2. Where Are You Now?Protecting Your Wealth
IDENTITY THEFT
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Identify theft 3
Forms of identify theft 4
Methods for illegally accessing 5
personal information
Protecting yourself… the three D’s 7
Protecting yourself – Deter 8
Protecting yourself – Detect 10
Protecting yourself – Defend 11
Appendix 12
Your Social Security number 13
Social networking sites 14
Mobile devices 15
Online dangers 16
Travel concerns 17
Common email scams 18
Common fraud scams 19
Identity theft real-world examples 20
“Ultimately, you cannot prevent
identity theft from happening
to you, …You can only reduce
your chances.”
— Beth Givens
3. Where Are You Now?Protecting Your Wealth
IDENTITY THEFT
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Identify theft:
• Is a serious crime occurring when your personal information is stolen and used without your knowledge
to commit fraud or other crimes.
• Most often occurs when an individual steals another person’s identity in order to exploit that person’s financial
status for personal gain.
• May involve the thief pretending to be someone else in order to access the victim’s financial resources or
obtain credit or other benefits in that person’s name.
• May result in severe damage to the victim’s credit scores and financial standing, resulting in the expenditure
of significant time, energy and money to repair the damaged financial reputation.
• May result in the victim being held accountable for the perpetrator’s illegal actions.
4. Where Are You Now?Protecting Your Wealth
FORMS OF IDENTITY THEFT
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Identity theft can take many forms, but the most common types of fraud are:
FINANCIAL IDENTITY THEFT Using another person’s identity to access their financial accounts, obtain credit or to receive
goods or services.
IDENTITY CLONING Using another person’s information to assume his or her identity in social situations.
CRIMINAL IDENTITY THEFT Posing as another person when accused of, or apprehended for, a crime.
MEDICAL IDENTITY THEFT Using another identity to obtain medical care or drugs.
CHILD IDENTITY THEFT Using a minor’s Social Security number for personal or financial gain.
5. Where Are You Now?Protecting Your Wealth
METHODS FOR ILLEGALLY ACCESSING PERSONAL INFORMATION
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Identity thieves use a variety of methods to access their victim’s personal information. Techniques include:
PHISHING Thieves pose as financial companies or credit bureaus through telephone calls or phony email
messages asking for personal information.
RUMMAGING
(A.K.A., DUMPSTER DIVING)
Thieves go through your trash or mailbox to find financial statements or bills containing your
personal information.
SKIMMING Thieves (e.g., a dishonest store employee) steal credit/debit card numbers by copying receipts
or using a “skimmer” (special storage device) to swipe your card and store your number.
TELEMARKETING SCHEMES Thieves make “offers” or indicate that you have won a prize over the phone and ask for your
personal information or credit card number.
PHONY CREDIT CARD CHECK Similar to “phishing,” the victim receives a call from someone posing as an employee of your
credit card company asking to confirm credit card numbers, personal identification numbers
or other personal data.
6. Where Are You Now?Protecting Your Wealth
METHODS (CONTINUED)
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SOCIAL NETWORKING Browsing websites for personal details published by users and using this information to appear
credible in subsequent social activities.
SPYWARE Computer virus is used to steal personal information from your computer through malware
programs.
HACKING Thieves illegally invade email, online accounts, computer networks, systems and databases to obtain
personal data in large quantities.
SHOULDER SURFING Thieves observe a victim typing their login credentials, credit card numbers, passwords or PIN in
public places.
7. Where Are You Now?Protecting Your Wealth
PROTECTING YOURSELF… THE THREE D’S
Protecting yourself from identity theft and financial exploitation is an ongoing process. Vigilance is the best
strategy for ensuring your identity’s safety. Employ a “3-D” approach in protecting your identity.
Source: Federal Trade Commission at www.ftc.com. As of December 15, 2014.
Avoid identity theft by protecting your personal
information.
Be aware of suspicious activities by routinely monitoring
your financial accounts and billing statements.
If you identify potential identity theft, take steps to stop
further damage.
DETER
DETECT
DEFEND
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8. Where Are You Now?Protecting Your Wealth
PROTECTING YOURSELF — DETER
DETER — Avoid identity theft by protecting your personal information.
• Use the internet cautiously and guard your personal and financial information.
• Do not use an obvious password like your birthdate, your mother’s maiden name, children’s names or the last
four digits of your Social Security number.
• Memorize your passwords and PIN numbers. Never leave them printed inside your purse or wallet.
• Keep anything with personal account information in a secure place at home, especially if you have roommates,
employ outside help or are having work done in your house.
• Don’t give out personal information on the phone, through mail, or over the internet unless you know who you
are dealing with. Avoid disclosing personal financial information when using public wireless connections.
• Never click links sent in unsolicited emails. Instead type a web address you know.
• Use firewalls, anti-spyware, and anti-virus software to protect your home computer and keep them up-to-date.
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9. Where Are You Now?Protecting Your Wealth
PROTECTING YOURSELF — DETER (CONTINUED)
• Be smart about what you make available through social media.
• Reduce what you carry in your purse or wallet and never carry your Social Security card with you. Protect your
Social Security number, and give it out only if absolutely necessary or ask to use another identifier.
• Shred financial documents and paperwork with personal information before you discard them.
• Make two-sided copies of everything you carry in your wallet, including credit and debit cards, store cards,
driver’s license, insurance cards and passport. Keep these copies in a place you can easily access so that if you
lose your purse or wallet, you can quickly locate your account information, including numbers to call to cancel
cards or notify agencies.
• Elect paperless statements for credit cards, investment statements, etc.
• Contact www.optoutprescreen.com to stop credit card applications.
• Contact www.dmachoice.org to reduce junk mail.
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10. Where Are You Now?Protecting Your Wealth
PROTECTING YOURSELF — DETECT
DETECT — Be aware of suspicious activities by routinely monitoring your financial accounts and billing
statements. Signs of potential identity theft issues include:
• Bills not arriving when expected.
• Arrival of unexpected account statements or credit card bills.
• Charges on your financial statements that you did not make.
• Receiving telephone calls or letters about purchases or commercial inquiries that you did not make.
• Be sure to inspect your credit report periodically:
– Your credit reports contain information about you, including what accounts you have and your bill paying history.
– The law requires the major nationwide consumer reporting companies to give you a free copy of your credit
report every 12 months if you request them. Contact www.annualcreditreport.com or 1.877.322.8228
for a free copy of all three reports.
– If you see accounts or addresses you do not recognize, or information that is inaccurate, contact the credit
reporting company and the store/information provider to correct errors.
– Contact all three major nationwide consumer reporting companies:
Experian at www.experian.com or 1.888.397.3742
Equifax at www.equifax.com or 1.800.685.1111
TransUnion at www.transunion.com or 1.800.916.8800
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11. Where Are You Now?Protecting Your Wealth
PROTECTING YOURSELF — DEFEND
DEFEND- If you identify potential identity theft, take steps to stop further damage:
• Close accounts you know or suspect have been opened fraudulently or tampered with.
• Place a “Fraud Alert” on your credit reports and review the reports carefully. A fraud alert tells creditors to
follow certain procedures before opening new accounts or making changes to existing accounts in your name.
• Contact the security departments of each company where an account was improperly opened or charged
without your permission.
– Follow up in writing, with copies of supporting documentation.
– Use the ID Theft Affidavit1 from the Federal Trade Commission to support your written statement
– Ask for verification that the disputed account has been purged and the fraudulent debts discharged.
– Keep copies of documents and records of your conversation and theft.
• File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission:
– Ftc.gov/idtheft or 1.877.ID.THEFT
• File a compliant with your local police or with authorities where the identity theft took place. This will help you
correct your credit report and deal with creditors who may want proof of the crime.
1 Federal Trade Commission ID Theft Affidavit: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/resources/forms/affidavit.pdf. As of December 19, 2014.
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12. Where Are You Now?Protecting Your Wealth
APPENDIX
Additional things to monitor and consider:
• Your Social Security number
• Social networking sites
• Mobile devices
• Online dangers and internet transactions
• Travel concerns
Real-world examples of identity theft:
• Common email scams
• Common fraud scams
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13. Where Are You Now?Protecting Your Wealth
YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER
It is crucial that you protect your Social Security number to help prevent identity theft:
• Keep your Social Security card in a locked location, such as a safe or a safe deposit box.
• Be sure to know the organizations that require your Social Security number and do not share it with others.
Those that typically require your Social Security number include:
– The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for tax returns and federal loans
– Your employer, for wage and tax reporting purposes
– Accountants, in order to properly file your income tax returns
– Financial service providers and mortgage lenders, for tax filing and account opening requirements
– Creditors, for appropriate credit check and tax filing
– Departments of your resident state (such as Division of Motor Vehicle, Taxation, etc.)
• Federal privacy laws regulate the use of Social Security numbers by government agencies. When a government
agency asks an individual to disclose his or her Social Security number, the agency must disclose the statutory
or other authority for requesting the information, whether the request is mandatory or voluntary, and what
uses will be made of the information, and the consequences, if any, of failure to provide the information.
• Some common businesses that you encounter may request your Social Security number, but they may not
require it:
– Doctors, dentists and other medical service providers
– Utility companies
• Remember, shred any documents that contain your Social Security number prior to discarding.
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14. Where Are You Now?Protecting Your Wealth
SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES
Victims of identity theft often naively provide their personal information (and whereabouts) to potential
thieves via postings on social networks such as Facebook or MySpace. Protect yourself on these sites by:
• Ensuring that your privacy and security settings will allow personal access only to trusted friends and family.
• Making sure you are not sharing sensitive private files with other users (if you use “peer-to-peer” file sharing).
• Avoiding the disclosure of your birth date, or at least your birth year, on any public postings.
• Never disclosing your vacation or travel plans, allowing potential perpetrators to know when you are away
from home.
• Being aware of location-based apps that identify where you are in real time. (e.g. Facebook Places, Foursquare, etc.)
• Visit www.OnGuardOnline.gov for more information on protecting your information and identity.
1 Society for Human Resource Management - "Social Networking Websites and Recruiting/Selection": http://www.shrm.org/research/surveyfindings/articles/pages/shrm-social-networking-websites-
recruiting-job-candidates.aspx. As of April 11, 2013.
PROTECTING YOUR REPUTATION
Did you know?
• Many employers now monitor social media for behavior that may be deemed inappropriate for their employees?
– A SHRM study1 showed that nearly three-quarters of HR personnel have rejected someone over incriminating online information.
• Insurance companies are now using social media to adjust risk-ratings of policy holders?
In addition to protecting yourself from identity theft on social networking sites, be cognizant about managing your online reputation as well:
• Limit the degree to which you associate your online profile with work.
• Think twice about what you are posting.
• Understand and adhere to your company's social networking policy.
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15. Where Are You Now?Protecting Your Wealth
MOBILE DEVICES
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Banks, financial institutions and other online sites now provide customers with the ability to access their
account information, and make transactions on-the-go via their smart phones and other mobile devices.
1 A subscriber identity module or subscriber identification module (SIM) is an integrated circuit that securely stores the service-subscriber key (IMSI) used to identify a subscriber on mobile devices.
PASSWORDS Be careful about what information and passwords your store on your phone, iPad, laptop,
flash drives, etc.
PASSWORD PROTECTION All mobile devices should be password protected in order to prevent free access to sites
with stored online certificates or other access credentials.
FRAUDULENT APPLICATIONS Beware: Fraudulent mobile banking applications have recently emerged on smartphones.
These applications attempt to steal personal financial information.
SIM CARDS1
Thieves have gained access to bank accounts by tricking cell phone users into providing them
SIM cards which are swapped, giving the criminal entry into the victim’s accounts.
16. Where Are You Now?Protecting Your Wealth
ONLINE DANGERS AND INTERNET TRANSACTIONS
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More and more victims of identity theft are the result of online interactions of internet commercial
transactions. Consider the following:
DESIGNATED CREDIT
CARD
Designate a single credit card for all online purchases. Ideally this card should have a low credit
limit and should never be a debit card.
UNIQUE PASSWORDS Use unique passwords and PINs on all accounts. Avoid using obvious passwords like your birth date,
your mother’s maiden name, children's names or the last four digits of your Social Security number.
EMAIL Avoid sending sensitive information such as credit card numbers by email as it may not always
be secure.
WEBSITE SECURITY Look for evidence of a website’s security. When you are asked to provide confidential financial
information, the letters at the beginning of the address bar at the top of the screen will likely read
“https” or “shttp” rather than the standard “http” address. Your web browser may also show that
information is being encrypted so no one may intercept what you are sending.
17. Where Are You Now?Protecting Your Wealth
TRAVEL CONCERNS
Traveling both domestically and abroad can open up a world of opportunities for identity thieves. Take steps
to ensure the safety of both yourself and your identity.
• Avoid communication about sensitive information in public.
• Do not pack your personal documents with your checked luggage — keep them with you.
– Travel with your personal information through the security belt, and keep an eye on your items, not letting
them get ahead of you or behind you as they pass through the X-ray machine.
• Never leave your passport, debit cards or personal information unsecured in hotel rooms or rental cars. Use the
hotel safe or keep them on your person at all times.
• Never transfer control of important documents such as your driver’s license or passport. Some hotels/rental
agencies will request you leave such documents with them. Leave photocopies with them instead.
• Notify your bank that you are traveling so they do not mistakenly deactivate your cards under suspicion that
they have been stolen or assumed by someone in another country.
• Carry only the minimum amount of cash and sensitive personal information that you need.
• Know the telephone number and location of the American Embassy when traveling internationally.
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18. Where Are You Now?Protecting Your Wealth
COMMON EMAIL SCAMS
It is in your best interest to be aware of common email scams so you do not fall prey to them. Many scams
exist, but the following are the more prevalent ones:
THE SCAM THE PROMISE THE “CATCH” YOUR ACTION
THE “NIGERIAN”
MONEY TRANSFER
You receive an email from an official or businessperson
from Nigeria or some other country who says their money
is temporarily tied up due to national strife. This person
offers to transfer you a large sum of money if you pay a fee
or taxes to help them get their money out of the country.
The email is from con artists trying to steal your
money, identity or both. Outside of the loss of
money, there have been incidents where the
thieves have attacked, threatened and extorted
people who responded to their email.
Do not respond
OVERPAYMENT
VIA EBAY
A purchaser replies to your online auction and sends you
a personal check accidentally made out for more than the
purchase price. The buyer asks you to wire back the
difference after you deposit the check.
You deposit the counterfeit check which
temporarily increases your bank account balance.
The check eventually bounces after you have
already sent the difference back to the fraudster.
Do not accept a check for
more than your selling price
BANK ACCOUNT
“PHISHING”
Email message claims to be from your bank requesting that
you update or provide personal information to ensure that
your account service continues without interruption.
A fraudster rather than your bank is at the other
end of the email harvesting the sensitive personal
information that you provide.
Contact the real organization
at a phone number or
website you know and trust
PAY IN-ADVANCE
CREDIT OFFERS
You have been “pre-qualified” to get a low-interest loan or
credit card, but to take advantage of the offer you have to
pay a sizeable advance processing fee.
A legitimate pre-qualification means that you
have been selected to apply and may still be
denied. If you pay the fee in advance, you have
been scammed.
Never pay for a promise
The common theme is NEVER give out your personal information in response to an email and never open a link from an email
requesting you to enter sensitive personal or financial information.
You may also forward any scam emails to www.spam@uce.gov as the Federal Trade Commission uses the spam
stored in this database to pursue law enforcement actions against people who send deceptive email.
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19. Where Are You Now?Protecting Your Wealth
COMMON FRAUD SCAMS
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In addition to identity theft via access of confidential information, various scams have arisen where thieves
attempt to defraud innocent victims. Common fraud schemes include:
CHARITY SCAM INHERITANCE SCAM
• A victim is recruited online to act as a middleman to receive
donations.
• The victim is instructed to open a new bank account to receive the
donations, and then send funds to a third party.
• The funds are actually from other fraud victims who have had their
identities stolen or are responding to phishing emails.
• A victim is notified that they have received an inheritance from
a long-lost relative.
• The victim is asked to provide account numbers and personal
information to receive the funds.
• The scammer also asks for a fee to be paid via electronic transfer.
• The inheritance is fake, but the victim’s fee is not.
ROOMMATE/RENTAL SCAMS DECEASED PERSON SCAM
• The fraudster responds to a victim’s ad looking for a roommate or
to rent an apartment/home.
• The victim is asked to provide a check as a security deposit.
• Shortly after the check is deposited, the new roommate backs out
of the deal and requests a refund on the deposit, to be wired direct
to their account.
• The original check was fraudulent.
• The identify thief will impersonate a deceased person, using
personal information obtained from death notices and other
sources to exploit delays between the date of death and closure
of the person’s accounts.
• The inattentiveness of the grieving family members may allow
for a failure to monitor the deceased’s credit and delay alerting
the authorities.
20. Where Are You Now?Protecting Your Wealth
IDENTITY THEFT REAL-WORLD EXAMPLES
Following are a few examples of identity theft cases that have occurred:
• The Cell Phone Clue1
– This is one of the most common identity theft cases. A victim received a phone call from a cell phone company because his social security
number did not match the city or date of birth on the application. Apparently the criminal had been using his Social Security number for
quite some time. There were civil judgments, loans, leases and debt all in his name. This victim had no idea how his identity was stolen but
he said he was not cautious about giving out his personal information.
• The Family Member2
– A victim realized that her identity was stolen when she was forced to pay a security deposit on her first off-campus apartment due to bad
credit; she didn’t even have a credit card in her name at the time. She later discovered who the perpetrator was 20 years later – her
mother, who had also stolen the identities of her own husband and father and had been siphoning fraudulent funds since the victim was an
infant.
– Of the nearly 13 million cases of identity theft reported last year, nearly a third were attributed to family members. In many instances,
thieves target children with little or no established credit history.
• The Restaurant Waiter3
– If you’re like many Americans, you might dine out several times a week. But is your identity safe while you’re doing so? Waiters in about
40 restaurants in five states recorded credit card numbers from their customers. They then passed the information along to a group of
people who used it to make more than $3 million worth of illegal purchases, according to CBS News. Thirteen people were eventually
indicted in the scheme.
1 http://www.identity-theft-scenarios.com/id-theft-cases.html. As of December 19, 2014.
2 http://abcnews.go.com/Business/ate-thanksgiving-dinner-identity-thief-19-years/story?id=27194948. As of November 27, 2014.
3 http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/21/national/main2713680.shtml. As of April 21, 2007.
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