Unfortunately, ID theft appears to be on the rise again. According to Javelin, a leading research firm, in 2011, identity fraud increased by 13 percent. More than 11.6 million adults became victims of identity fraud in the United States, while the dollar amount stolen held steady. Their latest findings in a nutshell: • Identity fraud…
The Federal Trade Commission recently released its list of the top consumer complaints received by the agency in 2011. For the 12th year in a row, identity theft complaints topped the list. Of more than 1.8 million complaints filed in 2011, 279,156 or 15 percent, were identity theft complaints. Nearly 25 percent of the identity…
Many people still feel protected from identity theft as long as they stay off the internet. This week’s post is a reminder that much of identity theft is still low tech. It’s dumpster diving and, in this case, capitalizing on low security in a health provider’s facility. The message is we need to be vigilant…
At HV Shred, we use our blog to educate the community about the latest scams. Caller ID Spoofing is far from being a “funny ha ha” spoof. It could be a serious attack on your personal information. How does it work? A Caller ID Spoofer logs on to one of several websites that enable them to create an account by…
In this season of Valentine’s and budding romances, we just want to help make everyone aware of a scam found to be more and more prevalent by The Internet Crime Complaint Center (a private/public partnership established to deter/detect/and defend again identity theft. The IC3 has warned the public to be wary of romance scams in…
Every week, our goal is to use this space to help our community deter, detect, and defend again ID Theft. Here a 3 more tips to keep private information private! (1) Give Personal Information Over Encrypted Websites Only If you’re shopping or banking online, stick to sites that use encryption to protect your information as…
Keeping to our education theme, here are some more tips to protecting your identity-particularly as you operate on-line. (1) Use Security Software That Updates Automatically The bad guys constantly develop new ways to attack your computer, so your security software must be up-to-date to protect against the latest threats. Most security software can update automatically;…
Again, we can’t emphasize enough how important it is to stay vigilant during tax season. Thieves who steal taxpayers’ personal tax-related information can use it to steal identities as well. To help prevent these crimes, the IRS offers the following suggestions. 1. The IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers by email to request personal…
We are all vulnerable to ID theft 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, there are times of the year when we need to be more vigilant about our surroundings. Tax Time is one of them. This is the time of year that all of your personal information is traveling through the mail….
As you review ways to streamline operations, outsourcing to a professional shredding service often makes a lot of sense for businesses large and small. Here are some reasons why using a Professional Shredding Service makes sense, and why to choose HV Shred, Inc. in particular: · First and foremost, if your office has a paper…