Fraud and Identity Theft Archives

A Consumer’s Guide to Mail Theft Prevention

Kayleen Kavanagh / October 31, 2017

As the holidays draw near, it becomes more common to hear about instances of mail theft, either in your neighborhood or on the news. Ordering gifts and mailing cards can become a stressful endeavor for both consumers and recipients of mail. If you’ve ever been a victim of mail theft, chances are you felt invaded and frustrated at the fact that it happened. Your time becomes personally impacted as you try and figure out who needs to be contacted regarding a missing or stolen package, and there’s also a worry that more than just consumer goods were taken – that identity theft may have occurred, if your personally identifiable information was also compromised during the mail theft incident. If you’re someone who mails packages, gift cards, or orders goods online for delivery, here are a few mail theft prevention tips to consider.

Has Your Child Become a Victim of Identity Theft? 1 in 40 Have

Sherlogix Holmes / September 8, 2017

Tips to help prevent your child from being a victim of identity theft.

Is Social Media Scamming You? Five Popular Scams and How to Avoid Them

Sherlogix Holmes / July 20, 2017

Cyber criminals will use whatever they can think of to try to get your online banking credentials or other information they can sell on the dark web. Here are five ways they use social media to do it and how you can avoid giving up

Summer Is For Fishing And Not Phishing

Sherlogix Holmes / June 30, 2017

Summer has arrived all around the northern hemisphere. Many of us prefer to jump up and head outside to enjoy the spoils of the season and that is certainly fantastic. However, scammers don’t honor the seasons. They will try to trick us with their own

Safeguarding Your Personal Info on Your Smart Phone & Computer

Sherlogix Holmes / May 9, 2017

Given that most of us rely on our computers and mobile devices for everything, including storing our personal information, it’s safe to say we want to keep them safe and secure from those with malicious intent. Sadly, our personal electronic devices are constantly under attack

Ring, Ring? Keep an Ear Out for these Popular Telephone Scams

Sherlogix Holmes / April 3, 2017

“Hello, this is John from your credit card company. How would you like to lower the interest rate on your credit card?” If this opening line sounds too good to be true, that’s because it is. This is called an interest rate reduction scam and is one

How to Spot and Stop Employment Scams

Sherlogix Holmes / February 7, 2017

One of the most popular types of fraud is called an employment scam. There are many different types of variations for this scam, but the most common is when a victim is falsely led to believe they have landed their dream job. After the “employer”

Fraud Alert: Be sure EMV “Chip” Card Issuer eMails are Legit

Matt Overin / April 28, 2016

If you haven’t heard already, there is new technology out there to protect our debit and credit cards. Well not really new; but new to the United States. Many European countries, Mexico and Canada have been using it for years. EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa)

Tax Refund Fraud – What You Need to Know this Tax Season

Matt Overin / March 11, 2016

Fraudsters who use stolen personally identifiable information can perpetrate a wide variety of fraudulent financial schemes, such as hacking online accounts, submitting phony insurance claims, and applying for loans and credit cards to pad their bank accounts. Increasingly, though, identity theft tax refund fraud is

What to Do When You Are a Victim of Identity Theft

Kayleen Kavanagh / October 5, 2015

How it happened may be a mystery, but what you do know is that it happened – your personal information was stolen and used to apply for loans, open accounts, or file taxes without your authorization. Now what? For victims, having their identity stolen can be devastating. There’s confusion, anger, embarrassment and a list of other emotions that may come to the surface at learning your valuable information has been taken. According to Javelin Strategy & Research’s 2015 Identity Fraud Study, approximately 13 million Americans were victims of ID theft in 2014. And, while that number has dropped from the prior year’s total, the figure is still alarming. During a time that can feel overwhelming for those personally affected, it is important to act quickly and have direction when starting the recovery process.