•Obtain your free credit report from the right place. There is one authorized place mandated by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act of 2005 that allows consumers a free annual credit report. You can order your credit reports from all three major credit bureaus by calling the toll free number at 877-322-8228 or you can order from the official site at annualcreditreport.com (just be sure to pay close attention to their privacy policy. There has been reports that their policy stipulates that by using the site you may be waiving privacy rights and allowing them to sell your information to third parties).

•Review your credit report and dispute all account inaccuracies on the form that comes with your credit report. All inaccuracies need to be disputed and returned to the credit bureau via certified mail. Be attentive to items such as; accounts that were paid timely but indicate they were paid late or reflect an overdue balance and take note of accounts that are more than seven years old and should be removed from your report. The credit bureaus have 30 days to investigate your disputes and forward you the results of their investigation along with an amended credit report.

•Detect inaccurate addresses, erroneous employment notations or mistaken name variations. These types of inaccuracies can be an early tip off that someone else’s credit is co-mingled with yours or that someone else is using your credit and must also be disputed. Also watch for any new credit inquiries you did not initiate and dispute any accounts that do not belong to you.

•Examine your credit card statements. Aside from reviewing current charges applied to your credit card, it is equally important to pay close attention to your interest rates...any rate spike can be a predictor of unknown, derogatory credit data contaminating your credit file that will also affect the price of your auto and homeowners insurance premiums.

•Review all auto, student loan and mortgage statements. Monthly statements need to be reviewed in order to verify that your payments were received and applied accurately. If you don’t receive monthly statements, and don’t have access to a statement on line, call your lender and ask for a payment history schedule at least every six months. Watch for erroneously applied late fees for payments made timely, misapplied additional principal payments and ascertain if your escrow accounts (taxes and insurance) were paid in time for you to receive the standard discounts, often offered by city taxing authorities, when taxes are paid within a mandated time frame.

It is imperative that you review your credit reports on a regular basis. But it's equally important to review your monthly loan statements as well. If you are paying a mortgage, student or auto loan with a coupon book -and without the benefit of a monthly statement...be careful. It's important to track and verify how and if your payments are applied. By using payment coupon books, consumers are forced to blindly trust that their payments are being applied timely and accurately.

To facilitate the tracking of our payments, we need monthly statements providing us the breakdown of principal, interest and escrow payments applied monthly. The use of payment coupon books is exacerbating mortgage servicing errors, negligence and fraud. Illegal late charges have been applied when payments were made timely, taxes and insurance escrows are not routinely paid on behalf of the consumer timely, and additional principal payments and/or monthly principal and interest payments can not be verified. Costly errors or fraud against the borrower often go undetected, until too late and then become impossible to correct without placing a huge burden on the borrower to prove their innocence.

These serious errors have the effect of extending the life of the loan and the amount of interest accrued without the consumer’s knowledge. Too many times, costly errors and illegal fees are often discovered too late and force innocent consumers into foreclosure when they believe they have made all payments due and are completely unaware of any problem. They are forced into forbearance agreements that remove a borrower's right to pursue legal action.

Do you know where your payments are going? Do you send in extra principal payments without verifying how they are applied? How many foreclosures could have been averted had borrowers been aware their mortgage was sold to another servicing company or their payments were not applied accurately. Read a few comments and then you decide. For further information... visit msfraud.org

Posted by Denise Richardson at 09:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From Whittier Daily News

NORWALK - A former PTA president allegedly stole a $4,650 check from a neighbor's daughter, shopped online using other people's credit card numbers and kept the personal information of 50 people including their Social Security numbers.

Several of the people told deputies they later became victims of identity theft and that they didn't know Mahaffey.

Read entire article

Posted by Denise Richardson at 09:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

If you have given your information to Monster.com -your identity could soon be in the hands of another monster -the identity thief monster.

Monster.com, a leading U.S. based resume search service, was the
recent victim of a computer hack which impacts as many as
1,600,000 people according to the security firm Symantec.

According to the story reported by the Out-Law blog, hackers
used a Trojan Horse to access Monster.com by impersonating
an employer.

The employers' section of the recruitment website has been broken into by a program which then harvested 1.6 million pieces of information and stored them somewhere the people behind the hack could access them, according to security firm Symantec.

Some Monster users have received emails pretending to be from Monster which encourage them to download software they say is a recruitment tool. It is in fact malicious software which encrypts the information on their computers and demands a ransom for it to be unlocked. For more info click here

As usual ,when a data breach occurs, the first statements filtered out of any company who finds they've become a victim and had a serious data breach, is to be the calm voice of reason. "We are not aware of any cases of identity theft. In fact, the information that is gathered from Monster is no different than that displayed in a phone book," said Patrick Manzo, vice president of fraud prevention and compliance at Monster.

That may be true, but I have to ask, what would be the purpose to hack into a computer and steal sensitive data if the intent wasn't to use the data? The information stolen can be used at any date and time in the future and often you are unaware your information has accessed or used fraudulently for credit, employment, medical services, etc., until far too late to rectify easily.

The information stolen is often recycled to multiple thieves who are all too ready to pay a few bucks for a tidbit of information that can be turned into gold. Monster was visited by a real monster -one that you don't want visiting you! Being proactive now can save you a lot of time, money and frustrations -later.

Make sure to tell your family and friends of this mega size data breach which has the potential to affect many innocent and unsuspecting consumers. Remember -your time is valuable and if you do not take steps to protect yourself now -you may find yourself spending a lot of valuable time, energy and money, cleaning up the mess someone dropped into your life.

Posted by Denise Richardson at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As a Board member of ACCESS (American Consumer Credit Education Support Services) a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public on matters pertaining to credit and privacy rights, I am posting some of the items in our recent ACCESS Newsletter.

Fraud Alert: You Have Received a Post Card From ...

They show up in your e-mail inbox. Messages that have a subject line that reads, "You Have Received a Greeting," or "You Have Received a Postcard," from an unnamed person. They try to make you think that a friend or a family member has sent you a nice little greeting. But there is nothing nice about these messages. They are part of a worldwide phishing scheme.

Tens of millions of these greeting-card messages have been sent out, and it is quite likely that you may have received one. But the messages are not legitimate. Anyone clicking on the links within these messages will be taken to something that looks like a greeting card but which actually installs spy ware on their computer during their visit.

The spy ware that is installed includes a key-logger program, which tracks the sites you visit as well as any keystrokes you make while you are there. This program can record user names, passwords and any other information you provide. It can also record anything you type into word processing or e-mail programs on your computer.

Key-loggers typically work in background. This means that while it is running on your PC, you will not be aware of it. After recording their data, key-loggers normally transmit that data over the internet to the person or organization that distributed them. This information can then be sold or used for fraud and identity theft.

Anyone receiving like the one described herein should delete it immediately. Under no circumstances should the links within the message be clicked on.

If you have already received a greeting card message and clicked on the links, then you need to do some things to protect yourself. First, you should install up to date virus protection on your PC and then scan your hard drive. If you find that your computer has been infected, then you should also place a fraud alert on your credit file with each of the CRAs (Trans Union, Experian and Equifax). Residents of states that allow their citizens to freeze their credit should seriously consider this option as well.

Never click on links within e-mail messages from people they don't know. We also advise you to make sure that you have both a fire-wall and up to date antivirus software running on your computer at all times. In most cases, if your antivirus software is installed properly and up to date, it will prevent you from having your PC infected in the first place.

Fraud Alert: Brazen New Scam Targets Social Security Recipients

The Social Security Administration has been warning people in Alabama about a new scam that targets program recipients. Unlike most such scams which are conducted solely by phone, some of the victims of this scam have reported that they have received actual visits from the criminals targeting them.
Because there are no barriers to prevent this particular scam from spreading, it is highly likely that it will begin to pop up in other areas of the country. Once a scam has proven to be successful, it will normally spread very rapidly.

Some residents of Northern Alabama have received visits from people trying to pass themselves off as employees of the Social Security Administration. Once the criminals involved establish what they think is a bond of trust, they begin asking a variety of questions. They are attempting to get victims to provide them with Social Security Numbers and bank account information.

In at least one of the reported cases, the victim was told that his Social Security Benefits were going to be increasing and that his personal information was needed in order to provide direct deposit to his bank account.

ACCESS is warning consumers, especially those responsible for elder care within their families, that the Social Security Administration never sends employees to the houses of recipients unless there is a pre-scheduled appointment. Furthermore, the Social Security Administration has no need to ask anyone for their Social Security Number, since they already have this information.

Anyone who believes they may have been a victim to this scam needs to act quickly as it is likely that their bank accounts will be drained and new credit may be taken out in their name.

Anyone who suspects they may have been contacted by a scammer, should contact the Social Security Administration at 1-800-772-1213 to verify that the person contacting you is actually an SSA employee. Anyone who receives a call to schedule an appointment for a home visit by the SSA should also call this number to insure that the appointment is legitimate.

MiniLinks - News From Around the Web

Fannie Mae Turns Down FundingMore bad news for home mortgages

Lawsuit filed on behalf of 8.5M consumers in data breach case

Fidelity National, subsidiary accused of negligence, invasion of privacy

Phishing Scheme Gets 70 Months

Proof that crime doesn't pay!