Identity Theft General Talk Expanded LCBA

Presentation Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office

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Identity TheftScott A. Turk

Assistant State’s AttorneyCyber/White-Collar Crime Division

Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office

Goals

Learn how to protect yourself from Identity Theft

Learn how to protect your practice from Identity Theft

Learn how to help your clients who have been victims of Identity Theft

Learn how to advise your clients against becoming Identity Theft victims

Technology Seminar December 8, 2015

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You Can’t Prevent ItYou Can Only Lower Your Chances By

Raising Your Awareness

Use Credit Instead Of Debit


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Use Credit Instead Of Debit

Pickpocketing or Purse snatching Still Occurs

Mail Theft On The Rise

Don’t Cave Due To Pressure

Shred Personal Information

Ask Them How They Protect Your Information

Credit Report Is Free


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Order Credit Reports

Three ways to order a credit report•Online at www.ftc.gov; go to Free Annual Credit Report

•Phone the FTC at 877-322-8228•Mail to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281

Credit Bureaus

The three major credit bureaus are

Equifax www.equifax.com Experian www.experian.com Trans Union

www.transunion.com

Only Provide If You Have To

Keep A List To Remind Yourself

Fast Response Can Limit Your Loss


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Identity Thieves Know The Typical Pattern

Malicious Programs

The fraudulent acquisition and use of a person's private identifying information, usually for financial gain

Identity Theft


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My Former Boss

LifeLock

LifeLock


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LifeLock

Identity theft growing, costly to victims

Identity thieves have learned that it's more lucrative to hack into businesses where they can steal card numbers by the thousands or even millions

Various Ways Identity theft Takes Place

swiping credit or debit cards at the cash registers

Identity thieves use computer programs to infiltrate retail systems and begin siphoning off bank-card numbers when purchases are made.

Point-of-sale system hacking is a serious and growing problem


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What Identify Thieves Want

User names, passwords and PIN numbers

Social Security numbers

Bank and credit account numbers

Driver's license and passport numbers

Insurance identification numbers

Phishing Scams

process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.

Amazon Scam

LOOK FOR THE CLUES!!!!


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Credit Card Scams

eBay Scams

Preventing Financial Crimes

If someone makes an offer that seems too good to be true, assume that it is too

good to be true!


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Lottery Winner Scam

LOOK FOR NEWLY INVENTED ENGLISH WORDS!

Corporate &Banking FraudHacking

Corporate &Banking FraudHacking

BlackPOSSoftware


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Local Restaurants

Identity Theft GrowingLaw Enforcement Response

Police don't want to be bothered

It's a difficult crime to investigate, and the feeling is, “Oh, we're never going to catch these guys”

Gypsy Scams

Knock on your door, say they were driving by and noticed that your driveway or roof needs work

One person will knock on the door and distract the homeowner

While at the front door, they may ask for more money, water —something inside the residence — or distract the victim to come outside

Once the victim is distracted, co-offenders will go into the residence and search for valuables or currency


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Discovering the Theft Eventually the exploitation is discovered when

the victim

• Receives a bank statement with unknown transactions

• Finds newly created credit card accounts• Tries to apply for a loan and is denied• Is arrested for a crime committed by the thief when

using the stolen identity

What Can You Do?

Awareness

Education

Common Sense

Vigilance

Identity Theft Prevention suggestions

Beware of seemingly innocent personal facts that a thief could use to steal your identity

For example, never list your full birthdate on Facebook or any other social-networking websites


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Watch for charges for less than a dollar or two from unfamiliar companies or individuals.

Thieves often first test to check that the accounts haven't been canceled by aware customers by sending a small charge through

If the first charge succeeds, they'll make a much larger charge or purchase

In addition, many of the fraud alerts you can set on your accounts aren't triggered by small dollar amounts


If an ATM or store terminal looks funny, don't use it

Make sure there is no device attached to any ATM card slot you use.

If it looks different when you swipe your card, or has an extra piece of plastic sticking out from the card slot, it may be a skimmer, an electronic device that captures your credit card information when you swipe it




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Be alert to strangers hovering around whenever you use a credit card at an

ATM or phone, and avoid public wireless Internet connections


Identity thieves are sneaky; you need to be sneaky, too

Sign your credit card with a Sharpie so your signature can't be erased and

written over

Leave "Please Activate" sticker on


Victim had all, but 1 credit card stolen

The card that was spared still had the "Please Activate" sticker on it

Victim had activated the card, but forgot to remove the sticker

The thieves must have known that you have to activate a new card from the phone number listed with the credit card company, so they didn't bother with it

Since then victim left the sticker on the cards When a thief struck a second time, victim’s stickered cards were again left untouched


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Pay attention at the checkout line

If a salesperson takes your card and turns away or takes too long, they may be scanning your card into a handheld skimming terminal

They can take a picture of the front and back of your card with a cell phone or merely swap out cards

Look at your card when they hand it back and make sure it's yours, and not another card that looks like yours

You may not notice they swapped your card for days


If a salesperson takes your card and turns away or takes too long, they may be scanning your card into a handheld skimming terminal

They can take a picture of the front and back of your card with a cell phone or merely swap out cards

Look at your card when they hand it back and make sure it's yours, and not another card that looks like yours

You may not notice they swapped your card for days


Did the cashier ask if you wanted cash back?

Did you say no?

Did the cashier charge you for cash back anyhow? Are you sure? Did you look at your receipt while still at the store?


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Go paperless in as many ways as possible

Cut back on the mail you receive from banks and financial institutions by discontinuing paper bills and statements

Access your financial statements at the issuer's website instead

How do you send out mail with your or your client’s information?

Identity theft insurance can pay off, but you need to read the fine print

Several companies offer identity theft insurance, which covers the money you shell out to repair your identity

Includes money spent on phone calls, making copies of documents and mailing them, hiring an attorney, and in some cases, lost wages

However, some insurance -- which costs about $50 a year -- does not reimburse you for funds you lost

Medical Identity Theft

Defined as the theft or unauthorized use of a person's personal information to obtain unauthorized medical goods

and services


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Most people know that if their wallets are stolen, they need to call their credit card issuers and cancel their cards and their driver's licenses and debit cards


It might never occur to them to call their health insurance providers to report the theft of their health insurance identification cards


A thief can also steal your medical identity to run up tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills. Once your insurance company pays its portion, the balance will be charged to you


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Medical Identity Theft Impact

While medical identity theft is similar to financial identity theft, it's far more difficult to resolve

Identity theft is often discovered early on the financial side because credit card issuers have sophisticated systems for detecting fraudulent use of credit cards

Plus, nearly all financial institutions use one or more of the three credit reporting agencies

Medical Identity Theft Impact

There's not a centralized repository for medical records. To be able to have something like that could potentially reduce the risk of becoming a victim or reduce the recovery time

The best chance for early detection of medical identity theft

Do what hardly anyone does -- actually read the Explanation of Benefits, or EOB, statement that your insurance provider sends you after you've received covered treatment


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Look for the name of the provider, the date of service, and the service provided. Sometimes, the fraud is obvious


If it says Dr. John Smith performed surgery on you on Nov. 14 and you were on a Caribbean cruise that week, you know you're a victim


Look at your credit report. Most medical identity theft first shows up when the claim makes the transition to the billing department. If you have an unpaid medical bill on your credit report, that's a major clue that you're a victim


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What to do if you're a victim

First things first: Call the police and report it. You're a victim of fraud

What to do if you're a victim

Call your insurance company and ask for the fraud department. They'll shut down your health insurance account, issue you a new card, and help you work through the process of dealing with any bill collectors and correcting the erroneous information that's now on file about you

Medicare Identity Theft


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Medicare Identity Theft

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which oversees the medical benefits programs, have studied a number of alternatives, including using a Medicare-specific ID number or just having the last four digits of the SSN on the card

Other departments have taken measures to protect personal information

The Pentagon finished replacing nearly 10 million military ID cards, translating the SSN into a bar code that made it more difficult to read

In 2004, the Veterans Affairs Department completed a similar program to replace 8 million cards

Identity theft sample letters

CreditCards.com

has assembled sample letters and a step-by-step guide to help identity theft

victims clear their names and protect their credit



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CreditCards.com

If your debit or ATM cards have been compromised, call your bank and ask them to cancel the existing cards and issue you new ones

If you have automatic payments set up with any merchants, notify them of your new card numbers

If you do not report the fraud for debit cards quickly, you may be held liable for the loss

Fill out the FTC's Identity Theft Affidavit form if a new account was opened in your name. This form is accepted by some businesses and creditors as a means to ensure you do not become responsible for debts you did not create

File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission

The commission will not investigate your case but will pass along your information to law enforcement officials and government agencies nationwide; this helps them observe criminal patterns and fight identity theft


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Identity Theft Victim’s Complaint & Affidavit


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CreditCards.comUse the checklist to guide you through those

processes


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Other Identity Theft Scams

• Grandparent Scam

• Nigerian Prince

• IRS

Other Identity Theft Scams

• Tech support scam

Other Identity Theft Scams – Lottery


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Other Protection Methods

• Ask for a call-back number

• Go to actual website or call

• Don’t call phone number

• Google the phone number

Things Not To Do

One Last Video


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Questions?

Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office

18 N. County, Waukegan, IL

847-377-3000

ASA Scott Turk


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Documents

Identity Theft General Talk Expanded LCBA