joint venture deals with you. It is risk free.
Immediately I hear from you I will detail you on the procedure of moving the money to your country.

For your assistance you will get 30% (Thirty Percent) of the total amount.
You can contact me through my e-mail above for more details.
Sincere regards

Miss Helise Mambo Robert
===================================================================

John Sileo became America’s top Identity Theft Speaker after he lost his business and more than $300,000 to identity theft and data breach. His newest Book Privacy Means Profit:Prevent Identity Theft and Secure You and Your Bottom Line is available now. His clients include the Department of Defense, the FTC, Pfizer and the FDIC. To learn more about having him speak at your next meeting or conference, contact him by email or on 800.258.8076.

Online Privacy: 5 Good Habits

People will do something—including changing their behavior—only if it can be demonstrated that doing so is in their own best interests as defined by their own values.
—Marshall Goldsmith, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

People don’t change bad habits until they have a compelling reason. Too often that compelling reason is the result of a habit’s negative outcome; but the promise of positive rewards resulting from the establishment of good habits can be a strong motivator. In the workplace, aligning responsible information stewardship with personal and professional gain can set the stage for good privacy habits.

Here are 5 steps you can take towards perfecting your own Privacy Habits:

  1. Tighten up online passwords. Use a password management software like 1Password, Dashlane, LastPass or Keeper to create, protect and share long, strong, alpha-numeric-symbol passwords.
  2. Use Two-Step Logins. Watch this video about two-factor authentication for one of the best tools to protect your online accounts.
  3. Secure your Facebook. Tighten up the privacy settings and make your profile only available to your friends. We do a lot of posts on Facebook Privacy Settings because they have a tendency to change frequently. Watch the site and subscribe to our newsletter to stay current on how to protect yourself and your profile on Facebook.
  4. Opt-Out. Take the time to call 1-888-567-8688 or visit www.OptOutPreScreen.com
    to stop financial junk mail from ending up at your house and inevitably – your trash. Those mailers give thieves an easy way to set up credit card accounts in your name without your consent. They spend money on the card and default on the balance, leaving you with the mess of proving that you didn’t make the purchases.
  5. Order your free credit report. By law, you are entitled to one free report from each agency once a year. The easiest way to get a report is to visit www.annualcreditreport.com or call 1-877-322-8228. Make sure that you request your free annual credit report from one credit agency only, as you can order the other two reports throughout the remainder of the year. By spreading the reports out over time, you will be monitoring your files consistently and frequently.

 

How to Opt Out of Financial Junk Mail | Sileo

 

Your private data is bought and sold by junk-mailers without your knowledge, but you can easily opt out by calling 1-888-567-8688 or visiting www.OptOutPreScreen.com.

Find out how to opt out of junk mail today.

There are complete industries built around collecting, massaging and selling your data – your name, phone number, address, spending patterns, net worth, the age of your children, the magazines you buy, etc. Companies buy bits of your privacy so that they can knowledgeably market products to you that you are likely to purchase.

To minimize the amount of your personal information bought and sold on the data market, begin “opting out”.  Opting out is the process of notifying organizations that collect your personal information to stop sharing it with other organizations. “Pre-approved” credit card offers (i.e., financial junk mail) are a major source of identity theft. Those mailers give thieves an easy way to set up credit card accounts in your name without your consent. They spend money on the card and default on the balance, leaving you with the mess of proving that you didn’t make the purchases. The solution is to opt out of receiving pre-approved credit, home loan and insurance offers.

Pre-approved credit offers (also called pre-screened or pre-qualified credit offers) are possible because credit reporting bureaus (Experian, Equifax and Trans Union – companies that collect and sell financial data on nearly every American) make a great deal of money selling your identity (i.e., name, address, phone number, age, credit score) to credit card, loan and insurance companies.  But it is your right to stop the sale of your information. To opt out of pre-approved credit offers with the three main credit reporting bureaus, call 1-888-567-8688 or visit www.OptOutPreScreen.com. There is no cost to you for opting out, and it will save a forest of trees.

Once you’ve completed this step, begin opting out of ALL information sharing on every account you have (bank, brokerage, mortgage, utilities, phone, etc.) as well as with the Direct Marketing Association.

While this takes time, learning how to opt out of junk mail can save you time and energy in the long run.

John Sileo is an an award-winning author and keynote speaker on identity theft, financial wellness, fraud training & technology defense. John specializes in making security entertaining, so that it works. John is CEO of The Sileo Group, whose clients include the Pentagon, Visa, Homeland Security & Pfizer. John’s body of work includes appearances on 60 Minutes, Rachael Ray, Anderson Cooper & Fox Business. Contact him directly on 800.258.8076.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0fcQyqBtfQ&rel=0]

Are Your Kids Safe Online?

As a parent you are often worried about what your kids are being exposed to on the Internet. Apparently so are Facebook and the PTA. They have teamed up to teach parents and children about responsible Internet use. They plan to cover cyber-bullying, internet safety and security and “citizenship online,” according to a news release.

“Nothing is more important to us than the well-being of the people, especially the many teenagers, who use Facebook,” said Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer.

Facebook is the number one social media site with over 500 million users and a minimum age requirement of 13. Even that requirement can be easily fudged because Facebook has no way of verifying a user’s age besides asking for their birth date when they register. Parents are having trouble deciding whether to let their children join Facebook prematurely and what they should be cautious of if they do so.

Learn more on Protecting Your Children Online.

It is important to be educated when dealing with any form of social media or social networking website. Social networking is immensely powerful and is here for the long run, but we must learn to harness and control it. You should know the ins and outs, pros and cons, risks and rewards to using these online tools. Because teens and children don’t necessarily have the life experiences to recognize the risks, parents must educate themselves and pass that knowledge on with open and honest discussions on Facebook and Online Safety.

John Sileo became one of America’s leading Social Networking Speakers & sought after Identity Theft Experts after he lost his business and more than $300,000 to identity theft and data breach. His clients include the Department of Defense, Pfizer and the FDIC. To learn more about having him speak at your next meeting or conference, contact him by email or on 800.258.8076.