Protecting Seniors from ID Theft

Posted on by HV Shred

Thanks to a recent post on Fraud Avengers.com, we would like to share information to help our community look after what appears to be among our most vulnerable population: our senior citizens. According to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, seniors are targets for countless forms of fraud, ranging from simple home repair scams, to more complex investment and insurance fraud. Perpetrators include family, friends, neighbors, caregivers, financial advisors and strangers.

Opportunists see the “golden years” as primetime to rob all the savings and good credit seniors spent a lifetime accumulating. Make sure the seniors in your life are made of aware of the following top scams:
• Work from Home – Jobs listed in newspapers, online job sites, emails and social networking sites, promising jobs to seniors as “money transfer agents” abroad.
• Government Official Impersonation – Scams range from fraudsters purporting to be from the FBI, Social Security, Medicare or other federal agencies all demanding money.
• Loan Intimidation – Phone calls or emails threatening arrest or legal action for delinquent loans. These often target personal information used to commit identity theft.
• Romance – Taking advantage of lonely hearts, scammers will claim personal hardship and the need for financial help.
• Auto Auctions – Fraudsters advertise vehicles at “too good to be true” prices. This scam uses a “must sell quickly” tactic and demands full or partial payment through a third party.

If you or an older adult you know is being subjected to financial elder abuse, visit the National Center on Elder Abuse (NCEA) for a list of state reporting telephone numbers to get help. Contact your financial institution to report the fraud. File a police report, especially if personal and confidential details were provided, such as social security numbers, which could be used to commit identity theft. If you believe there is immediate physical danger, contact 911.

For more id theft resources, please visit www.hvshred.com

Red Flags Part Two

Posted on by HV Shred

Continued from last week, this post provides part two of our two part series on red flags to help detect ID theft. Review the following to see if you may be a victim and not know it yet; if so, swift action will limit the damage:

Your mail is missing. If you don’t receive your bank statement, there could be a problem. The perpetrator may have changed your address with the financial institution. If other pieces of mail are missing, it may mean the perpetrator is collecting information about you to develop a profile. Similarly, if you don’t receive your email statement, someone may have conquered your online account and altered the settings to lock you out.
You receive unexpected mail. You might get a notice from the post office that your mail is being forwarded to another address, without having requested the address change. Or you receive a letter with respect to an account that you never opened. Other mailings that could be a sign of identity theft: You receive a credit card in the mail that you never applied for, or the IRS notifies you about unreported wage income that you didn’t earn.
You find errors in your Social Security statement. If you receive your statement and see that the earnings reported are greater than your actual earnings in a given year, someone might have stolen your Social Security number and be using it for wage reporting services, Stephens says.
You’re denied an application based on your credit. If you have good credit but are denied an application for, say, a new credit card or a loan, that may be an indication that your identity has been stolen.
You can’t access your email. You attempt to access your email but find that your username and password have been changed without your knowledge, or a similar scenario happens for another online account. That can be a sign that someone is covering their tracks for an identity-theft operation.

If you’re a victim of financial identity theft, the first thing to do is contact your bank or financial institution. You should then conduct a full audit of your personal finances and identify any questionable transactions. This information will be useful when it comes time to dispute the charges.

No matter what, the earlier you catch identity theft, the better—so stay vigilant.

For more ID theft resources, please visit www.hvshred.com

Red Flags Help Detect Identity Theft

Posted on by HV Shred

Getting back to our education mode, today we reinforce the red flags to detect you may be a victim of identity theft. With so much information, we are breaking the post into a two part series. U.S. News spoke recently provided the following suggestions:

You find errors on your bank or credit-card statement. This is likely the first warning sign you encounter. When checking your paper or online statement, you might see an unexplained or inaccurate entry—a withdraw, a check, an electronic transaction, or a purchase that you don’t recognize.
You spot errors on your credit report. You request a copy of your credit report and notice inaccurate information. The most common indicators of identity theft are a credit inquiry you don’t recognize or a new account you didn’t open.
Your account is flagged. You might receive a phone call, letter, or email from your bank or brokerage notifying about an irregularity on your account. If it comes in the form of an email, make sure that it’s a legitimate email and not a phishing email (where a fraudster masquerades as a trusted entity to try to acquire your personal information).
Debt collectors are calling. A debt collector contacts you about accounts you know nothing about or problems with existing accounts that you’re unaware of.
There’s a warrant out for your arrest. Say you get stopped for a speeding ticket, and the police officer says there’s a warrant out for your arrest for a crime you’re totally unaware of. “Someone can most certainly use your identity and impersonate you to commit a crime,” says Susan Grant, director of consumer protection at the Consumer Federation of America.
You encounter problems with your medical insurance. You go in for a medical procedure and are informed that it won’t be covered by your insurance because it’s already happened. Or, more commonly, you receive bills for medical treatments that you never had, in which case someone used your identity and insurance to receive medical treatment.

If you’re a victim of financial identity theft, the first thing to do is contact your bank or financial institution. You should then conduct a full audit of your personal finances and identify any questionable transactions. This information will be useful when it comes time to dispute the charges.

No matter what, the earlier you catch identity theft, the better—so stay vigilant.

For more ID Theft resources visit www.hvshred.com

Support the Hudson Valley Economy at the Dutchess County Fair

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We typically use this weekly space to share the latest on identity theft resources. With the summer winding down and our favorite focus on supporting the community, this week we opt to use the space to encourage all within reasonable distance to attend the Dutchess County Fair.

According to Colleen Cruikshank’s article in the Poughkeepsie Journal, Aug. 21 is Opening Day for the 167th Annual Dutchess County Fair in Rhinebeck, NY. In her words, “The fair represents the classic summer experience for the young and young at heart, and we all look forward to creating new memories year after year. Indeed, following the catastrophic financial losses experienced last year due to tropical storm Irene, there is no doubt that participating vendors and our business community will do all that they can to maximize the opportunity for a fruitful week.

The Board of Directors of the Agricultural Society made the decision to honor tickets not used last year for all who missed the opportunity to attend. The goal is to make this year better than ever—so good it makes last year’s losses a distant memory.
As usual, there will be plenty of animals thanks to the 4-H groups who work tirelessly, all year long, to prepare for the fair. It will be another year to show their cows, sheep, goats, chickens, rabbits, horses, and so much more! The Salute to Agriculture Tent and the Horticulture Building have beautiful displays of local bounty. The milkshakes are divine. And, of course, the unique opportunity to visit the Birth Center to see the miracle of birth is not to be missed.

There will also be amazing artisans competing in the crafts, landscaping, photography, baking, and other art categories; also a good opportunity to find unique ideas and gifts.

The entertainment lineup includes Justin Moore, Chubby Checker, Lonestar, Starship (featuring Mickey Thomas), FMX Freestyle Motorcross Championship Series, and the ever-popular Championship Bull Riding … all will make for a great day/night out.
With good reason, the Dutchess County Fair is one of the most respected fairs in the country. We are so fortunate to enjoy it in our backyard. The success of the fairgrounds is vital to the economic success of our community, so it is up to us to help make this year the biggest Dutchess County Fair to date! Please visit www.dutchessfair.com for more information.

Look forward to seeing you there, and be sure to bring friends from our region and beyond.

Taking Stock of ID Theft Exposure

Posted on by HV Shred

Borrowing again from the Identity Theft Resource Center, what follows is a valuable self-assessment of identity theft exposure. Take stock to see where you may be vulnerable and where you can improve. Inadequate security and poor business practices may open a company up to liability suits, fines and loss of clientele. While no one can totally prevent identity theft due to the human element of this crime, there are steps that a company can take to minimize the risk factors. Safe information handling practices are critical to keep identifying information out of the hands of thieves.

• Information acquisition — Is there a good reason for requesting the information that you gather? Is it really necessary? (A. Yes B. Don’t Know C. No)
• Information acquisition — Is the information acquired in a safe manner, so that it cannot be overhead or seen by others? (A. Yes B. Don’t Know C. No)
• Storage — Have computer security measures been placed around the systems storing personal data? Is there physical security for the data storage? Is the data considered highly classified and common access prevented? Do both physical security and network security prevent unauthorized access to the data? (A. Yes B. Don’t Know C. No)
• Access — Is personal identifying information available only to selected/qualified staff? Is database access audited and password controlled? (A. Yes B. Don’t Know C. No)
• Disposal —Do you know what goes into your dumpster? Are electronic and paper documents and databases containing personal information rendered unreadable prior to disposal? (A. Yes B. Don’t Know C. No)
• Distribution —Are personnel trained in the proper procedures regarding information disclosure? Do you prevent public display, use or exchange of personal information (especially Social Security numbers) in your workplace? Does this include employee or membership cards, timecards, work schedules, licenses or permits, and computer access codes? (A. Yes B. Don’t Know C. No)
• Personnel —Do you conduct regular background checks on ALL employees with access to identifying information? Does this include mailroom staff, cleaning crews, temp workers, and computer or hotline service techs. (A. Yes B. Don’t Know C. No)

If you have all “A’s” above, you are on the right track. If you have multiple “B’s” or “C’s”, you are probably vulnerable, and should take steps to understand how easy identity theft or data breaches might be, and how much it could cost your firm. Businesses that become victimized by thieves and opportunists can find themselves facing large liability civil suits as well loss of reputation.

For more resource on minimizing risk for identity theft please visit www.hvshred.com

How to fix a stolen email account

Posted on by HV Shred

This week we once again use our blog to try to help our community avoid the pitfalls of identity theft. This time, we write from personal experience. A colleague’s email was taken over and caused frustration for us and our network of family, friends and business colleagues. Everyone was getting spammed because this colleague’s email address had been compromised. Here’s what he had to do, and we suggest you do if it happens to you (though we hope it doesn’t!)

• Contact the Network Administrator and explain what happened.

• If your password has been changed, ask them to issue you a different one. This is a temporary password that will allow you to access the account and change your information. When you are able, permanently change both your password and security question for this account. Depending on the severity of the takeover, you may want to consider closing this account entirely and getting a new email account, possibly with another company or on another server. Make sure you inform the people who you want to have your new email address, of the change.

• Contact everybody in your address book. Inform them of the email takeover. Ask if they have received and/or responded to any emails sent from your account during the time of the takeover. If so, get copies of these emails from them. Look to see if the emails asked for anything (Social Security Number, banking information, money to be sent someplace).
Strong passwords are key—make them long and include symbols in addition to letters.
Again, we hope this never happens to you—if it does, now you know what to do.

For more identity theft resources, please visit www.hvshred.com

The Burn Out Factor

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Lately, it feels like we are getting a lot of calls from businesses tired of the hassle of slow/burnt out/ or just plain broken down office shredders. Outsourcing could be a cost-effective option depending on the volume of paper an office produces or simply the value of people hours currently being dedicated to one of the least liked tasks.

Even if you go through as little as one box of paper per month, that’s 5000 sheets. Divided by 15 sheets per minute, that’s 5 ½ hours. If the employee shredding earns as little as $8 per hour plus 25% for taxes and benefits, that means the direct cost of internally shredding 5,000 pages is nearly $45 per month. When you add in the cost of the in-house shredder, disposal of bags of paper, dust clean up and disruptions from noise, you are better off using a professional document destruction company.

Beyond relieving the frustation, outsourcing provides the added benefit of the certificate of destruction supporting a client’s due diligence with regards to the federal laws dictating consumer identity protection as well as the “feel good” aspect of recycling all shredded paperwork.

For more information, please visit www.hvshred.com

The Balance Between Sustainability and Maintaining Security

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It’s important to strike a balance in our goals to save money and the environment but still maintain sound business practices. One of the easiest things to do is to work on reducing printing and paper consumption. It is possible to take a good thing too far with potentially dangerous consequences.

Many companies have a policy to reuse printed paper to save money and trees. Printing on the backsides of misprints or obsolete records is a great way to recycle.

The critical factor is to make sure the paper is appropriate for this type of recycling. Some documents are more sensitive than others and should not be handled by lower level staff. Any paperwork with confidential information should be shred and/or recycled right away.

By all means, save paper and save trees—just be sure private information stays private.

For more ideas for recycling as well as secured document management, please visit www.hvshred.com

Another Successful E-Waste Recycling Event

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As Chair of the Dutchess County Regional Chamber’s Green Life Committee, I am happy to share that our June Electronic Recycling Days were another huge success.

Thanks to the support of the local community, we safely and securely disposed of another 22 tons of unwanted monitors, printers, keyboards, VCR’s, batteries, cell phones, terminals, cables, fax machines, radios, modems, CRT’s, telephones, TV’s, CPU’s, copiers, typewriters and stereo equipment. We filled several more tractor trailers and box trucks and raised another $1600 for the Chamber Education Foundation.

We are planning another event in the Fall, so keep checking back for updates.

In the meantime, there are local sites available for free drop off throughout the year with regular operating hours. Here is a partial list of locations in Dutchess County:
CBC COMPUTERS SERVICES 447 Rt. 376 Suite #3 Hopewell Junction NY 12533 M-F 10-6 Sat 10-3
RECOMMUNITY-BEACON 508 Fishkill Ave Beacon NY 12508 M-F 7-6
ROYAL CARTING SERVICES COMPANY – HOPEWELL JUNCTION 409 Route 82 Hopewell Junction NY 12533 M-F 7-3, Sat 7-1
ROYAL CARTING SERVICES/KEJEN PROPERTIES – HARLEM VALLEY, NY 1933 Route 22 (3 Commerce St.)Wingdale NY 12572 M-F 8-3
TOWN OF POUGHKEEPSIE HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT 8 Burnett Blvd. Poughkeepsie NY 12603 SEASONAL, CALL FOR DETAILS
TOWN OF RHINEBECK 376 Stone Church Road Rhinebeck NY 12572 M 8-3, Th 1-7, Sat. 8-12
TOWN OF UNION VALE Rt 55 @ Cty 21 Bruzgul Rd Lagrangeville NY12540 W, Sat, Sun 8-4

Thanks for your support!

Judith Papo
DCRCOC Green Committee Chair

More ID Theft Protection Tips

Posted on by HV Shred

Among the useful resources for ID Theft protection, we have found the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) to be helpful.

Here’s a handy list compiled on their website with best practices regarding ID Theft:
• Ensure websites are secure prior to submitting your credit card number.
• Do your homework to ensure the business or website is legitimate.
• Attempt to obtain a physical address, rather than a P.O. box or maildrop.
• Never throw away credit card or bank statements in usable form.
• Be aware of missed bills which could indicate your account has been taken over.
• Be cautious of scams requiring you to provide your personal information.
• Never give your credit card number over the phone unless you make the call.
• Monitor your credit statements monthly for any fraudulent activity.
• Report unauthorized transactions to your bank or credit card company as soon as possible.
• Review a copy of your credit report at least once a year

Taking proactive measures go a long way to helping avoid becoming a victim of this frustrating and possibly expensive crime.

For more information, please visit www.hvshred.com