ID Theft Question I received

From time to time, I will post questions I receive regarding Identity THeft, inside of this space.

Here's one I received recently.

"Hi - I'm currently in a media studies course in high school and am working on a vodeo for my seminar in a few days. I'm looking for some short clips about identity theft, and the videos on this site seem perfect - do you think you could send me/link me to a standard video formatted copy of your most recent clip? Any format is fine apart from .fla or .swf (Flash files). I'd really appreciate it. :)"

If anyone else is interested in receiving a .AVI of the IdentityTheftSecrets video(s), please let me know via email or by leaving your email address here.

News for today

Hi all...

Interesting Identity theft articles I read today...

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--identitytheft0118jan18,0,5090177.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork (Looks like law enforcement is finally catching up with a few of the people from ShadowCrew - still have a long ways to go though.)

Identity theft everywhere you look in Burnett County (Wisconsin)
"Along with checking receipts, Wilhelm suggested people look at their credit reports once a year and look at all the activity. Anything that seems out of place, they should contact their creditors or banks immediately to dispute something."

This is a great piece of advice, except for one problem... Let's say that I check my report today. My Identity is stolen one month from now, and someone applies for four lines of credit in my name, and two of them are approved. That thief then runs up charges on "my" cards, and these are cards which I don't even know I have until 6 months later, when the collection agency sends me a notice of delinquency.

Clearly, there's some flawed logic in the idea that checking your credit report once/year will protect you from Identity Theft.

New Super Sleuths Video

Secret Greetings to all the SuperSleuths!

In case you haven't seen it yet, I posted a new video today over at http://www.identitytheftsecrets.com/videos/paypal-phishing-1-16-06.html.

It's a new take on the same old PayPal Phishing Scam... Thought you might find it interesting!