[ad#lifelock]
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!

Related articles by Zemanta

• LifeLock Review
• Court Eyes Illegal Aliens And ID Theft

Popularity: 13% [?]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

[ad#trustedid]
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!

Related articles by Zemanta

• What is Twitter and How Does it Work?
• How Social Media Networks Facilitate Identity Theft and Online Fraud
• FTC warns of increase in Internet scams
• U.S. Identity Theft Convictions Up 26 Percent, Feds Say

Popularity: 12% [?]