Phishing Websites

 Phishing URLs Detected in April Shatter All Previous APWG Records
(DomainInformer.com)

The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) announced today that the number of phishing URLs deployed by electronic crime gangs detected by the APWG rose to 55643 in April, up 48 percent from the previous high in October 2006 and more than 166 percent higher than the number encountered in March.

APWG researchers encountered phishers placing thousands of phishing URLs under the same domain, automatically creating pseudo-randomly generated sub-domains (e.g. xxxx.fakedomain.com) or randomly generated directories (e.g. http://www.fakedomain.com/XXXXX) under a common domain.

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Identity Cloning

 Synthetic ID Theft Uses Social Security Numbers –
Steal Your Social Security Number, Use It Under Different Name
(KABC-TV)

Thieves are taking identity theft to a whole new level. Synthetic ID theft can ruin your finances. People steal your Social Security number and then use it under a different name. It’s almost impossible to prevent, but there are important red flags to watch for so you can lessen the damage.

“I had a woman who called me who had found out that someone used her Social Security number with a different name to work,” said Mari Frank, attorney and identity theft expert.

Seven years later, the IRS tracked down Frank’s client. Frank: “And [the IRS] had charged her with thousands of penalties and fees and were going to literally put her in jail!”

She was a victim of synthetic identity theft. Unlike traditional ID theft, crooks steal your Social Security number, but tie it to a different name creating a new, fictional person. That makes it harder to detect.

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Medical Identity Theft

 New Target For Identity Thieves: Free Health Care
(WCCO.com)

Identity thieves are not just targeting bank accounts, now they are using Social Security numbers and health insurance cards to access free health care.Carding patients at the doctor’s office is the latest weapon in the fight against identity thieves.

With more than 30 years in the medical field, Debbie Johnson said, she was shocked when a local hospital called to say she owed tens of thousands of dollars.

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Business Identity Theft

 The FBI And A New Twist on Identity Theft
(Student Operated Press, Information Source – FBI)

Late last month, we helped wrap up a case that took identity theft to a whole new level: one company trying to steal $23 million by pretending to be another company.

It was made possible by a remarkable coincidence: two private security companies with nearly identical names. One of the firms, based in Michigan, was named Executive Outcome Inc. The other, based in South Africa, was called Executive Outcomes Inc.

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Advice from the FTC Chairman

 Identity Theft: Advice From the FTC Chairman
(USNews.com)

As chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, Deborah Platt Majoras is charged with protecting consumers from unfair, deceptive, and illegal business practices. Since her appointment in 2004, she has focused on identity-theft prevention through consumer education campaigns and lawsuits against companies that fail to protect consumer data. She spoke with Associate Editor Kimberly Palmer.

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Computer Crimes

Top Computer Crimes of 2007 (First Quarter)

This year is already shaping up as an impressive one for computer crime in America, with cases ranging from massive fraud to sophisticated “hack, pump, and dump” stock scams. Here are highlights of the top cybercrimes for the year’s first quarter, drawn from cases at the U.S. Justice Department’s Computer Crime Section, the FBI, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement:

Indian Hackers “ Pump and Dump “ Scheme

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Financial Identity Fraud

One bank-fraud suspect was actually identity-theft victim

By TERRI SANGINITI, The News Journal

Posted Friday, June 22, 2007

One of five suspects being sought in a bank fraud investigation is not a suspect at all,
state police spokesman Cpl. John Barnett Jr. said Thursday.

Tara A. Lynch, 24, of near Delmar, was initially identified as a suspect Wednesday. Further investigation, however, revealed Lynch was actually a victim of identity theft and is not a suspect in the crime.

Barnett said the suspects had used her identity to obtain illegal funds.

Investigators Thursday verified that Lynch had contacted three credit bureaus in September to report her identity had been stolen.

As a result of this new information, the state Attorney General’s Office withdrew its indictment of Lynch for issuing a bad check, two counts of felony theft and conspiracy, Barnett said.

“This girl was a victim of identity theft and reported it to the credit bureaus,” Barnett said. “At this time, enough information was provided to take her out of it.”

He said investigators will now have to find out who in the bank fraud ring masqueraded as Lynch, or if there was another suspect involved in the scheme.

“It could be somebody connected in this case, or it could be someone who is still out there,” Barnett said.

The case remains under investigation.

Eighteen people were accused of defrauding several Sussex County banks.

Four are still being sought. They are: Maisha Brown, 34, of Seaford, Darren Bacon, 32, of Seaford, Toni Persia, 22, of near Ellendale and Deangleo E. Willis, 20, of Salisbury, Md.

Police ask anyone with information on the case to call 856-5850, ext. 227.

Employment Identity Theft – Proposed Laws

 Planned Worker ID Called Vulnerable –
Effort to control immigration could boost Identity Theft
(SFGate.com)

The linchpin of all new proposals to control illegal immigration, including a Senate bill up for reconsideration this week, is an electronic employer verification system to shut off the job magnet that has attracted millions of illegal workers to the United States.

A government that cannot issue passports to 3 million U.S. citizens in time for summer holidays is expected to create a vast work-authorization system for more than 7 million U.S. employers and eventually all 146 million U.S. workers that is quick, accurate and safe.

Yet according to a confidential new study commissioned by the Department of Homeland Security, the system that would do this — known as Web Basic Pilot – is vulnerable to identity theft, employer misuse, privacy breaches and data inaccuracies. Heavy enforcement would be required to prevent it from being evaded by illegal workers and employers alike.

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International Credit Card Theft

 The Global Reach of Identity Theft
(ArabNews.com)
Susan Slowe, a resident of a tiny community near the city of Bangor in the US state of Maine, picked up the phone and was taken aback by who was on the other end of the line: a stranger’s voice claiming to be a newspaper reporter in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

“How did you get this number?”

“I Googled your name and it came up on a government website: Susan Slowe, county assessor for the town of Vanceboro, Maine.”

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Credit Bureaus Fight Consumer-Ordered Freezes

 Credit Bureaus Fight Consumer-Ordered Freezes
(USAToday.com)
Wearing his trademark bow tie, Eric Ellman goes to work every day prepared to explain why identity theft isn’t as big a threat as people think.

His logic has often found friendly ears in Washington, D.C., where Ellman, a lobbyist for the Consumer Data Industry Association (CDIA), champions the interests of the Big Three credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.

The CDIA has been scrambling for two years to get federal lawmakers to defuse the onrush of state laws empowering consumers to freeze access to their credit histories to prevent identity theft. It spent a record $1.4 million on federal lobbying in 2006, nearly double what it spent in 2004, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

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