This person tells them that if they pay right now over the phone they can avoid a court case, a large late fee, or even time in jail.  If the person hesitates or says they are not going to pay over the phone they are threatened with an arrest warrant.  By this time the person who answered the phone is scared and is not thinking.  They do not realize that there was no photograph because there was no camera to result in an overdue bill.  This scammer who called you has not ability to fine you, arrest you or take you to court.

One of the reasons that you are scared is that the person on the phone has identified themselves as an officer of the law and maybe even gave you a fake identification number.  The scammer or identity thief is hoping that you are going to be too lazy to do any fact checking and is working on you being surprised.  Being so scared that you might have to go to jail if you do not pay this overdue fine you ignore a few signs that would normally tell you that the phone call and the person making the call is anything but legitimate.

When the fraudulent cop finally convinces you to go ahead and pay the fine they will then ask for information about your credit card plus the security code on your card.  Warning bells should be going off when the person on the other end of the line starts to ask for your billing address, Social Security number, and date of birth.  If you were thinking straight you would realize that they should have all that information already, especially if they had you a picture of your license plate.

By the time you realize that this was a scam your credit cards have already had large charges on them and your identity has been stolen.

Yes, the dead.  This does not mean that they go to the cemetery and take names off the headstones and apply for a driver’s license and Social Security card in a deceased person’s name that has been dead for many years.  No, they do it with a more modern twist.  The identity thieves scour the newspapers to see who has died and makes a list of them and their address.  They then go over to the home and grab any mail that is still in the mail box that no one has gotten around to getting or else they go through the garbage.  They are looking for any type of credit card receipts, utility bills, credit card statements, etc.  This may take several days or even up to a month to get these types of things.

Many times the relatives of the one who just died is still traumatized by the death and do not think about stopping the mail, picking it up, or even contacting the credit card companies and asking them to stop sending out the statement or closing the accounts because of death.

Another way that identity thieves can exploit a deceased person is to look for homes that are being put on the market because the person died and the relatives need to sell the house.  Again, they are still getting over the death and do not think about any mail, bills, invoices, etc lying around the house that would be ideal for an identity thief to use.

The identity thief makes an appointment to look at the house and when they are looking the house over they are looking for anything that they can use to steal that person’s identity and take all of their money.  These identity thieves may work alone or with a partner.  According to statistics approximately thirty percent of identity thefts happen by stealing a deceased person’s identity.  Although you may be grieving you still need to remember that an identity thief does not know the person and is not grieving but just looking for information to steal.

During the last three years she has been arrested for various felony crimes that include identity theft, theft, and forgery. Often times she uses Pinner instead of Smith as her last name. Pinner is the last name that she used in her latest scam that involved taking the checks from different purses that had been left in the changing rooms and stealing mail from a neighbor.

In the changing room incident, Kristina would wait in a changing room while women tried clothes on in other changing rooms. When they left to look at different clothes she would sneak into their changing room and take a check from their purse. Usually she would take the check from the back so the person would not realize immediately that a check had been stolen. Another time she stole a neighbor’s checkbook in Eagle point. Kristina cashed the checks around town with one being made out for one thousand eight hundred dollars.

At this time they are not sure why she keeps committing these same crimes but they are not ruling out the possibility that she does this to support her drug habit. She does have several convictions in the pass for distribution and possession of methamphetamine.

Kristina is being held on 3 counts of first degree theft, for tendering bad checks, 8 counts of identity theft, several warrants that were for failing to appear in court on charges of forgery, aggravated identity theft, and aggravated theft. According to court records she still owes thousands of dollars to victims in restitution from previous forgery and theft cases from 2010. In addition, court records also show that the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department has forgery and theft, and identity theft cases that are still open against her.

Researchers from “Carnegie Mellon University” and a company who provides protection against identity theft worked together and during their research they found that out of the forty two thousand records of children that they went through, more than ten percent had some signs of some type of fraud or identity theft. With children, they do not usually know that they are victims until they are over the age of eighteen and apply for credit only to be turned down because of a bad credit report.

Under the current law in Maryland, all credit agencies now have to put on a security freeze for everyone’s credit, regardless of age, who asks for it. Unfortunately, they can also refuse to put a lock on the credit of anyone who does not already have a credit report which can spell trouble for children. The only way a minor would have any type of credit report is if they were an identity theft and/or fraud victim.

This new bill would protect, at the time of the request for a credit freeze, any minor child under the age of sixteen or a person who is incapacitated and whose legal guardian made the request for them. Now after receiving the request to place a security freeze, it would be mandated by the consumer reporting agency to place one. What the guardian or parent would need to do is contact the credit agency with some type of identification proof for the minor or incapacitated person they want to protect. This proof of identification could be the person’s birth certificate or their Social Security card.

This new law in Maryland will protect all children regardless, even foster children that are susceptible because many are moved from foster home to foster home. There have been some states that have created laws to protect foster children from becoming victims of identity theft but Maryland became the first to protect all children, In the states of Colorado, Connecticut, and California, they have passed a law that mandates checks on their credit for any foster child before they are dismissed from the custody of the state.

This new bill that Maryland passed is called “The Maryland Child Identity Lock” bill will allow parents and guardians of incapacitated children to take the step of freezing their child’s credit at any time they want. They are now waiting for the governor of Maryland to sign it, which he is likely to do. The ones that are in support of this new bill is hoping that other states will follow along with them and not only do this to protect children but also elderly and disabled people who are also vulnerable to becoming victims of identity theft.

What this bill will do is freeze the information to make sure that it is not used for any illegal or ill purpose. Credit agencies do not create credit reports for anyone under the age of eighteen and when they do collect data for anyone for applying for credit from other lending partners all they get is a Social Security number and name. They do not get any data so they can double check their actual age because of a lack of information sharing between the Social Security Administration and the credit reporting agencies.

Here is an in depth look at the top scams of 2011 according to the Better Business Bureau.

• Job scams—every year the BBB sees many working from home and secret shopper scams but they cannot only kill your hopes of making money but also steal your personal information.  The websites, online applications, and scam emails look professional but how they get your personal information is to as you to fill out a report to check your credit or else a form to direct deposit your money to provide some bank information.  These forms are just a way for the identity thief to capture your sensitive personal information that can be used like your bank account number, Social Security numbers, etc.
• Lottery and sweepstakes scams–the top scam was the email that stated it was from the founder of Facebook telling you that you had won one million dollars from Facebook.
• Social media scams—the top scam appealed to a person’s curiosity and sounded like it was sent from your friend.  You get a link to a viral video that claims it is going show you something interesting like Osama bin Laden’s grisly death and it looks as if it has been shared with you by your friend.  You are told your flash driver needs to be upgraded before you can see the video.  When the link to do that is clicked, you are actually downloading a file that contains a virus or worm.  This worm will log into your account on the social media site that will send the same to your friend plus it looks for your personal information.
• Home improvement scams—these types of scams are usually at the beginning of the scam complaints received by the BBB.  Often your home is left looking worse than before the so-called home improvement is finished.  What happens is someone knocks at your door claiming that they spotted something that needs to be done on your home, like you have shingles on your roof that are missing, and they offer to give you a deal on fixing it.
• Check cashing scams—to pull off this type of scam, the scammers will often use Western Union and Craigslist, two legitimate companies.  If you have something for sale on Craigslist, the potential buyer will contact you and then sends you more than what you asked.  They will tell you to put the check in your account and wire them the amount over the asking price back to them via Western Union.  The money you wired back is gone immediately but it takes a few days for the check to clear, which it does not.  It bounces so you lose that money, the bounce or overdraft fee, the money you sent the scammer and the fee for Western Union to send it.
• Phishing scams—the top Phishing scam was one that was disguised as an communication from the National Automated Clearing House Association. This is the association that takes care of the transfers of all the electronic transactions made online yearly.  The email will state that one of your transactions was not processed and you need to click the link in the email. If you click on it, you may download malware that will infiltrate your computer or send you to a false site to verify your account information, which it steals.
• Identity theft scams—the top scam in this category has become so big that hotels have warning signs.  What happens is that in the during the night you get a call from the clerk at the front desk  saying that they wrote down the number wrong because it will not go through or else their computer crashed and they need your credit card number again so they can take care of the problem.  What they are hoping is that the guest will be half asleep and unable to think straight to realize the phone call is not the front desk but from a person using an outside phone that knows the numbers connected directly to the rooms.  The sleepy guest gives out their credit card number and in the morning your credit card was used for a large shopping spree.
• Financial scams—many people today are looking for help to avoid foreclosure or help to get debt free making them easy prey for scammers.  There are many legitimate mortgage relief programs and government help websites but scammers make websites that are like these legitimate ones.  Many of these scammer websites will ask for a fee upfront to help you out which would really be free from legitimate websites, leaving you more in debt.
• Sales scams—these types of scams are very old but still popular.  With the invention of the internet, it has given scammers and identity thief’s new ways to scam people.  One top scam is the penny auctions because it appears that you get something tangible like computers, televisions, or cameras below retail price and all you have to do is pay a little fee for each bid.  Not all of these sites are scams but some of them are being investigated because they may be online gambling sites, which is illegal.
• Scam of the year—the malicious email that claims to be from the BBB.  When you click on the link in the email it releases a malicious virus.  This virus can steal passwords, banking information, and other personal information that is needed for cyber theft.

Every year investigations by the Better Business Bureau uncover many scams.  The scams range from schemes that have been around for many years new gimmicks.   Many of the older scams are just recycled with different words or current issues are used to make them some newer. The top scam of the year, according to the Better Business Bureau, was a Phishing email claiming it was from them.  It was about a complaint, which could download malicious software.  This malicious software could mine financial accounts.

Here is an in depth look at the top scams of 2011 according to the Better Business Bureau.

Job scams—every year the BBB sees many working from home and secret shopper scams but they cannot only kill your hopes of making money but also steal your personal information.  The websites, online applications, and scam emails look professional but how they get your personal information is to as you to fill out a report to check your credit or else a form to direct deposit your money to provide some bank information.  These forms are just a way for the identity thief to capture your sensitive personal information that can be used like your bank account number, Social Security numbers, etc.
Lottery and sweepstakes scams–the top scam was the email that stated it was from the founder of Facebook telling you that you had won one million dollars from Facebook.
Social media scams—the top scam appealed to a person’s curiosity and sounded like it was sent from your friend.  You get a link to a viral video that claims it is going show you something interesting like Osama bin Laden’s grisly death and it looks as if it has been shared with you by your friend.  You are told your flash driver needs to be upgraded before you can see the video.  When the link to do that is clicked, you are actually downloading a file that contains a virus or worm.  This worm will log into your account on the social media site that will send the same to your friend plus it looks for your personal information.
Home improvement scams—these types of scams are usually at the beginning of the scam complaints received by the BBB.  Often your home is left looking worse than before the so-called home improvement is finished.  What happens is someone knocks at your door claiming that they spotted something that needs to be done on your home, like you have shingles on your roof that are missing, and they offer to give you a deal on fixing it.
Check cashing scams—to pull off this type of scam, the scammers will often use Western Union and Craigslist, two legitimate companies.  If you have something for sale on Craigslist, the potential buyer will contact you and then sends you more than what you asked.  They will tell you to put the check in your account and wire them the amount over the asking price back to them via Western Union.  The money you wired back is gone immediately but it takes a few days for the check to clear, which it does not.  It bounces so you lose that money, the bounce or overdraft fee, the money you sent the scammer and the fee for Western Union to send it.
Phishing scams—the top Phishing scam was one that was disguised as an communication from the National Automated Clearing House Association. This is the association that takes care of the transfers of all the electronic transactions made online yearly.  The email will state that one of your transactions was not processed and you need to click the link in the email. If you click on it, you may download malware that will infiltrate your computer or send you to a false site to verify your account information, which it steals.
Identity theft scams—the top scam in this category has become so big that hotels have warning signs.  What happens is that in the during the night you get a call from the clerk at the front desk  saying that they wrote down the number wrong because it will not go through or else their computer crashed and they need your credit card number again so they can take care of the problem.  What they are hoping is that the guest will be half asleep and unable to think straight to realize the phone call is not the front desk but from a person using an outside phone that knows the numbers connected directly to the rooms.  The sleepy guest gives out their credit card number and in the morning your credit card was used for a large shopping spree.
Financial scams—many people today are looking for help to avoid foreclosure or help to get debt free making them easy prey for scammers.  There are many legitimate mortgage relief programs and government help websites but scammers make websites that are like these legitimate ones.  Many of these scammer websites will ask for a fee upfront to help you out which would really be free from legitimate websites, leaving you more in debt.
Sales scams—these types of scams are very old but still popular.  With the invention of the internet, it has given scammers and identity thief’s new ways to scam people.  One top scam is the penny auctions because it appears that you get something tangible like computers, televisions, or cameras below retail price and all you have to do is pay a little fee for each bid.  Not all of these sites are scams but some of them are being investigated because they may be online gambling sites, which is illegal.
Scam of the year—the malicious email that claims to be from the BBB.  When you click on the link in the email it releases a malicious virus.  This virus can steal passwords, banking information, and other personal information that is needed for cyber theft.