Avoid identity theft education helps individuals avoid or clean up after an attack. However, what happens when hackers break into stores where you do business and steal YOUR identity, forcing YOU to fight invisible attackers?
You will suffer identity theft at some time in your life.
Whether high tech or low tech, it’s too easy today to steal your identity.
And then what…?
Ever shopped at major retailers, including TJX Cos., BJ’s Wholesale Club, Barnes & Noble, OfficeMax, and the restaurant chain Dave & Buster’s?
Seriously, who hasn’t shopped at one or all of them?
In a blink, hackers might have stolen your credit card information….and there wasn’t anything you could do about it.
Feds sentence high-tech Identity thief .
Prosecutors claim 28-year-old Albert Gonzalez and two foreign co-defendants would drive past retailers with a laptop computer, tapping into those retailers with poorly protected computer networks.
If Gonzalez could get an Internet signal, he could tap in to the network. The trio would then install “sniffer programs” that picked off credit and debit card numbers as they moved through a retailer’s computers before trying to sell the numbers overseas.
For them it was easy to “hit” you.
Turns out, Gonzalez first was arrested for hacking in 2003 but was not charged because he became an snitch for the Secret Service.
Allegedly, Gonzalez led a group of professional hackers and identity thieves in three states and two countries: Ukraine and Russia. He said the group made money by selling numbers on the black market and by going to ATMs and taking “bundles of money” out of accounts.
There is NO “small” ID Theft….
You have to stop what you’re doing & contact the bank. Then bank will terminate your card and re-issue you a new one. If you fear more theft, you will have to put alerts on your credit file.
Even a mild theft forces you to stop what you’re doing and get inconvenienced reporting the theft. What about the people who never examine their monthly credit card statements?
They paid these fraudulent charges (many charges small enough not to be detected).
Prosecutors estimate the group stole tens of millions of debit and credit card numbers, costing corporations and banks millions when they were forced to cancel accounts, open new accounts, monitor accounts for fraud, beef up their network security and invest in public relations to ensure they wouldn’t lose customers.
Authorities found more than 40 million distinct card numbers on two of Gonzalez’s computers.?
Amazing!
Albert Gonzalez shows you how easy it is to steal your identity. Albert is out of commission now, but a 100,000+ “Alberts” are out there picking up the pace with better, more destructive techniques. Do me a favor: LEAVE me a comment, question or share your experience below. Take a minute to tell me what happened to you, if you were so unlucky as to get hit. What defense strategies did you discover. What do you do differently today, if anything? I want to hear from you.
Avoid identity theft education and credit monitoring help keep you safe (as safe as you can be). Unfortunately, you and/or someone you know will get “hit.” I’ve been hit 2x - the first back in the 80s was quite hard and painful. Believe me when I say, you don’t want to get hit with ID Theft.
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