ME&MEE

As if being arrested isn’t bad enough. In an odd turn of events, a handful of those behind bars at Baltimore’s Central Booking found themselves to be victims of a crime. Two correction officers were arrested for stealing the identities of multiple detainees held at the booking site, using credit cards to run up charges at fast food joints and stores. Talk about a happy meal. And in an unusual case of stolen identity, a Virginia woman, unable to qualify for a loan on her own, pleads guilty to using a man’s lost wallet to purchase a $400,000 house.

This story is too good to pass up. The CEO of LifeLock was so confident that his product could protect people’s Social Security numbers from being compromised that he actually posted his own SS number on the LifeLock web site. Guess what happened? He became a victim of identity theft. In other news, check out this blog posting from Wired about genetic identity theft and DNA-crime evidence. Finally, there seems to be minimal fallout from an identity thief pretending to be a nurse in Vacaville, Calif.

Talk about your BAD ME experiences. Just imagine — you waited in line for your iPhone, shelled out your $500, synched all your contacts . . . and now we find out all that precious, easily accessible data is ripe for ID theft. That’s the news today from the professional hackers at Independent Security Evaluators, who are now recommending that Apple offer a security patch for the problem.

And some words of caution today from the BBC to be careful what personal information you publish on the Web — especially on sites like MySpace and Facebook, where ID thieves are finding goldmines of personal details like birthdays, locations and occupations of the folks who frequent them. All that information makes the ID thieves’ jobs easier, so the Beeb is recommending exercising discretion in what you decide to make public.

It’s not often that we reference an old Public Enemy song, but it seems appropriate today. You may recall that the song preaches about avoiding the media hype fueled by the government and large institutions. According to Roger Grimes of InfoWorld, the GAO’s report about identity theft not being a problem could be hype. In other news, here are some tips to protect your children from becoming identity theft victims. Finally, we have more commentary on the value of full disclosure when a data breach occurs.

We try not to get too political at ME&ME, but we can’t help but share more good news about U.S. states enacting tough identity theft laws. The Massachusetts State Senate is poised to pass a bill that protects consumers. In technology news, Oracle is getting into the fraud protection game with the acquisition of Bharosa. Also, InfoUSA just announced the findings of a survey on identity theft – its still a major consumer concern.

As we have always said, we applaud any national or state legislation that protects consumers from identity theft. The House Ways and Means Committee is expected to approve new rules with how the government and corporations use social security numbers. In other political news, Veterans Affairs chief Jim Nicholson resigned today. Remember the massive data breach that occurred last summer under his watch? Finally, the National Consumer Council in the U.K. is urging companies to tell customers when there’s a data breach.

Our identity theft tip of the day is to watch out for shady car dealerships. Recently a car dealership in Orange County, Calif. was raided as part of an identity theft probe. More than 350 cardboard boxes packed with lease documents and loan applications were confiscated. In other news, a stolen lap top computer from the state of Ohio is causing quite a stir. When will we all move to a thin-client technology – where all important data is stored in one secure (and remote) location? Any thoughts from ME&ME readers on this?

While the nation’s law makers duel over immigration reform, and more companies now check backgrounds of workers, illegal immigrants are forced to use false social security numbers to maintain their working status in the U.S. The Los Angeles Times just did an interesting story where an LA cop on the identity theft beat became a victim – the culprit was an illegal immigrant working in a meat packing plant. In other news, the bad guys are targeting the families of soldiers. That’s pretty low.

A report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), said only four of the 24 largest data breaches between January 2000 and June 2005 appear to have resulted in identity fraud. And, the agency recommends that making companies report data breaches to consumers may result in increased cost without benefit. Thoughts, anyone? And, according to other sources, ID theft is on the decline. Well, except for the 20-somethings. They are at the highest risk level. So, for you youn’uns..stay alert.