In a recent press release, the FTC (the government agency charged with consumer protection) announced a major international crack down on tech support scams in which telemarketers masquerade as major computer companies, con consumers into believing that their computers are riddled with viruses, spyware and other malware, and then charge hundreds of dollars to remotely access and “fix” the consumers’ computers. 

According to the press release, at the request of the FTC, a U.S. District Court Judge has ordered a halt to six alleged tech support scams pending further hearings, and has frozen their assets.

The FTC charged that the operations – mostly based in India – target English-speaking consumers in the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and the U.K.  According to the FTC, five of the six used telemarketing boiler rooms to call consumers.  The sixth lured consumers by placing ads with Google which appeared when consumers searched for their computer company’s tech support telephone number. 

According to the FTC, after getting the consumers on the phone, the telemarketers allegedly claimed they were affiliated with legitimate companies, including Dell, Microsoft, McAfee, and Norton, and told consumers they had detected malware that posed an imminent threat to their computers.  To demonstrate the need for immediate help, the scammers directed consumers to a utility area of their computer and falsely claimed that it demonstrated that the computer was infected.  The scammers then offered to rid the computer of malware for fees ranging from $49 to $450.  When consumers agreed to pay the fee for fixing the “problems,” the telemarketers directed them to a website to enter a code or download a software program that allowed the scammers remote access to the consumers’ computers.  Once the telemarketers took control of the consumers’ computers, they “removed” the non-existent malware and downloaded otherwise free programs.

Before sharing any personal information with a company, make sure you have confidence the company is on the up and up.

For more id theft protection tips, visit www.hvshred.com

We keep our eyes open for opportunities to help our community gain awareness of all the situations their identity may be compromised. In this week’s blog, we thank the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) for bringing another such situation into focus. In an automobile accident, the first concern is safety and the second is your vehicle. Likely, the last thing on your mind is protecting your identity. A recent survey by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) suggests that, after an accident, many Americans do not really know what information they should share with the other driver. State laws vary, but in most cases you need only provide your name and vehicle insurance information, which should include the name and phone number of your insurance provider. Sharing personal information such as your address and phone number may put your privacy and identity at risk. However, if another driver is unable to provide vehicle ownership and/or insurance information it is appropriate to ask for their phone number, address and driver’s license number.

According to the July 2012 survey:
• Thirty-eight percent of consumers believed they should share their driver’s license number with the other driver.
• So what’s the risk? Many retailers accept driver’s license information to verify your identity over the phone. In fact, your license number is the most common way to confirm your identity after Social Security number and date of birth.
• Twenty-five percent of consumers surveyed said they would share their home address.
• Actually, your home address gives identity thieves the physical location of your mail or garbage, the first place criminals often look for personal financial information. And, now a stranger knows where you live, possibly putting your personal safety at risk.
• Twenty-nine percent of survey respondents believed they are required to share personal phone numbers. In fact, sharing your phone number is rarely necessary.

Identity theft is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the United States. The Federal Trade Commission estimates nearly nine million consumers have their identities stolen each year, disrupting finances and damaging credit histories and reputation. Knowing what to share helps keep property and identities safe.

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

Always a wealth of useful information, the latest issue of Consumer Reports highlighted the latest in fraud scams. Especially with the rise in unemployment, fraudsters have found a vulnerable population in job seekers. Last May, job hunters using computers at a public library in Columbus, Ohio, to search the want ads were approached by a “recruiter” looking to fill positions at a new store nearby. The sneak used the library to conduct job interviews, and candidates filled out applications with their name, date of birth, Social Security number, and more.

When the applicants later went to the store for training, they learned that the recruiter wasn’t associated with it at all. Rather, face-to-face job interviews are a new and brazen way to extract information for ID theft.
Job scams rank seventh on the BBB’s top 10 scams list, and such come-ons also involve work-at-home schemes including stuffing envelopes, assembling merchandise, medical billing and claims processing, and reshipping what the victim may not know are stolen goods.

ID theft was the biggest category on the FTC’s 2011 complaint list. Thieves use a wide variety of tactics to get you to give up key information that lets them steal from your existing bank and credit accounts or use your Social Security number to open phony financial accounts and commit other crimes in your name.

Protect yourself: Never give your personal information to anyone who telephones, e-mails, texts, or otherwise initiates contact with you. Monitor your financial accounts weekly or even daily, place a security freeze on your credit reports at all three credit bureaus, and file an ID-theft report with the local police if you get swindled.
If someone approaches you with a job, contact the prospective employer to verify that the recruiter and the job opening are legitimate. There should be no need for checking-account and other financial information on your application.

For more on identity theft protection, visit www.hvshred.com

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

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

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

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