Wendwossen Desalegn’s Post

🚨 Guard Yourself Against Identity Theft: A Growing Menace! 🚨 Identity theft, once a term we rarely heard, is now more rampant than ever. Criminals are stealthily snatching our identities for financial gain, or worse, involving them in organized crime. JohnLowe of https://hubs.ly/Q02jLzfl0 delves into this concerning trend. 🌐 In the era of advanced technology, the internet is a double-edged sword. While it connects us globally, it also exposes us to various scams. Identity theft is no exception, with online and social media playing a significant role. Yet, the more we know, the better we can protect ourselves. 🔍 Watch out for these prevalent scams in Ireland: 1️⃣ Phishing: Beware of deceptive emails posing as reputable businesses. Don't trust suspicious links; they may download harmful software. 2️⃣ Card Fraud: Guard against skimming at ATMs by using only trusted machines. 3️⃣ Invoice Redirection Fraud: Verify alternate payment details directly with suppliers to avoid falling victim. 4️⃣ CEO Fraud: Confirm internal email addresses and use common sense before making urgent payments. 5️⃣ Phone Fraud: Never disclose passwords or account numbers over the phone, even if the caller claims to be from a bank or service provider. 6️⃣ Advance Fee Fraud: Be cautious and skeptical; if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. 7️⃣ Romance Fraud: Be mindful of online relationships, and never send money to someone you haven't met in person. 💡 Stay vigilant! Even seemingly legitimate entities aren't immune, as evidenced by 171 suspected fraud cases in public service card registrations. Let's educate ourselves, share this information, and collectively build a safer online environment. 🛡️💼 #IdentityTheft #FraudPrevention #CyberSecurity #StaySafeOnline #FinancialSecurity #ScamAwareness #OnlineSafety #ProtectYourIdentity

🚨 Guard Yourself Against Identity Theft: A Growing Menace! 🚨 Identity theft, once a term we rarely heard, is now more rampant than ever. Criminals are stealthily snatching our identities for financial gain, or worse, involving them in organized crime. JohnLowe of https://hubs.ly/Q02jLrzD0 delves into this concerning trend. 🌐 In the era of advanced technology, the internet is a double-edged sword. While it connects us globally, it also exposes us to various scams. Identity theft is no exception, with online and social media playing a significant role. Yet, the more we know, the better we can protect ourselves. 🔍 Watch out for these prevalent scams in Ireland: 1️⃣ Phishing: Beware of deceptive emails posing as reputable businesses. Don't trust suspicious links; they may download harmful software. 2️⃣ Card Fraud: Guard against skimming at ATMs by using only trusted machines. 3️⃣ Invoice Redirection Fraud: Verify alternate payment details directly with suppliers to avoid falling victim. 4️⃣ CEO Fraud: Confirm internal email addresses and use common sense before making urgent payments. 5️⃣ Phone Fraud: Never disclose passwords or account numbers over the phone, even if the caller claims to be from a bank or service provider. 6️⃣ Advance Fee Fraud: Be cautious and skeptical; if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. 7️⃣ Romance Fraud: Be mindful of online relationships, and never send money to someone you haven't met in person. 💡 Stay vigilant! Even seemingly legitimate entities aren't immune, as evidenced by 171 suspected fraud cases in public service card registrations. Let's educate ourselves, share this information, and collectively build a safer online environment. 🛡️💼 #IdentityTheft #FraudPrevention #CyberSecurity #StaySafeOnline #FinancialSecurity #ScamAwareness #OnlineSafety #ProtectYourIdentity

In a new trend, fraudsters are applying for new accounts using the victim's actual contact information. Yes, you heard me right. Not an email one letter off, or a spoofed phone, the actual contact info of the victim. We call it “clean name identity fraud.” It relies on the victim ignoring the email from the bank about the new account opened in their name. Then, shortly, the fraudster calls into the call center knowing the PII step-up answers (I am shocked KBA is still a thing), and, they now control the account. But wait. Why wouldn’t the victim call the bank when they get alerted about the new account they didn’t open? 1️⃣ 90% of the victims would. On the other hand, AI allows fraudsters to do this at scale and that makes the financial gain from the remaining 10% more than worth it. The economics would have been very different before AI support. 2️⃣ Unsuspecting victims, even up to speed on current fraud trends, mistake the banks’ emails for phishing attempts and therefore don’t call. Thinking they are doing the right thing by ignoring the email. What can you do if you are hit by clean name identity fraud? 1️⃣ Distinguish clean name identity fraud from regular account takeover. Having a proper understanding of the problem is key to solving it. 2️⃣ Deploy holistic, cutting-edge solutions, not point solutions that only verify PII. Even if a fraudster knows the victim’s full PII, it is difficult to mimic behavior: the number of transactions a user would normally make in a week, their phone OS version, their ISP, their typing speed, and many more. 3️⃣ Utilize cutting-edge AI/ML techniques to effectively model 360-view of identities and their expected behaviors, so you can measure nuanced deviations from them.

A number of fraudulent text messages, carefully designed to mimic legitimate card fraud alerts, have recently been reported in the area. These deceptive messages are designed to trick individuals into revealing sensitive card and personal information. Union State Bank is urging its customers to exercise caution to protect themselves from falling prey to these scams. According to Mike McWhirt, Union State Bank’s Chief Risk Officer, these types of scams, commonly referred to as smishing, are unfortunately on the rise. The term "smishing" is derived from combining "SMS" (Short Message Service) with "phishing," indicating the deceptive practice of using text messages to trick individuals into divulging personal information. The popularity of smishing is attributed to its effectiveness and the widespread use of texting in today's society. “Use caution before responding to a text message from a number you don’t recognize. If you receive a text from an unknown number, look it over carefully and look for red flags before responding. Red flags could include misspellings, grammatical errors, missing or inaccurate information, or other information requesting urgent attention or response,” cautioned McWhirt. Click the link to read the full article.

Protecting your physical documents and assets is just as much a part of information security and ensuring safety in the workplace as digital vigilance against phishing scams and malware. This article describes one part of physically protecting your information; shredding your documents. Here are my takeaways: 🔷 While seemingly unimportant, shredding your documents is an important step in protecting your identity. In 2017, there were 16.7 million victims of identify fraud, which is a record high number that exceeded the record set the year before. The problem isn't going anywhere. 🔷 Victims of identity fraud will spend 6 months and 200 hours of work just recovering from identity theft. 🔷 You should be shredding all documents with your personal information on it, which includes anything with your full name and address, home or work telephone numbers, and/or driver's license number. Some others you may not have considered are tax returns (over three years old), bank statements, canceled or voided checks, pay stubs, and convenience checks. #letsbecarefuloutthere #flcc270 https://lnkd.in/gEaASd_5

FBCS, Inc. suffered a data breach in late February, losing sensitive data belonging to almost two million people. "During these two weeks, the unnamed threat actors harvested sensitive information on almost two million people (1,955,385), including full names, social security numbers (SSN), birth dates, account information, driver’s license numbers, and ID card numbers. All affected individuals are U.S. citizens." "FBCS said it will do the usual - analyze the incident, tighten up on security, offer identity protection and credit monitoring to affected individual" As long as this is the USUAL response no risk assessment analysis will ever show a value to being proactive in #security and #privacy. "Additionally, FBCS is providing impacted individuals with guidance on how to better protect against identity theft and fraud, including advising individuals to report any suspected incidents of identity theft or fraud to their credit card company and/or bank.” #cybercrime #ethics #responsibility #accountability https://lnkd.in/gV2wJxMA

Forget Stolen Credit Cards, There's a New Kind of Fraud on the Rise (and It's Creepy) Remember the days when identity theft meant someone grabbing your wallet and maxing out your credit cards? Yeah, those were quaint. Today's fraudsters are a whole new breed, and they're cooking up something scary called SYNTHETIC IDENTITY FRAUD. Synthetic identity fraud combines real stolen information (think Social Security numbers) with made-up details to create entirely new identities. It's like building a fake person with a (mostly) clean credit history, perfect for opening bank accounts, getting loans, and disappearing into the earth with your hard-earned cash. Why should you care? Because it's not just some shadowy hacker problem anymore. This fraud is becoming alarmingly common, targeting businesses and professionals like you and me. Think about it: you work hard to build a good reputation, and then some scammer with a cobbled-together identity comes along and trashes it. Not cool. The Scariest Part? They're Getting Good. These fraudsters are using sophisticated tools and exploiting data breaches to create increasingly believable fake identities. Traditional security measures are starting to look like a flimsy screen door against a battering ram. So, what can we do? Knowledge is power, my friend. Businesses need to be aware of the latest synthetic identity fraud tactics and invest in robust security systems. But it doesn't stop there. We all need to be vigilant. Train your employees, stay informed about the latest scams, and protect your personal information like it's gold. Here's the good news: By staying ahead of the curve, we can make it a lot harder for these fraudsters to succeed. Let's not let them win. It's time to fight back with smarter security and a whole lot of awareness. It's going to be a productive week!

Impersonation Fraud is hitting hard. "The victims in this case weren't tricked into clicking on something online or giving out their bank passwords. They just woke up one day to see money missing from their accounts." The sad part is $600,000 was stollen before the fraudsters were stopped. Data breaches are happening daily, where our data is being stollen from the companies we do business with. That data goes on the dark web. The average American can find their PII data for sale on 7 different Dark Web sites. The fraudsters buy that accurate data to create very real looking fake documents such as Drivers Licenses, Social Security Cards, etc. to impersonate you, and simply takeover your accounts. Unfortunately consumers can't do anything about their data for sale on the dark web and bad people trying to do bad things. It is up to businesses to protect customers by putting tools(Intellicheck) in place to accurately validate identities so the fraudsters can't ruin more lives. https://lnkd.in/gbGN9r7D

Identity Fraud Protection New rules will make critical updates to help protect the privacy of customers' financial data. They require companies to notify clients within 30 days of detecting a data breach and to ensure they have a program to detect and respond to hackers. Millions of Americans fall victim to identity fraud and identity theft every year. Our most sensitive personal identifiable information (PII) as well as our personal health information (PHI) have been lost through countless data breaches impacting credit bureaus, hospitals, insurance companies, banks, professional firms, technology firms, schools and others. Experts agree, it's a matter of when and not if identity fraud will happen. The recent Change Healthcare, AT&T and Ascension data breaches underscore the need for everyone to protect their family. Individual Protection $10.00 per Month Comprehensive Identity Fraud Protection includes 9 advanced security systems, 12 different forms of monitoring and 3 full-service restoration solutions. Full Family Protection $25.00 per Month Complete Family protection with 14 security systems, 13 forms of monitoring and 3 full-service restoration solutions, for 5 Adults and all minor household children. Powered By The Most Advanced Identity Security, Monitoring, & Recovery