Protect Your Identity

We all know that criminals are out there, waiting to steal our credit card information. These very criminals want credit card information so they can run up the charges then leave you holding the bags - with nothing to show for it. Even though some are local, most credit card criminals are in far away lands. Worse than that, they like to hide or go by other names so it’s virtually impossible to track them down.

The most common way for criminals to get credit card information is through phishing, which involves a fake email that appears to be sent from your credit card company. Normally, this fake email states that there was an error with your account, or that it was accessed by unauthorized personnel and needs your attention.

Spotting fake emails isn’t hard to do - as long as you know what to look for. The most obvious hint for most, is the fact that they don’t even have a credit card from the company that has sent the email. For others, the link is what gives the fake email away. Anytime you get an email from a credit card that you believe to be fake, you should always hover your mouse over the link, then “right click” the link with the mouse and select “view source”. If the link is indeed fake, the website address that comes up will be something other than that of a credit card company.

The criminals don’t want you to look at the source for their website, as they simply want you to click on the link before you look at anything else. Once you have clicked on the link, you’ll arrive at a website that is usually an exact copy of a credit card website. Fake sites normally include everything that the actual site does, including the logos and banners. Even for the most amateur of credit card criminals, web pages like this are very easy to create.

Those of you who have fell victim to this scam, probably realized what you have done little too late. Once you have entered in your credit card information, you have done exactly what the criminals wanted and put yourself in violation of credit card fraud and identity theft. Once the criminal has your social security number and credit card information, he is more than likely to use that information to go on a shopping spree - stealing your money and running up your account.

Texas is the first state to offer a system to catch identity thieves early on. Closed Account Notification System alerts merchants when a check is written from an account that was closed due to identity theft. The clerk will instantly know that the store patron is a thief and not to accept the check.

With the old system, it took weeks to notify stores of the fraudulent activity. “Thieves are stopped in their tracks,” State Democratic Rep. Helen Giddings said. “No longer will identity thieves be able to profit from their crimes by passing bad checks for weeks.”

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The world is littered with crooks and punks for whom credit card fraud constitutes a way to make a profitable living. Consumers have to be careful. Besides, would it kill you to pay cash every now and then? Cash, the surefire way to put the credit card scam artists out of business.


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Tax documents are treasure trove for identity thieves. They contain social security numbers, names, addresses and a host of financial information. It’s estimated that more than 8 million Americans fall victim to identity theft each year and the FTC recently reported that the No. 1 category of complaint they received in 2007 was identity theft, which made up 32 percent of total complaints received. Internet fraud-related losses averaged slightly more than $2,700 per person victimized, the FTC said.

Identity theft, which made up 32 percent of total complaints received. Internet fraud-related losses averaged slightly more than $2,700 per person victimized, the FTC said.

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A security breach at an East Coast supermarket chain exposed more than 4 million card numbers and led to 1,800 cases of fraud, the Hannaford Bros. grocery chain announced Monday. Hannaford said credit and debit card numbers were stolen during the card authorization process. About 4.2 million unique card numbers were exposed, placing the case among the largest data breaches ever.

The company urged its customers to monitor their credit and debit cards for unusual transactions and report any problems to authorities. It also told customers to beware of e-mails and calls from people claiming to represent Hannaford and seeking any personal information.


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