Have you heard in the news about one of the largest identity theft cases in the U.S that was cracked yesterday?
The Federal authorities are charging 11 people in the theft of more than 40 million credit and debit card account numbers from computer systems at major retailers. It had been a three year investigation and the total damages may never be known. They are saying it’s the biggest and the most complex cases ever charged in the country. The hacking technique they used was “wardriving”, cruising through different the streets with a laptop, looking for accessible wireless Internet signals. Once they located a vulnerable network, they installed so-called “sniffer programs” that captured credit and debit card numbers as they moved through a retailer’s processing networks. The 11 people charged come from all over the world: China, Ukraine, Estonia, Belarus and the U.S.. The ringleader, if convicted, could face a lifetime in prison.
Credit cards are constantly being stolen in so many different ways. Just another reason to get rid of those things! If you can’t, you should really check on some identity fraud prevention. I’m sure after hearing about the story, that business is going to grow. To be honest with you, I never thought twice about credit card or identity theft protection. I just thought that people were being paranoid. I shop online and purchase items without really thinking about theft. Friends would talk and say they don’t like putting their credit card numbers in the system. Now, we not only have to watch our credit cards but our wireless computer systems too.
Experian has a company,freecreditreport.com that has identity theft experts. They say you can even get a free identity check. You might want to take a look at it.
