The New Media Pro Network is a collection of New Media Shows that are produced through podcasting, videocasting and screencasting. The NMP Network currently produces a weekly live podcast series called “The New Media RoundTable Discussions“.

Every week, we discuss different New Media Technologies and look at new ways to enhance your favorite hobbies! Every Friday Night at 8:00pm EST, you can join in the chat room at http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/16829 and watch the video simulcast at http://www.newmediapro.tv

The NMP Network also produces a weekly live podcast series called “Talkshoe Support LIVE!” that involves the three support reps from Talkshoe.

Every Monday Night, we get together to talk about different features found on the Talkshoe Service as well as answer your support questions. Want a chance to interact with a live support rep? Monday Nights at http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/875 is the place to be!

Something new to The NMP Network, is a collaboration effort between Logan’s Run The Podcast and The NMP Network and you can join in and discuss the new SyFy Series called “Stargate Universe“. Every Saturday Night at 10:00pm EST, stop by http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/49899 and talk about this exciting new series! We want to hear what you think!

And finally, The NMP Network has, in the past, produced an Identity Theft Radio Show and will someday re-start this show once again. For now, the Identity Theft Radio Show will remain in hiatus, however, we will let you know when it will return!

Well, that should answer a little about who we are and what we do! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us!

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Recently, I reactivated my Identity Theft Radio Show and going along with that, I have imported my Credit Repair and Debt Management blog here at The NMP Network. Since part of identity theft recovery is credit repair, this will make a nice fit along with the Identity Theft Radio blog posts.

I stopped regular posting a couple of months ago to the Credit Repair blog after almost daily posting for more than a year and a half. I will be revamping the domain at http://www.robwhite.us (where the Credit Repair blog has been for a while) and turning it into a personal blog site.

So, the import has completed and there are a couple of new categories that you can check out now. Also, the comments that were made on the other site have also been imported to keep the flow of the threads complete.

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This week, we will breifly discuss the second type of identity theft, Social Security Number Identity Theft.

Everyone has a social security number. Even though we are not to use it as identitification, most businesses will require this as a form of ID and some will use it as the only means of verifying who you are.

The main problem with this is, when someone steals your social security number, they can effectively open new accounts at utilities, cable offices, cell phone accounts, and even some financial institutions. The bottom line is, as always, it will be you who gets these bills, not the identity thief.

You should always protect your social security number by not carrying your card in your purse or wallet, keep it secured at home, and when required to verbalize your number or write it down, do so in a manner that others around cannot hear you recite it or see you write it down.

Medical practitioners will normally require your number in order to match your medical records. This is ok, however, keep an eye out to insure that they do not leave your information laying on the desk or counter, thus exposing you to the World. Also, if they are throwing away some written information about you, ask them to shred it in front of you to insure that your information will stay secure.

When writing checks at a retailer, they may ask for your Drivers License Number and Social Security Number to be written down on the check. Take the initiative to refuse to write down this information. Offer to show the clerk your drivers license and ssn, however, let them know that you are uncomfortable letting out that much personal information on one document. With just one check with all of that information, an identity thief will have your name, address, phone number, bank account information, drivers license number and social security number. This is way too much information to allow on one document, especially if that document is misplaced or misappropriated. If the clerk refuses to take your check, ask to speak to the manager and make your concerns known. Otherwise, you may be exposing your personal information to unknown persons and you should really stay away from doing that! Use a debit card for your purchases to stay away from using checks in this manner.

That’s it for today! We will discuss more about Identity Theft next week!

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Welcome to our 2nd episode of the new year! Tonight, we will discuss the first type of ID Theft called Credit and Financial Identity Theft.

What is Credit and Financial Identity Theft?

When an ID Thief steals your bank account information, credit card information, savings account information or other types of financial data, they can not only access your existing accounts, however, they can also use this information to open new accounts in your name.

In most cases, an ID Thief will only access existing accounts and drain your accounts, thus stealing your money. At the same time, they will also sign up for credit cards, usually lots of them, and will use these new cards to further steal money from you. Remember, all of these credit cards are in your name with your address and information. The bills go to you!

What can you do to prevent this type of identity theft?

Not much, except to monitor your credit reports and financial statements for unauthorized withdrawals, etc. The first thing you need to do to begin your road to being safe with your accounts, is to check your credit reports. Not just one, but from all three of the major credit reporting agencies.

You are allowed by law, to get a free copy of your credit reports from all three agencies once a year! Visit http://www.annualcreditreport.com to pickup your free copies.

By the way, stay away from places that claim to give you free credit reports. They only do this when you purchase a monthly monitoring service from them! We’ll talk more about these types of services in future episodes.

That’s it for tonight! Next week, we will discuss the next type of Identity Theft, Social Security Number Identity Theft.

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Welcome to our debut show for 2009! Identity Theft Radio has returned after a several month hiatus. Our new show format will be only for 10 minutes. This will allow us to send the video version of this show to YouTube for syndication immediately following the end of the show each week. We will simulcast on video at http://www.newmediapro.tv and the recordings will be available there as well.

Tonight, we will cover the different types of Identity Theft and a breaking news story that just came about today! Let’s get started…

There are 6 different types of identity theft:
1. Credit/Financial
2. Medical
3. Driver’s License
4. Social Security Number
5. Character
6. Synthetic

We will go into more details over the next few weeks as we delve further into each type of identity theft.

First though, a breaking news story that hit the social media world today. Twitter, the popular microblogging platform, had a phishing scam hit many of it’s users today in the form of a direct message. If you aren’t familiar with Twitter, it allows you to send friends and followers an “instant message” in under 140 characters.

Chris Pirillo, best known from uStream.TV, reported this phishing scam via Twitter to alert his followers that this was happening. Many of his followers resent this message out to their followers, thus spreading the message very quickly to avert potential identity theft from happening.

Many received a direct message from one of their twitter followers:

hey! check out this funny blog about you… jannawalitax . blogspot . com

DO NOT VISIT the URL in question. It will redirect you immediately to a suspicious domain: twitter . access-logins . com – notice the subdomain?

This is NOT the Twitter login page, even though it looks like the real Twitter page, however the domain name gives way to believe it is a phishing site. Suggestion: do NOT log in to your Twitter account through any site other than Twitter.com. That may go without saying, but consider how many third-party Twitter services you use? Seems it’s about time for some kind of verification / validation for applications using the Twitter API – so you can be sure you’re passing your credentials to the right people. Many people have setup phony Twitter services sites promising all kinds of stats and status and will ask you for your username and password for your Twitter account.

This phishing domain appears to be registered in China:

Organization : zhang xiaohu
Name : zhang xiaohu
Address : changningzhonghuainanlu192hao
City : changning
Province/State : Hunan
Country : CN
Postal Code : 421500

Please, tell your Twitter followers to NOT VISIT or LOGIN THROUGH that site! Watch out for these direct messages. If you did happen to visit one of the offending URLs, you should be safe so long as you didn’t try to log into your Twitter account there.

Phishing is where someone is attempting to gain your information by using a phony site that looks like a real site, for example, your bank’s main site. Always look at the domain address that will show up in your address bar and make sure it is the actual site that you are visiting. Never take ANY e-mail at face value and when in doubt, DON’T click on ANY links without checking out the source of the message first!

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It’s a new year again and there is a lot in store for The NMP Network for the coming year. Already, we have began the new year by updating the theme on our site to a newer version. From the outside, it still looks the same, but under the hood, there are quite a few new changes, all for the better!

Identity Theft Radio will begin again. After being in hiatus for several months now, The NMP network will begin producing new shows, videos and screencasts for Identity Theft Radio. The new shows will be a weekly feature and will go for about 10 minutes. The idea here is to simulcast the shows on video and then send the videos to YouTube for distribution. Also, a lot of what we will be talking about can be dealt with within the 10 minute limit. This will also insure that the audio podcasts will be short enough for people to download and enjoy without having to listen to 45 minutes to an hour of content dealing with more than one subject.

Identity Theft Radio will begin their new shows starting Saturday January 3rd, 2009 at 9:00pm EST.

Speaking of updated sites, NewMediaPro.tv has had a complete makeover recently! We have decided to stay with uStream.tv as our video streaming service for now as they seem to be the most stable out of all of the services currently available. I will be adding a section for the Segment Hosts soon so that they can be streaming on their own channels and still be viewed at NewMediaPro.tv.

Video will play a bigger part on the Podcaster Training Show this new year. However, with a twist! I will not be simulcasting the video and audio, instead, after the audio show is produced, I will take the recording and then re-broadcast it to video, via a live stream, and will show a slideshow, instead of a live camera shot during the broadcast. I’ve been checking out how the radio stations are doing it, and this is the accepted method for an audio style broadcast to video.

The biggest change for the new year so far has been the changing of how I am advertising on my sites. I did not sign up for the BluBrry campaign for GoToMyPC again as I have ran that campaign for more than a year now and they were dropping the payout to the lowest that I have ever seen it. Instead, I am focusing on products that I currently own and so far, I have seen a better return on those ads than I ever did from any affiliate advertising I have ran. If you want to know more about offering your own products on your sites or podcasts, contact me and I will get you the details!

I have been going through some of my domains and have began weeding out some of the unused or little used ones. Also, I have added a couple of new ones that will become active sometime this month, so I’ll keep you posted on that progress as it happens.

With that, I wish everyone a Happy New Year and I am looking forward to a great year this year and hope you are too!

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I announced earlier that Identity Theft Radio will be returning coming in January, so in celebration of it’s return, I am offering a brand new eBook, hot off the presses, at a discounted price to all of my loyal listeners and readers.

Here is an excerpt from the book, Credit Repair Strategies Revealed:
Credit Repair is defined as a method of disputing or rectifying discrepancies presented on credit bureau reports in order to obtain the highest and most exact ratings for consumers.

Among the most crucial matters to think back is regarding credit problems and this also means you’re not the only one who is suffering from bad credit. On the other side, there are millions of honorable, hard-working people from all around the country who are presently experiencing or have suffered troubles with their credit too. However, your awareness of the importance of having good credit has put you one step closer to actually achieving a good credit rating and improving your quality of living.

Even though your credit rating may seem like an intangible asset, it is one of the most valuable and important assets that you have. Without a good credit rating your financial, occupational, and personal goals are at risk of being severely limited. In order to obtain the privilege of using a credit card, your credit rating is checked.

If a company determines your credit to be unsatisfactory, you will be denied. From the moment you are denied, your quality of living is impeded. If you can’t get a credit card, you can’t rent a car, order tickets, or even rent a video. Because your credit rating was determined to be unsatisfactory, most companies will not let you use their money.

Today more than ever, many businesses perform routine background checks during the hiring process. Once again, if your credit rating reveals something of concern to them, you can be turned away for employment. Since maintaining a good credit rating is important in today’s society, a poor credit rating can have a negative snowball effect toward your personal goals.

Good, string credit allows you to live with financial security and enables you to purchase items without depleting your life savings.
Repairing your credit can seem like a monumental task; however, it can also be as easy as wiring a letter or making a phone call. Your decision to repair your credit rating will benefit you for the rest of your life.

The more time you invest now toward strengthening your credit rating, the better your quality of life will be. This guide is intended to support and help individuals and families find the answers to the most commonly asked questions of credit repair, as well as informing them of the dangers that lurk the marketplace.

After reading our guide, you will have the basic knowledge to getting out of debt, as well as information that will guide you to resources that will help you repairing your credit, get loans, and so forth.

This is a must read guide for anyone that has bad credit, no credit, or trying to establish a good credit.

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Identity Theft Radio began more than two years ago as a pilot project and went for nearly 75 episodes before going into hiatus. Due to the large number of shows that The NMP Network was producing at the time, some had to go because there wasn’t enough time to produce shows on a daily basis.

Now, after nearly a year in hiatus, Identity Theft Radio will make it’s return debut in January 2009 as a weekly series. An exact date has not been announced yet, but will be closer to the debut date.

Rob White, a Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist, will host the show and the premiere episode will start off the series again, from the beginning so that everyone will have a chance to catch up and at the same time, find out what’s new in Identity Theft!

Also, since The NMP Network also produces videos for their current shows, Identity Theft Radio will not be an exception to the rule! A simulcasted video will be produced for every episode and can be seen on our live page at http://www.newmediapro.tv

Watch for notices regarding the new day and time for Identity Theft Radio, coming in January 2009!

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Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the U.S. The U.S. Secret Service has estimated that consumers nationwide lose $745 million to identity theft each year. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, the average victim spends 607 hours and averages $1,000 just to clear their credit records.

Identity thieves employ a variety of methods to gain access to your personal information. They may get information from businesses or other institutions by stealing it; by bribing an employee who has access to records; hacking into records; or conning information out of employees. Once identity thieves have your personal information, they may use it to commit a fraud or theft in your name.

How can you tell if you have become a victim of identity theft? Some signs include unexplained charges or withdrawals from your financial accounts; bills or other mail stop arriving (the thief may have submitted a change of address); a credit application is denied for no apparent reason, or debt collectors begin calling about merchandise or services you didn’t buy.

Your computer can be a goldmine of personal information to an identity thief. To protect yourself and your computer against identity theft consider:

• Updating virus protection software frequently. Consider setting your virus protection software to update automatically. The Windows XP operating system also can be set to check for patches automatically and download them to your computer.
• Not opening files sent to you by strangers, clicking on hyperlinks, or downloading programs from people or companies you don’t know.
• Using a firewall program, especially if you use a high speed Internet connection like cable or DSL that leaves your computer connected to the Internet 24 hours a day.
• Providing your personal or financial information through an organization’s secured website only. While not fool proof, a lock icon on the browser’s status bar or a URL for a website that begins “https:” (the “s” stands for secure), may provide additional security.
• Not storing your financial information on your laptop, unless absolutely necessary.
• Deleting all the personal information stored on a computer before disposing of it. A wipe” utility program to overwrite the entire hard drive is recommended.
• Checking with an anti-fraud education organization such as CardCops (www.cardcops.com). Card Cops runs a web site designed to help consumers determine whether their credit card numbers may have been stolen. They monitor Internet “chat rooms” where identity thieves illicitly trade and sell stolen credit card numbers. CardCops turns the information over to law enforcement authorities, but also allows consumers to access their database to see whether individual card numbers may have been stolen. In the first two months of operation, the site identified more than 100,000 stolen credit cards.

As with any crime, you can not completely control whether you will become a victim, but you can take steps to minimize your risk by remaining diligent and by minimizing outside access to your personal information.

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To stay safe from identity theft, always follow safe banking and financial practices:

1) Keep account numbers and PIN numbers safe. Cover your account and PIN numbers when using debit at the store and refuse to give your PIN number to anyone. Avoid writing down your PIN and account numbers – you never know when this information could fall into the wrong hands.

2) Only do business with businesses you trust.

3)If you get applications for credit cards in the mail that are “pre-approved” rip up the applications and enclosed letters before discarding them. No, this is not paranoid. Identity thieves sometimes go through garbage in order to find these forms so that they can fill them out and steal your identity.

4) If you use a computer, install good firewall and antivirus protection system and update it religiously. Better yet, take a course in safe computing at your local college or community center. You will learn many good tips for keeping all your information safe while you are online.

5) Never buy anything online from a company you do not trust of from a company that does not have encryption technology and a good privacy policy.

6) Even with all computer precautions, avoid providing private information through email or your computer. Be especially cautious if you get an email from your bank asking you to verify your information by clicking on a link – this is a popular scam that comes not from your bank but from criminals posing as your bank. Ignore the email and phone your bank about the message.

7) Be wary of unsolicited emails, phone calls, or mail advertisements. Most are from legitimate companies but there are companies who promise you a credit card over the telephone only to charge your existing credit card without sending you anything.

Similarly, letters will sometimes promise you specific items or services. Once you send in your credit card information (usually to a post office box) you hear no more from the company. If you need or want to buy something from a company, be sure to check the company’s standing with the Better Business Bureau first.

Send a money order instead of a check (which had your account number) or your credit card information. If you do use a credit card, report any unusual charges or any payments you made for a product that did not arrive to the credit card company.

In some cases, they can stop payment or refund your money as well as take steps to keep your credit card number safe.
Be wary of offers that seem too good to be true. If you get an offer for a ten million dollar check – for which you need to put down $5000 as a “sign if good faith”…if you get an offer for a free state-of-the art computer – if only you provide your account information… take a deep breath and consider before sending in your money and your information.

Offers that are too good to be true always are. Scam artists often rely on your belief in others and your trust to make money. They depend on the fact that you will be so excited about a product or service that you will throw good judgment out the window. Prove them wrong.

When faced with an offer that seems too good to be true, do some research on the web, through the Better Business Bureau, or ask the person making the offer some questions. Never take someone up on an offer that you have been given unsolicited unless the company and the offer both check out.

9) Read the fine print. Some services or companies will have tiny print in their contract or agreement that allows them to charge you extra hidden fees or that allows them to retract certain offers. If you get an offer through email or the mail, make it a habit to read the fine print.

10) Be alert for a sudden disruption in your mail service. If you do not get mail for some time, contact your post office and ask whether your address was recently submitted for a “change of address” service. It sounds strange, but it’s true.

One way that criminals steal identities is to change your address at the local post office. They redirect your mail to a post office box number and steal your mail looking for personal information such as bank statements, pre-approved credit card applications, and other pieces of mail they can use to steal your identity.

They use this information to pose as you with lenders and run up huge charges in your name. Simply keeping an eye out on your mail can help you keep your credit score safe.

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