ScamSafe

Identity Theft Forum to Reveal Best Practices for Financial Services Industry

NEW YORK, April 14 /PRNewswire/ -- In the minds of consumer advocacy groups, regulators and legislators, identity theft and account takeover has become one of the dominant concerns for the financial services industry. Banks and credit card companies have much to gain by taking the lead in the development of law and policy relating to identity theft, as they collectively bear the greatest financial burdens resulting from this type of fraud.
In response to this rapidly growing industry need, Strategic Research Institute presents Identity Theft in Financial Services (www.srinstitute.com/cg115), which will be held June 30 - July 1 at the Metropolitan in New York City.

Major banks and credit card companies will discuss policy, government/commercial cooperation, best practices, and technology solutions with top industry regulators and organizations.

For complete conference details and to register, please visit www.srinstitute.com/cg115 or call (888) 666-8514.

For further information, contact Cyrus Wolfe at cwolf@srinstitute.com or (212) 967-0095, ext. 255.

FULL STORY from Yahoo! [pop up]

How do I report stolen or lost checks?

When a consumer has lost or stolen checks, check services companies can help. They help you to protect your good name while also protecting those checks from being used at thousands of financial institutions and businesses.

Here's how it works. When a consumer has lost or stolen checks, you may report this information to a check service such as TeleCheck. TeleCheck enters this information into the company's extensive database. This helps prevent the checks from being used at any TeleCheck financial institution or business which protects the consumer and local businesses. This results in financial institutions not having to process, return or handle large numbers of forgery affidavits. Consumers who call TeleCheck directly are reminded to immediately report the lost or stolen checks to their financial institution and to their local police department.

The TeleCheck toll-free hotline for reporting lost and stolen checks is 1-800-366-2425.

Businesses can contact the National Check Fraud Hotline at (843) 571-2143.

Other check services companies include:

CheckRite (800) 766-2748
ChexSystems (800) 428-9623
CrossCheck (800) 552-1900
SCAN (800) 262-7771
Equifax Check Systems (800) 437-5120
International Check Services (800) 526-5380

Pick Up, Deliver and Destroy [DENVER,CO]

DENVER, April 7 /PRNewswire/ -- The growing epidemic of identity theft and corporate espionage has made the destruction of personal and company information critical to every home and business in America.

DataGuard USA, LLC is responding to this increasing need by introducing Ship 'n' Shred, a one-of-a kind document destruction service allowing businesses and individuals nationwide to package confidential information, ship it and destroy it securely.

FULL STORY from PR NewsWire [pop up]

Analyst Identifies New Ways to Reduce Risk of ID Theft

Businesses and consumers can help protect themselves from identity theft by moving bills, statements and payments online, says James Van Dyke, Founder and Principal Analyst, Javelin Strategy & Research.

SAN FRANCISCO, April 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Billions of dollars -- that's what identity theft costs U.S. businesses and consumers each year. New research clearly demonstrates that online banking, bill payment and statement viewing is one of the best ways businesses and their customers can protect themselves against identity theft. Yet, consumers still believe incorrectly that online financial transactions increase their risk of fraud. This notion is incorrect.
Based on findings from Federal Trade Commission and United States Postal Service reports, Javelin Strategy & Research found that two popular kinds of identity theft, fraudulent opening of new accounts and unauthorized use of existing accounts, are frequently traced to theft of paper documents in residential mailboxes and other locations, including incoming statements, new account solicitations and outgoing checks. But by changing bill presentment policies by offering electronic bills and the ability to suppress paper, banks and billers can significantly reduce fraud due to ID theft.

Research analysis by James Van Dyke, founder and principal analyst of Javelin Strategy & Research, and author of the new report, discovered that businesses can quickly implement the following four steps to help reduce fraud and break down consumer misperceptions:

-- Educate customers - Customers who view their statements online are
more likely to quickly identify potentially fraudulent activities on
an existing account and alert businesses to it, allowing restoration
and resolution to begin. Consumer education on the benefits of viewing
statements and paying bills online can result in savings both from
paper suppression and early fraud detection, plus promote stronger
customer adoption and retention.
-- Listen to customers' needs and act - The new Javelin data suggests
that financial institutions and billers should enable online
statements at a customer's request and offer the option to turn off
traditional paper mail for sensitive documents.
-- Online consumers are the best detection of online identity theft - The
Federal Trade Commission's October 2003 Identity Theft Survey Report
found that 52% of all identity fraud was first discovered by the
victim, often by reviewing traditional paper statements. However, by
the time paper statements arrive to reveal a fraud incident, more time
is likely to have passed, which in turn increases the value of
potential fraud and makes prosecution more difficult for the financial
institution or biller. Online consumers check accounts nearly four
times per month, as compared to one time much later in the month for
those who rely on paper statements.
-- Proactive account alerts and activity summaries - Use of active e-mail
alerts, consolidated summaries of balances and transactional activity
can significantly reduce fraud.

FULL STORY from PRNewswire [pop up]

''Identity Theft'' Tops List of Telecom [PARSIPPANY, N.J]

PARSIPPANY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 31, 2004--A new survey of the country's leading telecommunications carriers released today reveals that "identity theft" is the leading type of fraud afflicting the industry. In response, major carriers are joining to fight the problem in an industry-wide campaign.

The Telecommunications Risk Management Association (TRMA), a trade organization created by the telecommunications industry to reduce risk and bad debt, sponsored the study. Most of the major U.S. telecom carriers are members of TRMA and a majority participated in this recent survey. TRMA periodically conducts member surveys on important industry issues.

FULL STORY from Business Wire [pop up]

How one offshore worker sent tremor through medical system [San Francisco, CA]

Outsourced UCSF notes highlight privacy risk

Lubna Baloch sat in her office in the sprawling Pakistani commercial center of Karachi and gazed at the e-mail she'd composed. She tried to imagine the reaction half a world away when the people at UC San Francisco Medical Center saw what she'd written.

The famous U.S. hospital would have to take her seriously, Baloch knew, when it realized she was prepared to post its confidential patient records on the Internet. That is, unless UCSF helped her get the money she was owed from the mysterious Tom Spires, her link in a long chain of medical transcription subcontractors.

FULL STORY from sfgate.com [pop up]

Phishing for Identity Information

Phishing -- a relatively new obsession among Internet scammers -- employs e-mail lures to "fish" for identity information, such as passwords and financial data. It has become more prevalent, and more dangerous, since EarthLink first warned Web users about theft e-mail scams in July, 2003.

Armed with their "phished" information, scammers commit identity theft and fraud, explains Dan Meyer, director of communications for the Anti-Phishing Working Group and director of product marketing at Tumbleweed, a corporate anti-spam vendor.

FULL STORY from Yahoo!/www.enterprise-security-today.com [pop up]

Stopping data, identity theft via offshoring [New Delhi,India]

Companies depend on information to operate their business processes. Much of this information is stored and processed electronically, and is exchanged with business partners over computer networks, many of which are public.

The security of this information --or data -- may be at risk owing to vulnerabilities, with potentially serious consequences to the business of a company or individual.

FULL STORY from Business Standard [pop up]