The headlines always draw attention. Cable networks are abuzz. A hundred thousand names here, two hundred thousand account numbers there, all with Social Security numbers. When big companies and government lose personal data, it’s a big deal, and people worry.

But is this kind of data theft really something the average American should worry about? Given how little people can do to protect themselves from an IRS data breach or the hacking of a department store or bank, the news makes people afraid but accomplishes nothing else. If you cannot protect yourself, worrying is a waste of time. Worse, it takes attention away from threats we can protect ourselves against, including online services promising anyone’s name, address and other personal information.

If you have ever Googled your own name, or someone else’s, you’ve had the ads for the data brokers presented alongside the results. These are the services that claim to have found you, or the name you entered, and promise to show you contact and other information, always for a price. If you have time you might want to explore and see what information is offered, but be cautious with your money.

Or maybe you have been presented with surprising online “challenge questions” as a way to prove your identity. Questions about where you’ve lived. The mascot of a school you attended as a child. The sorts of things that seem as if only you or someone very close to you should know.

Did you ever stop to wonder where this information comes from? Chances are it came from one of the hundreds of data brokers who collect and aggregate information from all manner of databases and public records, or from data you entered when you agreed with a company’s online terms of service without reading the privacy policy.

When one of these companies – called a data aggregator or data broker – gathers enough of this information, they can sell a surprisingly complete profile of most Americans. Much of the information isn’t the kind of detail that most of us would want a stranger to have — especially if the information is wrong.

How can wrong information hurt you? A data aggregator might link you to a non-existent criminal relative because you share the same last name and home town, for example. A database that wrongly lists a single person as married could easily cost them a date or maybe an established relationship. Incorrect job information that makes it appear you lied on a resume could cost you your job, hurt your credit, or keep you from being recruited for a new job.

Of course, the data brokers who aggregate personal information are very careful to tell potential customers or website visitors that they are a public records search service, and not a consumer reporting agency. They explain (in great detail) that the information they provide is not governed by federal consumer protection laws like the Fair Credit Reporting Act that regulate how information is used, and provide penalties for inaccurate data.

The customers who use the online sites that sell personal information are warned that they may not use the information contained in the data broker’s reports to make decisions about consumer credit, employment, insurance, tenant screening, or “any other purposes that would require FCRA compliance.”

But do you believe that every person who accesses such a database will follow the rules? The creators of the online privacy solution IdentaLocker don’t believe that every user who purchases such a report will follow the rules. You probably shouldn’t either because once the correct (or incorrect) information is in someone’s hands, what they do with it is nearly impossible to predict.

What’s Worse: Information that’s Wrong – or Right?

Wrong information is bad enough. But sometimes, correct information can be even more dangerous to your reputation, your job, or your family’s safety. Nearly everyone has something in their past they haven’t shared with those closest to them. Maybe it was a “bad boy” you dated in college, who went on to rack up an impressive rap sheet. Or maybe it was an embarrassing traffic ticket you wouldn’t want your kids to hear about.

But the real danger may lie in correct information that shouldn’t be public knowledge. Why? Because it’s a shortcut to identity theft. The data brokers create a profile of you based on bits and pieces of data they’ve collected from a wide range of online and offline sources. With enough data, someone can pretend to be you. An identity thief can ruin your reputation by posing as you even if only long enough to cause trouble with your job, friends and family.

But most of us worry about the severe financial burden that identity theft can impose when a stranger runs up credit card debts, medical bills, or even traffic tickets. Data brokers collecting and selling personal information about American consumers are everywhere. Some of them are famous companies, and others are unknown by anyone except their customers.

Even if you think you have already locked down your privacy, you are likely to be amazed at what you find is out there. For example, did you know that most states make marriage and divorce records public? That databases containing property tax records, voter registration data, political campaign donations, and state-issued licenses for everything from hunting to handgun permits are a matter of public record? That you can find street-level photos or satellite images of almost any piece of property? And that’s just part of the mountain of data that’s out there for nearly every one of us.

IdentaLocker says that identity theft based on information purchased from the public information data brokers is a big risk to consumer’s wallets, and also to the personal safety of the victim’s family.

The IdentaLocker service monitors more than a thousand databases, with more than 650 billion data points, and helps victims rapidly detect identity fraud and restore their identity if it is compromised.

For more information on how to protect your online privacy and personal information from inaccuracies in the databases maintained by data brokers, visit the IdentaLocker and InfoEraser websites.

An international criminal network may still get some of your personal information through a data breach. But this kind of theft is usually reported soon after it happens, so consumers know what to look for, and the company that lost the data has a responsibility to help consumers minimize or repair the damage.

It’s the hidden information, used by people who have a grudge against you and those who want to assume your identity so they can acquire goods or services at your expense, which can really hurt you. Protection from that kind of damage is the most valuable protection of all.”

Photo credit: The black and white photo of the man in the fedora, representing a hacker who causes a data breach that steals personal information, was taken by photographer Ryan McGuire. The photo of the man’s face as a jigsaw puzzle, representing the way data brokers assemble a profile of consumers from bits and pieces of data scraped from online and offline sources, was created by the graphic artist Geralt. Both images are used under Creative Commons licenses from Pixabay.

The post The Biggest Privacy Danger From Personal Data Loss Isn’t What You Think appeared first on Welcome To IdentaLocker.

Data brokers and data aggregators like Instant Checkmate know more about you than you may realize. They collect information about all of us from online and offline sources, and happily sell personal information to marketers or display it online for the whole world to see. They’re drawing a portrait of you based on a massive amount of data, and there are few checks on the accuracy of the data they’re collecting, so the portrait they paint can be misleading.

The downside of having accurate or inaccurate personal information collected and shared can be huge.

Do you have any enemies who might use negative information against you? Upset coworkers, competitors, exes, stalkers and anyone else with a grudge – or just too much curiosity – can go online and find more information than most people are comfortable sharing.

It’s easy to do.“Been issued a speeding ticket? Failed to stop at a stop sign? What about your family members and friends?” asks an ad for one of the large data aggregators.“If you are like most of us, the answer to at least one of those questions is ’yes’—the vast majority of us have slipped up at least once or twice.” The company is one of dozens that promises to reveal “the full scoop on millions of Americans.”

“(Our company) aggregates hundreds of millions of publicly available criminal, traffic, and arrest records and posts them online so they can easily be searched by anyone. Members of the site can literally begin searching within seconds, and are able to check as many records as they like (think: friends, family, neighbors, etc. etc.),” the ad promises.

What Personal Information about You is Available Online?

The data brokers collect and display a huge range of personal information about average Americans. What kind of personal information? Here’s a list of just some of the data that could be available about your family:

• Marriage & divorce records
• Licenses issued by the state (medical, firearm, aviation, teaching credentials, hunting and fishing licenses, etc.)
• Arrest records (arrest records may be available even if charges were later dropped, and traffic offenses are usually readily available)
• Current and previous addresses (probably with street-level or satellite images of the property)
• Landline and cell phone numbers
• Birthdates (for you and your kids)
• Estimated income levels
• Property tax records
• Political campaign donations and voter’s registration data
• ”Known associates” including neighbors, relatives and friends
• Former and current employers, including the street address where you work
• Social media profiles, with links to social media accounts

Even the data brokers admit on their blogs that, “It’s really pretty scary just how much information is in these reports.”

Identity Theft and Other Risks Posed by Data Brokers

Data aggregation – that is, bringing together information from a wide range of on and offline sources — is the Internet’s dirtiest secret and biggest threat to personal privacy and liberty. It is the same sort of thing the NSA does only it’s done by private businesses. Worse, most of these data aggregators place the burden of verifying the information’s accuracy on consumers (whether they know what information the data broker has collected about them or not).

How is that possible? Shouldn’t there be a law to protect consumers from having their personal information splashed all over the Internet? Well, there is – sort of. Federal law limits the kind of information that credit reporting companies can collect and distribute, and places strict requirements on how the information that they collect and resell is used. And a number of states have consumer protection laws that allow consumers to opt out of the files kept by data brokers.

But only companies that provide data for use in situations governed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) must follow the federal guidelines on the accuracy of personal information they sell.

The data brokers who aggregate personal information are very careful to tell potential customers or website visitors that they are a public records search service, and not a consumer reporting agency. They explain (in great detail) that the information they provide is not governed by the FCRA.

Site users are asked to accept a list of permitted – and prohibited – uses for the data. For example, users of most data aggregation sites are warned multiple times during the process of downloading reports of someone’s personal information that they may not use the information contained in the data broker’s reports to make decisions about consumer credit, employment, insurance, tenant screening, or “any other purposes that would require FCRA compliance.”

Here’s what the data brokers encourage their customers to do:

• Check out “new, suspicious, or creepy neighbors”.
• Search for registered sex offenders in your neighborhood.
• Track down “estranged members of your extended family, or find out if your parents have ever been arrested.”
• Run background checks on your childrens’ friends and their parents – or on your own friends or potential dates.
• Learn the details your social media friends, online buyers and sellers, or co-workers won’t tell you about themselves.
• Identify the past records of college roommates or study partners.
• Find out if a celebrity or political candidate has a criminal record.

And, of course, the data brokers encourage consumers to pay them for a report on themselves, so that they can find out what information is available about themselves.

If the information about you that has been collected by the aggregators is accurate, then all those details – family members, old addresses, and other personal information – make identity theft ridiculously easy.

How to Protect Your Personal Information

IdentaLocker, a leading service provider that helps prevent identity theft or repair the damage afterwards, says that identity theft based on information purchased from the public information data brokers is more common than people think. Figuring out what personal information about yourself is available to an identity thief is important. And it’s a daunting task that takes far more time and effort than you’d think.

But inaccurate or just plain wrong information can hurt even more consumers. You don’t have to be the victim of identity theft to be harmed by the data brokers. Do you want to bet your next job, relationship, or credit purchase that every customer of the data aggregators is following the rules about how the data is used? On the accuracy of information scraped from public databases?

According to the company, protecting the privacy of personal information doesn’t just affect your wallet. An identity thief can compromise your safety or that of your family, or even your life.

IdentaLocker monitors more than a thousand databases, with more than 650 billion data points, and helps victims rapidly detect identity fraud and restore their identity if it is compromised. For more information on how to protect your online privacy and personal information from inaccuracies in the databases maintained by data brokers, visit the IdentaLocker and InfoEraser websites.

Photo credit: The two images included with this blog post are published under a Creative Commons License from Pixabay, and were created by anonymous contributors to the site.

The post What Google Won’t Tell You about Yourself: Data Brokers & their Hidden Online Privacy Risk appeared first on Welcome To IdentaLocker.

Those are questions before the US Supreme Court, which recently heard arguments in the case of Spokeo v. Robins. Spokeo, an information broker, wants to dodge a potential class action suit over incorrect information in its database.

Robins, a California resident, is suing under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, which requires that information about consumers is correct before it is provided to anyone who might use that information to judge a consumer’s credit worthiness. At issue in this case is whether a person may bring a lawsuit when any company, including an online data broker like Spokeo, violates a federal privacy law.

In order to sue in a federal court, the victim of inaccurate credit information must have “standing”. Part of establishing standing is proof that the victim was harmed by the bad information supplied by the data broker. Robins was unemployed when he originally sued Spokeo in 2010, and argued that inaccurate personal information about him hurt his job prospects. Spokeo countersued, claiming that Robins lacked standing.

The company argued that the case should be dismissed because Robins was unable to prove that the publication of inaccurate personal information in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act was a concrete “injury” under Article III of the law. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit disagreed, and denied Spokeo’s motion to dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction. Spokeo appealed the decision, and a ruling by the US Supreme Court is expected this summer, probably after June, 2016.

In oral arguments, heard Nov. 3, 2015, the justices appeared divided on the issues. It’s a case that’s being closely watched by online privacy advocates and Silicon Valley companies, because of its potential to affect many companies doing business online, including industry giants like Google and Facebook.

Why the Accuracy of Online Personal Information Matters

There are dozens of companies that collect and sell our personal information. Even if you think that you have already locked down your online privacy, you are likely to be amazed at what you find is out there – and how much of it is wrong.

To find out how accurate the personal information data brokers are collecting about you is, try a service like InfoEraser that will let you run a free sample check on yourself or someone you know. InfoErasers lets consumers tell the privacy-killing data brokers “no”, and manages the process of opting out and staying out of the reports sold by the data aggregators.

A ruling against Spokeo in the Robins case would require many companies to drastically change the way they collect and distribute consumer data. Most court watchers think it’s unlikely that the court will take such drastic action in this case. Of course, no one knows what the justices will decide until the court’s ruling is issued.

But consumers worried about their online privacy don’t have to wait for the court’s decision, or any resulting changes in the online business model. Opting out of these databases, using a service like InfoEraser, provides immediate protection which is a better bet than expecting the Supreme Court to take consumers’ side against some of America’s largest corporations.

Your personal information is valuable to you, and to corporations that want to use it for a range of purposes. Some of the uses can seem relatively benign, like pre-screening people for credit offers. But if the information about you is wrong, it can have a tremendous impact on the interest rates you pay, whether or not you can make a major purchase, and even whether or not you get a job.

There are so many data brokers out there collecting and reselling personal information and they’ve gathered from so many sources that it’s nearly impossible for a consumer to find them all and take the cumbersome steps required to protect themselves. But a company like IdentaLocker, that specializes in helping families protect their online privacy from identity thieves and corporations alike, can provide immediate relief while the courts sort out the rules for the future.

For more information on how to protect your online privacy and personal information from inaccuracies in the databases maintained by data brokers, visit the IdentaLocker website and checkout the InfoEraser service.

Photo credit: The image of the U.S. Supreme Court at night is used under a Creative Commons license from Pixabay.

The post Is Bad Information from a Data Broker Hurting Your Career or Credit? appeared first on Welcome To IdentaLocker.

Businesses that collect, store and use people’s data are most at risk of attracting hackers and regulatory oversight, Forrester said. The data brokers also stand to suffer the most when consumers decide to prioritize privacy over convenience, something that is already beginning to shape online behavior as consumers attempt to protect themselves from privacy abuses or identity theft.

Forrester’s 2016 privacy report notes the following trends:

• More Internet-based businesses will offer “fremium” models, offering consumers the option to pay (or pay more) for fewer ads, with more privacy.
• More users will begin using software that blocks ads when they are browsing. Forrester says about 26% of American adults currently use ad blocking tools, but that number may double over the next year.
• More regulations for cookies and trackers may be in the pipeline at the state and local level. Forrester says that many businesses are becoming uncomfortable with the amount of data that companies like Facebook can collect from a “Share on Facebook” icon, noting that Facebook can see every user’s activity, not just the activity of those who click “like”.

These predictions are good news for consumers who are worried about their privacy. But they don’t alleviate the very real threat of identity theft and other serious consequences that consumers face from the profiles compiled by data brokers. In fact, FTC commissioner Julie Brill told Congress in 2014 that the problem was already so widespread that consumers can no longer protect their privacy and personal information from identity thieves without outside help.

What’s Missing from Forrester’s Predictions

The Forrester report cites some positive steps for consumers, such as more regulatory oversight, and more care taken by companies who unknowingly feed information to the data brokers. 2016 will also see a new law in Europe that may curb some of the excesses. Few companies will want to risk the loss of up to 5% of global revenues for violating the European Union’s new data protection law, so global companies are expected to take steps to better protect the personally identifiable information they hold about customers, employees, and partners.
But the problem isn’t the kind of data breach or lax security that the EU’s law is designed to address. It’s that there is a whole industry of data brokers out there who gather public and private data from offline and online sources, and then market that data to third parties.

Some of the information these data brokers gather about all of us comes from government sources such as property tax rolls, and some comes from the information we voluntarily give up when we register a product as part of the warranty process or sign up for an online service. By matching the offline and online data about individuals, the data brokers are able to create amazingly detailed profiles of each person’s behavior, likes, dislikes, finances, health, and political opinions.

How to Protect Yourself

Most of the marketers who buy profiles from the data brokers want to use the information to better target their advertising and content marketing. And most Americans don’t mind it when someone delivers information they’re interested in rather than spamming them with information that doesn’t apply.

The trouble is that the same information a marketer uses to decide whether or not you should view a video about a new sports car or a family SUV can be used to help an identity thief masquerade as you. The problem is huge:

• 15 million Americans face identity theft every year.
• 85% of ID theft cases use information from existing accounts.
• Identity theft costs Americans and American businesses 50 billion per year.

It isn’t enough to carefully monitor what kind of data you enter online. There have been many identity thieves who don’t use the Internet – elderly and retired people are at special risk.
For a growing percentage of Americans, the best protection from ID theft is a service like IdentaLocker that can ensure that your personal information and identity are safe and secure. After years of research and testing, the IdentaLocker service protects customers before and after their personal information has been compromised.

Waiting for the government to tighten controls, or for businesses to take steps to curb the abuses just doesn’t make sense for most of us. It’s time to take action to protect ourselves, and that means getting help from an established company with experience in helping Americans facing identity theft.

Ready to stop worrying and start getting protected?

The post 2016: The Year Privacy Concerns Demand Action? appeared first on Welcome To IdentaLocker.

Chilling news from the FTC this week regarding identity theft and privacy concerns.

A chilling report issued by the Federal Trade Commission details the privacy abuses committed on a daily basis by data brokers who collect thousands of data points they use to create detailed profiles of individual Americans. These privacy abuses are a contributing factor to an identity theft epidemic.

FTC commissioner Julie Brill urged Congress to act in 2014, but so far a bill that would require a centralized portal for consumers who want to know what information data brokers collect about them has remained stalled. Brill says, “Consumers can’t manage this process by themselves. It’s too big. It’s too complex. There are too many moving parts.”

How big and complex is the problem of ID theft fueled by information collected by data brokers? Brill says that the FTC report provides a detailed account of a system of commercial surveillance that draws on government records, shopping habits, and social media postings. “This is a multi-billion dollar industry that is creating intimate profiles that would unnerve some consumers who have little ability to track what’s being collected or how it’s used,” Brill said. “It’s even difficult to correct false information.”

The consumer profiles compiled on Americans by the data brokers include traditional demographic details such as age, race and income, as well as political leanings, religious affiliations, Social Security numbers, gun-ownership records, favored movie genres and gambling preferences. A person’s health issues such as diabetes, HIV infection and depression can also be tracked by the data brokers.

All of this information is a treasure trove for identity theft. Organized criminals or opportunistic identity thieves working alone can use the information to gain access to your checking account to drain your balances, and obtain credit cards or run up huge medical bills in your name. There are even instances where an identity thief arrested for something other than ID theft has used a victim’s name, leaving them with a criminal record.

Categorizing America

The data brokers sell reports to marketers (and individuals) that can contain thousands of fields. According to the FTC report, the basic product sold by a data broker is a list of consumer profiles broken into categories such as “Bible Lifestyle,” “Affluent Baby Boomer” or “Biker/Hell’s Angels” the report said.
Reports can be very specific, such as one that tracks buyers of “Novelty Elvis” items. Most, however, are broader, such as one called “Rural Everlasting” that profiles older people with “low educational attainment and low net worth.”

Why does it matter if a data broker labels you as an “Affluent Baby Boomer” or “Novelty Elvis” fan? Because the reports are often used by banks and credit card companies who determine what kind of offer to send you – get on a list of affluent consumers, and you may get offered low-interest credit cards, but if you’re on the list of deadbeats or low-income consumers (even if the information is wrong), you may find it hard to get any credit card at all, or wind up paying much higher interest on a car purchase or other loan.

But it isn’t just financial fraud that damages a victim’s credit worthiness that can be affected by the information sold by the data brokers. The FTC expressed concern about potential abuses such as the ability to get a job, rent an apartment, or even how long they wait on hold when they call a company with a complaint. (Some customers receive speedy, responsive service, while others don’t – and it’s the data broker profiles that can make the difference.)

It’s More than Online Behavior

Data-broker firms typically have no direct dealings with the public, relying on third-party sources or trading information with one another. Seven of the nine companies subpoenaed by the FTC (Acxiom, CoreLogic, Datalogix, eBureau, ID Analytics, Intelius, PeekYou, Rapleaf and Recorded Future), share information with one another. This means that mistakes in one database are likely repeated in others.

Consumers also need to understand that the data brokers are connecting online and offline behavior. A process called “onboarding” allows the brokers to load offline information — from magazine subscriptions, store loyalty cards or government records — into cookies that digital advertisers use to target consumers for pitches. Cookies, which are a small bit of computerized code stored in a computer’s Web browser, allow advertisers to feature a single product across many Internet services.

The issue of data collection has generated increasing attention in recent years — and especially since former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed how intelligence agencies use information collected by the private sector. The White House issued a report on the collection and use of Big Data.

The American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement: “This report’s intentions are good, but waiting for Congress to pass new regulations isn’t going to help protect Americans’ privacy rights anytime soon. The FTC needs to start using its existing authority to root out bad practices now.”

Anytime personal information is exposed online it is an invasion of privacy but even more importantly an alarming risk for identity theft. There are dozens of companies that collect and sell our personal information. As the FTC commissioner said, consumers can’t protect their privacy by themselves. The process of monitoring and removing information is just too complex.

So what can be done to protect yourself? Consider a service like IdentaLocker to ensure your information and identity are safe and secure. In the information age threats are everywhere and identity theft protection has got to be something that every consumer has as a safeguard, it simply isn’t an option anymore. Until more laws are enacted to limit what type of data can be collected and shared, it may the only safeguard available should a consumer’s information fall into the wrong hands.

Ready to stop worrying and start getting protected?

The post FTC Report Details Data Broker Abuses, Privacy Threats appeared first on Welcome To IdentaLocker.

Data aggregation companies and sites like InstantCheckmate.com know more about you than you may realize. They happily sell your information to marketers and display it online for the whole world to see. The downside can be huge.

Have any enemies who might use information against you? Upset coworkers, competitors, exes, stalkers and anyone else with a grudge – or just too much curiosity – can go online and find more information than most people are comfortable sharing. It is ridiculously easy to do.

“Been issued a speeding ticket? Failed to stop at a stop sign? What about your family members? And friends?” asks an Instant Checkmate advertisement. “If you are like most of us, the answer to at least one of those questions is “yes”—the vast majority of us have slipped up at least once or twice.”

The company promises to reveal “the full scoop on millions of Americans.”

“Instant Checkmate aggregates hundreds of millions of publicly available criminal, traffic, and arrest records and posts them online so they can easily be searched by anyone. Members of the site can literally begin searching within seconds, and are able to check as many records as they like (think: friends, family, neighbors, etc. etc.),” the company promises.

What else is available online?

Marriage records, divorce records, various types of licenses (medical, firearm, aviation, etc.), previous addresses, phone numbers, birthdates, estimated income levels and even satellite imagery of known addresses. Instant Checkmate admits, “It’s really pretty scary just how much information is in these reports.”

Data aggregation, bringing together information from a wide range of sources, is the Internet’s dirtiest secret and biggest threat to personal privacy and liberty. It is the same sort of thing the NSA does, only now by private businesses.

There are virtually no limits on how the information is gathered or may be used. It does not even have to be true.

Your next job, relationship, credit purchase, virtually anything could be scuttled by what these companies know – or think they know – about you. Not all of the information is accurate, but once collected, false information can take on a life of its own – and make your life hell.

There are dozens of companies that collect and sell our personal information. Even if you think you have already locked down your privacy, you are likely to be amazed at what you find is out there.

Don’t believe us? Our service InfoEraser will let you run a free sample check on yourself or someone you know. If your record appears, you can tell these privacy killers “no” and opt-out and stay out of dozens of data aggregators’ files.

Ready to stop worrying and start getting protected?

The post Data Aggregation And The Danger It Poses To You appeared first on Welcome To IdentaLocker.

Along with the things you do every day — from employing a smartphone to swiping a debit card — can cause you to be exposed and vulnerable to scammers, and finally, identity theft.

Based on what we do, and how we do it, those places become smaller or bigger . Here’s a summary of ways than we know criminals normally capture their victim’s information.

1. Pick up a telephone, respond to your text, click on a link or supply information that is personal and we don’t know who the sender was;

2. Fail to correctly fix computers or mobile devices (smartphones, tablets or laptops);

3. Create easy-to-crack passwords;

4. Lose rather than shred a file;

5. Respond to an email that directs a number to be called by us we can not independently support;

6. Save our user ID or password as a shortcut for future login and fail to properly protect it;

7. Use our email address as a user name/ID, if we’ve the option to modify it;

8. Use straightforward personal identification numbers like 9876 or 1234 or a birthday;

9. Forget to get, review and correct our credit reports;

10. Go 24 hours without reviewing our bank and credit card accounts to make absolutely sure that every transaction we see is recognizable;

In every one of the above mentioned cases, we leave ourselves exposed to those who consider the larceny of our identity. While very serious and extremely damaging, there are many other means that the “bad guys” can cause a mess in your life and your money. Services just like the ones available from Identalocker offer protection against others creating credit or identities using your Social Security Number.

Ready to stop worrying and start getting protected?

The post Ways You May Be Exposing Yourself To Fraud appeared first on Welcome To IdentaLocker.

It is a danger you face every day. By just purchasing lunch having a debit card, taking your charge card and driver’s license or making a purchase on the internet, you may be exposing yourself to identity theft — among the fastest-growing crimes in the world.

This past year, the U.S. Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Forces, one of the chief federal agencies fighting cyber-crime, detained 1,200 criminals who were responsible for the loss of almost $500 million.

The bottom line: Be scared, be very fearful.

Do not look now, but that is merely the beginning of these identity theft facts that are frightening:

1. Hackers Are Always One Step Ahead.

Online fraudsters are technologically savvy and skillful at staying ahead of authorities. That means these criminals are constantly getting away with it. Threats evolve so rapidly that before police even possess a handle on techniques that are old, hackers have moved on to new ones.

2. There Is No Anonymity

Science Magazine reported that “anonymized meta data sets” containing product purchase info were re-identified using the people that made the purchases by looking at Instagram posts and tweets that matched the purchases. That’s scary dangerous. You can do everything right and still get “got.” The fraudsters out there mining the veins of personal data for financial gain are not bad at what they do. But should you presume you’re likely to get got and take some proactive measures – including monitoring your bank and credit accounts frequently for hints of fraud – in many situations it is possible to have a head start when it actually happens.

3. It’s Getting More Difficult to Find.

New account fraud is tough to find unless you’re continuously looking at your credit report or have a credit monitoring system in position, as you can picture. The thing is, the longer fraud goes not noticed, the more difficult the procedure is to get solved. Typically, consumers detect 45% and third parties identify 55% of fraud. Charge card businesses and often banks discover fraud, but require the collaboration of consumers in order to pinpoint fraudulent transactions and inquiries.

4. Even Kids Are at Risk

It’s long been known that children in the foster care system were more likely to become the target of identity-related offenses. This was because of the truth that when kids move in using a foster family that is new, their personally identifiable information moves with them. The important thing in these offenses is of course use of the data that is required. There are services available that protect a kid’s credit. It is also a really nice graduation present to check on your kid’s credit, and make sure there isn’t a history there.

5. It is Not Easy to Erase, That Is, Until Identalocker Came Along

Even with vigilant watch and hard work, it might take a couple of weeks or up to many years to get your finances back into “pre-larceny” order. Unraveling all of the ways you’re defrauded can be cumbersome, especially with new account fraud and endangered social security numbers. Once you believe you’ve coped with a scam, another could pop up costing you more time and money to make things right. The prospect may be overwhelming.

Arm Yourself With Identalocker

There isn’t any silver bullet to prevent identity theft. The Bureau of Consumer Protection, an office of the Federal Trade Commission, offers numerous ideas to resist identity theft before it happens and, in the worst case, after the fact. But Identalocker was designed with the idea that consumers deserve an even playing field, and that’s why we’re here to help.

Your first step is to join our 100% free Identity Protection Reports Program. It takes 20 seconds to sign up by clicking here and it will provide you with up to date industry information, the newest trends to be on the lookout for, and the best strategies for safeguarding you and your family.

If you’re still not satisfied and you’re looking for a way to erase your information online or subscribe to a premium service that will monitor your status 24/7, you should look at Identalocker’s premium products Platinum ID Theft Protection and Info Eraser.

Ready to stop worrying and start getting protected?

The post Identity Theft Facts You’ll Wish You Didn’t Know, And What You Can Do About Them appeared first on Welcome To IdentaLocker.

Now, that project is nearing completion. Soon, Identalocker.com will not be just another website, but instead a portal for you and your loved ones to find better options for safety and more privacy online. Feel free to check back soon and we recommend joining our free Identity Protection Reports program so that you get all of the newest and most relevant news, information, and strategies for how to keep your self and family secure … in this unsecured world.

Sincerely,

The Identalocker Team

The post The Wait Is Almost Over. The New Identalocker Is Almost Here. appeared first on Welcome To IdentaLocker.