home

You may think that it’s absolutely absurd to give someone a blank check.  As do I.  But the problem lies in the fact that you’re probably doing it everyday.  What you say?  Well whenever you hand a check to anyone you’re giving them the ability to use that check in a dishonest way.  Technology is such that the manipulation of checks is somewhat easier than what it was 20 years ago.

To define check washing further, check washing is the process that occurs when a criminal uses a written check that is not his, washes it, in the sense of changing the details of the check, then rewrites the check so that it can be used on a shopping spree or similar type of dishonest occurrence for his personal or related benefit.  The most common way of this occurring is whereby the criminal simply changes the name on the check to his or hers.  Imagine paying off your car loan of $4000 and the person who receives the check at the bank then goes on to subsequently insert his name on the check after wiping out the banks.  That would then give him or her the ability to use that check for his own individual purposes.  What makes this process even harder to detect is the fact that it may take several months before you notice that your car loan hasn’t been paid off.  This gives ample time for the criminal to hide his dirty work and get away with the crime. Read the rest of this entry »

In the increasingly vulnerable world where identity theft sees more than 10 million cases in the United States alone each and every year, the internet as the leading cause, we must all increase our awareness when it comes to our personal data and information accordingly.  The cases of identity theft each year increase but our awareness doesn’t.  This leaves the door open to an increasing number of online crooks and hackers to exploit our vulnerabilities and take our money and or completely destroy our financial stability by such actions as taking out loans in our names.  Taking out loans in other people’s names is only one form of identity theft, there are many others.  From having your Facebook account hacked, to transferring money from your online bank account to overseas are all increasingly common actions of a cyber criminal.

There are a few ways to protect your personal data and sensitive information and the majority of these revolve around creating passwords that are un-hackable.  There are a few methods that can help you do this and the first basic one being that you have a different password or pin for each different facility that requires one. Too many people have one password or one pin number for every transactional account in which they do need a password or pin.  The problem with this is the fact that if someone finds out that pin or password all of your accounts are exposed and liable to be hacked without a great deal of effort.  The key is you create different passwords and pins for each of your accounts.  There is the obvious issue of remembering each one but unfortunately you don’t have many options to not do this.  And do not; under any circumstance write your pins or passwords down. Read the rest of this entry »

In today’s technologically blessed age, it is possible for hackers to collect your personal information with utmost ease. They can not only collect but share your information with others in the shortest possible time. Although there are federal laws to prevent such incidents but the overwhelming increase in identity theft highlights the need of more sophisticated strategies.

Identity theft is one of the biggest issues in America, both in digital and physical world. Actually, most of these incidents take place when people do not pay attention to specific points. Read the rest of this entry »

The issue of identity theft is getting big with each passing day. Many people lose their sensitive information just by not staying vigilant when exchanging information. Actually, identity theft is a difficult issue to resolve because it takes place in different forms. Most people believe it to occur when disclosing their credit card number for online shopping. However, there are many other ways to lose your card information and ATM skimming is one of them.

A device is used to collect and record information

In ATM skimming, a device is used to collect and record the information you enter during an ATM transaction. The reason behind the success of this device is that you don’t even realize if it is placed on the ATM machine or not, unless of course, you actively look for it. But, it would still be difficult to recognize this device as it looks like a part of the machine and that was the reason why CIA was astonished to see this device when it was first caught by them.

ATM skimming is serious fraud

ATM skimming is now considered to be a serious fraud issue in America, Australia and other many other parts of the world. Since it is difficult to know if there is a device fitted on a machine, more and more people are becoming a victim of identity theft. Generally, these devices are made of plastic and are affixed to the front of the machine. However, different identity thieves use it in different forms, making it difficult to identify. Read the rest of this entry »