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…
Thanks again to all our partners for Shred Events in 2011 Over the course of the 2011 events in conjunction with the Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union (HVFCU), Walden Federal Savings (Now Hometown Bank of the Hudson Valley), Wallkill Valley Federal Savings, Mid Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union we are thrilled to have helped community…
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….
In the latest issue of Consumer Reports, the experts responded with a definitve yes when asked whether fianancial records for closed accounts of parents who died several years ago pose an identity theft danger. Quoting their response, “Thieves have stolen IDs of the dead, but your biggest risk is that there might be something in…