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I recently realized that one of the VERY best things I did in 2006 was set up Roboform on my computer.

When I bought the program, I didn't get a discount, so I spent $30 on this nifty little piece of computer code.

It's a great program, and would have been worth whatever I paid for it (I'm exaggerating a bit, but I think having Roboform has been worth thousands of dollars to me). Roboform not only works, and does exactly what it says it will do, but it's also saved me time (by saving my time typing), helped my memory (by managing my passwords), and has made my life more organized, not to discount the piece of mind the program provides from a security standpoint.

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I'll be adding more code to this page shortly, so that you can listen to the audio of my interview with Roboform. However, I've put in code so that you can listen to the interview by clicking below.

Download my interview with Roboform's Promotional Team
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Now it may seem like I'm selling you pretty hard on the idea of this, but frankly, I write about this on Identity Theft Secrets because having a program like this really does help with prevention of keylogging and phishing problems.

Now, I'm very careful about what I do with my computer, so it's not likely that there's a keylogging program on any machine I use. But in case there ever were, I would have reasonably strong security. In addition to all the obvious precautions like a firewall and secured wireless, I add another layer of safety because I've already got all my major passwords saved in Roboform. This means that even though I click on the name of a web site to log in somewhere inside of Roboform, my fingers never actually type anything into my keyboard (once my information's already being managed by Roboform), which makes a keylogger basically useless.

I can use complex passwords and codes, and not have to remember them, because Roboform is remembering them for me.

Overall, I recommend you take a look. It's totally worth the $30 you'll spend to have it.

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Download the .MP3 of this audio here

We usually don't delve into too much of the bizarre on Identity Theft Secrets, but I read about this in the Washington Post and really found it curious.

Tiffany Gwen Weaver, of Reisterstown, Maryland, will possibly spend up to 10 years in prison, after she was charged with 7 different counts when she supposedly used Amanda Sprehn's Identity.

Did she steal the identity of a Sprehn, a Maryland attorney:

- for financial gain?
- to have a cancer test?
- maybe just to run up a few phone bills?

No. Tiffany Weaver used the identity of Amanda Sprehn (of the Annapolis law firm Hyatt, Peters & Weber), so that she could get into a prison and enjoy her time with one of the inmates there.

Weaver had a Maryland State Bar Association Security Identification Pass with photo, identifying her as Amanda Sprehn, but she got caught when the prison contacted Sprehn's (the real one) employer to say that she was no longer allowed in the jail.

(A little more background information)

"Annapolis attorney Amanda Sprehn, the real Amanda Sprehn, told The Baltimore Examiner she was on leave when her firm received a letter banning her from the jail.

"I was out on maternity leave," she said. "They informed me they received a letter saying I had been caught having sex with an inmate which was a real laugh."

"I haven't a clue how she got onto my identity," Sprehn said, adding that she has never represented Weaver. "I certainly feel like a victim. My reputation is at stake. There were already rumors circulating about me in Annapolis. My colleagues had to squash the rumors."

Prison investigators met with Sprehn's firm, and realized the business card and security pass were fakes. Further investigation led them to Weaver, authorities said."

Now, Weaver will spend as many as 10 years of her life in jail, because from the alleged incident, she has charges against her which include forgery, fraud, and the false use of government identification.

I hope that she really enjoyed her time "Just visiting", because she has found a way to be a more permanent resident.

Stealing someone's identity for one quick romp (which was apparently cut short by those monitoring the inmates) in exchange for 10 years of your life?

That's just bizarre.

Here's a question that Identity Theft Secrets received recently.

"I'm looking for a general template letter to send to different people and agencies to report being a victim of identity theft. Someone stole my Social Security # and name from a lost wallet and has been working in various areas/states using my information, reporting that I'm there. The Social Security Administration does nothing and the IRS is keeping refunds due saying that the income (I never received) was not reported to the IRS. Need help to get a generic letter to send to credit reporting agencies, IRS, police dept, etc. This was reported in the past but NO ONE even acknowledged receipt. Maybe a handwritten note was not taken seriously. This is for my son who does not have a computer and I offered to try to help, but I am not that knowledgeable with computers so said I would look for assistance. Thank You."

First of all, my apologies to your son. Because the crook(s) who did (are doing) this will likely never apologize on their own (nor will they be made to apologize because they probably won't be caught), someone owes your son an apology. So, I'm sorry that this has happened to him.

Second, you are not alone. Unfortunately for your son, he is one of a great many people who are experiencing this kind of frustration, annoyance, and interruption of life.

Third, if you are looking to be able to report Identity Theft yourself, and you are looking for the ultimate resource on Identity Theft letters, there is simply no better place for you to be looking than at the Identity Theft Resource Center's form letters page(s).

Finally, you can report this identity theft yourself, but if you're looking for my opinion, I really recommend you look into a legal plan, and an Identity Theft plan, going foward. You say that your letters weren't responded to, but you'd be amazed that the response a letter from an attorney can sometimes get.

Whatever you decide to do, do not ignore the problem, thinking it will go away. It's very likely that it won't. You must report Identity Theft and work to get it resolved, whether that's through template letters from the ITRC, or by having an attorney and licensed investigator go to work on your behalf.

I will be talking more about this later, but companies, and business owners, need to be aware that they can held liable for compliance with laws that they may not even know exist.

This is something most business owners know (and some fear), but what you, as a business owner, may not know, is that you are required to be compliant with laws regarding your use, handling, and disposal of customer and employee information.

As this article snippet from Hometown News (kbtv4.tv) shows, an attorney general, or even individuals, can come after you for a variety of things if you don't handle customer and employee information properly.

$50,000 per violation may not sound like much, but with a law that is open to interpretation, $50,000 per violation could mean $50,000 per piece of information that was deemed to have been handled inappropriately. The fines per lost record are $500 (but subject to interpretation), this means that even 10 pieces of paper in a dumpster for 10 different individuals could cost this company $500,000 in fines.

A Liberty CVS Pharmacy that is accused of throwing customer records and sensitive prescription information into a dumspter has the company in hot water with the state attorney general. Gregory Abbott cited the company Tuesday after authorities discovered the records that included hundreds of customers credit and debit account numbers - complete with expiration dates.

CVS is accused of violating the 2005 Identity Theft Enforcement and Protection Act, which requires businesses to protect and properly dispose of documents that include clients` sensitive personal information. Under the law, the OAG has the authority to seek penalties of up to $50,000 per violation.

The office says investigators are now looking to see if any of the exposed data was used illegally.

Source: http://wwwkbtv4.tv/news/default.asp?mode=shownews&id=14386

Additional Note: Tom Fragala made an interesting post about this too called "Shouldn't the Victims be compensated?"

This is the second installment in what is a brilliant piece of journalism - To Catch an Identity Thief.

You can also see the first half of "To Catch an Identity Thief".

In the end, there are a few things you should know.

#1 - even if you follow all of the tips offered to protect your identity, it's still easy to steal. There are some incredibly gifted people in the world who are using their gifts to scam people.

#2 - There are many places in the world where your information is easily accessed.

#2 - Law enforcement and undercover operations often are the ones operating the chat boards that Dateline is talking about in these videos. Law enforcement operates these boards, frequently in an attempt to keep things under control in the online world of identity theft and the selling of your information. Unfortunately, this allows criminals to congregate and work together more easily, and often actually enables crime to occur. It's the nature of the beast, and is arguably the best way for law enforcement to try and take some of these people down. In the process though, there is what is known as collateral damage - innocent people who are victims in order set up enough evidence to arrest these criminals. There are those who argue that these message boards operated by law enforcement should be forced offline by public pressure. What do you think?

#3 - There are many places in the world that might actually not be all that against the theft of American dollars from Americans, so long as those dollars end up being spent in their country, prosecuting the people who commit these crimes isn't necessarily high on their priority lists.

Other notes added on:
8.6.2007

Here's the fake obituary announcement that is relevant to Ericka's comments below.

In this video, MSNBC does a great job detaining some of the problems with Smart Cards.

(VIDEO COMING SOON)

It's likely that you have seen a smart card, either using a smart card yourself or via watching someone else use one.

Basically the idea is that your information is held on a card which is more convenient to use (because you can simply wave it in front of a card reader), and harder to duplicate (because it has some very involved circuitry inside of it), as compared with magnetic stripe cards which are very easy to create duplicates from.

Watch the video though to see the risks associated with smart card technology.

Wikipedia defines smart cards the following way:

A smart card, chip card, or integrated circuit(s) card (ICC), is defined as any pocket-sized card with embedded integrated circuits which can process information. This implies that it can receive input which is processed - by way of the ICC applications - and delivered as an output. There are two broad categories of ICCs. Memory cards contain only non-volatile memory storage components, and perhaps some specific security logic. Microprocessor cards contain volatile memory and microprocessor components. The card is made of plastic, generally PVC, but sometimes ABS. The card may embed a hologram to avoid counterfeiting.

The jury is still out on this one for me.

Is it more secure to have a card that is harder to duplicate but is easier to get the information from, or is it better to have a traditional magnetic stripe card which is very easy to duplicate, but doesn't contain any way of wirelessly transmitting your information?

Any thoughts welcomed.

To catch an identity thief is a dateline NBC special that ran about a week ago. Dateline went out using Dan Clements' (from Card Cops) help, the help of a few credit card companies, and the use of their programmers, to create an entire world in order to ensnare an identity thief.

What they show in these videos is a lot of what we show you here on IdentityTheftSecrets.com, so it's good that they're contributing to educating people. We've taked a lot on IdentityTheftSecrets about phishing and we've even shown you Cardersmarket.com, where people's information is actually being bought and sold, still to this day.

What's so amazing and scary about this series of videos (that Dateline did such an excellent job with) is that these people are being duped into thinking that what they're doing is actually a good thing. They believe that they actually have some sort of business, and that the person they're working with is actually a real legitimate person.

In fact, what's actually happening is that they're committing a crime. They don't even know that they're committing a crime, but when it comes down to it they could be charged for being an accessory. Ignorance of laws is never a defense.

The other thing that could happen to these people who have been duped. Is that they can actually be sued by the people whose credit card numbers were used to purchase this merchandise. The credit card companies could also sue these people. Even though they aren't the ones using the credit card. They are the ones accepting the merchandise.

One of the things that is really sad about an identity thief preying on this sort of a person. Is it that what they're preying on is these people's insecurities about themselves.

You'll see here in these videos that these are people who are looking for a husband or a wife, or that they are lacking something in their current relationships. And what this identity thief (or identity Theft Ring) is providing, in addition to a source of income, is a boost to these people's egos. The thief is also providing for these people a sense of companionship that these individuals have likely not had in their lives, (at least from the looks of things not recently in their lives).

It is important to remember that anyone can be taken by one of these thieves. Anyone can fall victim to one of these scams.

But often, the people who get into it the deepest, are those who are pulled in using their emotional insecurities about themselves.

And that's what's really sad.

What's also really sad is that the overseas identity thief is free to continue this crime with another ignorant person, at another time, in a different place.

While the intention of this show is good, what they are doing is attacking effects, rather then the root of the problem.

The root is the fact that social security numbers are simply too valuable.

The only thing that keeps this guy out of jail is that he's agreed to help Dateline.