LifeLock and FBI partner to offer identity theft summits to law enforcement
March 12, 2010 – 2:33 pm
LifeLock, an industry leader in proactive identity theft protection, and the FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development Association have partnered to offer identity theft awareness seminars to law enforcements officials in Charlotte, Spokane and Seattle. These summits are intended to help law enforcement better identify and be aware of identity theft trends, scam methods and better ways to investigate them. This is not the first time LifeLock and the FBI has partnered to bring these events to the country. Last year they ran seminars in 12 cities across America and informed 1,243 officials from 403 different law agencies.
The summits have proved very useful according to Chief Glenn Ladd of the North Kansas City Police Department. “The identity theft education we received by hosting the summit here last October was invaluable,” Glenn said. “I believe this type of training is essential for all law enforcement officials who deal with this crime, and the open forum setting allows for everyone to be involved and share experiences they’ve encountered in the field. After having been a part of this, I feel our police department is better equipped to handle these types of cases and will have more success in combating the crime long-term.”
LifeLock strongly believes that in order to reduce identity theft all aspects of combating must be honed. Not just satisfied with offering proactive protection measures and monitoring, LifeLock has used this partnership to better educate law professionals on how to find identity thieves.
Tags: america, combat identity theft, fbi, identity theft, law enforcement, LifeLock, seminars, summit
A new study done by the National Study on Medical Identity Theft polled over 156,000 people and came up with a very interesting figure. A whopping 5.8% reported having been victims of medical identity theft in the past. That percentage translates to nearly 1 in 17 adults or 1.42 million people that have been had their identity stolen from medical documents in the United States.
Think of it as a bargain warehouse club for criminals. For a nominal fee between $7,000 to $10,000, felons and other enigmatic individuals were able to purchase brand new identity packages for themselves — complete with birth certificates, Social Security cards, work identification documents and, as a final coup de grâce, New York drivers’ licenses. The facilitators, which prosecutors say involved six individuals and over 200 “customers,” included two DMV employees in New York City and is thought to have raked in over $1 million during its operation.
Social media has really caught on in the last few years. Starting with MySpace, the ability to share, talk and friend other people on the internet has allowed users to branch out and have more fun online. Now services like Twitter, Facebook, Google Buzz and Foursquare continue to allow users to further interact with their online friends, but usually at the cost of their privacy.
According to a recent report by Javelin Strategy and Research, the number of victims of identity theft rose to 11 million in 2009. In addition, victims of credit, check and bank fraud also rose for the second year in a row.
You’ve no doubt noticed the many ID theft prevention services and credit monitoring services that have popped up lately. Some have catchy songs alluding to free credit reports that aren’t actually free. Others use celebrities and CGI squirrels. But the fact remains that there’s been one company who has been performing these services for nearly five years — and doing a good job of it.
Twitter is once again in the midst of a giant phishing attempt by an offsite entity. This morning, thousands of Twitter account holder were issued emails from Twitter saying that their account passwords had been reset. The email reads:
Identity theft is a horrible thing. It’s even worse when that theft gives criminals access to your bank accounts and they withdraw massive amounts of money in your name. But now there’s something even worse than that — when your bank sues over the amount stolen.
Four Fort Lauderdale, Florida men were arrested in Bensalem, New Jersey for committing identity theft in a crime ring that spanned from Connecticut to Florida. The men were found with driver’s licenses, checkbooks, credit cards and social security numbers for around 100 people. The victims included people from Georgia, Florida, Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
LifeLock recently unveiled a new tier of ID theft protection to their members. Named LifeLock Command Center, this new tier allows members to have more control over theft prevention measures than ever before. It’s a major step forward for LifeLock and keeps them on the leading edge of solutions to help fight identity theft. See the full list of LifeLock Command Center services here.
LifeLock has offered identity theft prevention services since 2005. During that time they’ve grown into the largest preventative ID theft solution in the world. Now LifeLock is offering even more protection to your in their LifeLock Command Center.
Like it or not your identity is out there. Every time you apply for a credit card, mortgage, loan, buy something online or even go to the doctor’s office you’re releasing parts of your identity into the ether. And that identity can been scooped up, mishandled or sold to unscrupulous people who will abuse it at the cost of your time, money and good name.
