LifeLock Blog

Having to move to a nursing home, or having to place a loved one in a nursing home, is surely one of the hardest things anyone can go through. No matter how well we research, how clean the place seems, or how nice the staff seems to be, it’s the horror stories we’ve all heard that keep us awake at night.

I hate to do it, but here’s another of those horror stories. Tamara Smith, a certified nursing assistant who worked in several Savannah, GA area nursing homes, has been charged with stealing the identities of more than 40 of the nursing home residents that she was supposed to be caring for.

She used that information to open credit card accounts, and to buy computers and cell phones.

Smith’s victims were as young as 60 and as old as 100. Along with the 43 identity theft charges against her, Smith will also receive an elder abuse charge for each victim over 65. More than half of her victims are, or were, residents at Tara Nursing Home in Thunderbolt, GA.

Irene Pennington, Thunderbolt police chief said they’re still investigating the identity thefts, and expect to discover more victims. She also said they expect to arrest others suspected of being involved in the crimes.

LifeLock provides identity theft protection to nearly 1.5 million people in the United States. Visit LifeLock.com to learn more about their innovative and comprehensive services. Enroll using the LifeLock promotional code Defense to receive a huge discount.

As you begin preparations for tax season you might not be feeling a lot of government love. In fact, with the economy the way it is right now, you might be feeling downright hostile. And as you review your household budget yet again for one more way to cut back on expenses, you might be dripping tears onto your keyboard.

Here’s some (sort of) good news from the Identity Theft Resource Center that might help you lighten up a little: Government agencies were responsible for only 16.7% of all data breaches in 2008.

And now the bad news (because when the subject is data breaches, there’s always going to be some bad news): There were 656 data breaches last year, representing a 47% increase in the number of data breaches that occurred in 2007.

Local, state and federal governments were to blame for a total of 110 information leaks last year. The causes for those data losses break down as follows:

• 28 resulted from the improper protection of information while traveling over the government network.
• 22 were attributed to insider theft.
• 20 occurred when employees accidentally exposed citizens’ information.
• 15 have been chalked up to subcontractors with sloppy systems security.
• 5 were the product of hackers.

Which federal agency wins the prize for the biggest bungling of data protection? The U.S. Army wins this dubious distinction for their inadvertent Internet posting of promotion selection lists that contained the names and Social Security numbers of more than 50,000 officers.

So, what does all this tell us? While you’re trimming your budget leave an extra $9 a month for Life Lock protection services. Enroll using the LifeLock discount code Defense for the lowest available price.

Because I write so much about identity theft I read a lot about it, too. And what I’m seeing lately is a lot of medical identity theft.

The story I saw today came from the Baltimore Sun: Christel Ebony Norwood stole the names, birth dates and Social Security numbers of at least 49 people from two medical facilities where she worked. She use it to get a fraudulent driver’s license and change the mailing address of her victims so she got their mail and they didn’t see the bills she was running up in their names. Among her purchases was a 2002 Mercedes-Benz she financed for $35,560.

Last week the big medical identity theft news from the LA Times was about a Cedars-Sinai Medical Center former employee who stole the personal information of at least 1,000 patients and parlayed it into fraudulent insurance claims worth at least $69,000. That’s a nice chunk of change, but he might have made additional money by selling that information to others.

One of the biggest identity theft stories of 2008 had to be the one about an extortion attempt involving Express Scripts and a few million of their customers. The extortionist added credibility to their ransom request by adding the details of 75 of the company’s members, including their names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and even some prescription info. The message was “Pay up, or we publish similar information on millions of your customers on the Internet.”

Visit LifeLock.com for information on how they can protect your identity, your finances and your good name. Use the LifeLock discount code Defense and receive a discount on service.  You can cancel or enroll again with the same LifeLock discount code and pay just $9 a month for total protection.

Reason Number 5: Are you really going to re-gift another fruitcake this year? Visit LifeLock.com and enroll using the LifeLock promotional code Defense and you can give identity theft protection to the people you love for only $9 a month.

Reason Number 4: The U.S. Department of Justice considers identity theft to be the single largest crime problem in the nation, surpassing drug trafficking.

Reason Number 3: International crime rings that used to focus primarily on drug trafficking have now turned their attention to high-tech hacking and identity theft, which in turn provides revenue for drug trafficking.

Reason Number 2: There were more data breaches by August 2008 than in all of 2007. Those 449 reported data breaches exposed more than 22 million records. But it’s even worse than that. Surveys show that roughly half of the private and public entities that admitted to having data breaches don’t report them or notify their customers or constituents.

Drum roll, please …

The Number 1 Reason You Need LifeLock: Every year you make a New Years Resolution to get in shape and be more conscientious about your personal finances. But did you place fraud alerts on your credit files and renew them every 90 days?

Did you order your credit reports from all three credit reporting agencies and review them? Did you remove your name from junk mail and phone solicitation lists? Did you photocopy the front and back of everything in your wallet and make a comprehensive list of all the contact numbers in case your wallet is stolen? Did you monitor 10,000 websites to make sure your personal information isn’t being bought, sold or traded?

No, you didn’t. But don’t beat yourself up about it. Just go to LifeLock.com, use the LifeLock promotional code Defense, and them take care of all of that and more. That way you’ll have more time to get in shape.

Welcome to the LifeLock home page. This is where you’ll meet LifeLock members who’ll tell you why they chose LifeLock to help them protect themselves from identity theft. They’ve all been victims of identity theft in the past, even the former police chief.

On the left side of the home page, you’ll see links to some TV interviews with CEO Todd Davis, and with Zach, a LifeLock customer whose identity was stolen when he was only seven.

Be sure to check out the center panel that lets you know you’re dealing with a Better Business Bureau accredited business.

When you’re done with all the information on the home page, click the blue tab at the top of the page, “How LifeLock Works.” This is probably the most important page on the website. This is where you’ll learn more about LifeLock’s comprehensive services and their exclusive identity protection tools. If you need more information, there’s a long list of frequently asked questions on the left side of the page. Just click on any one of them for more info. (more…)

The good news: identity theft convictions in 2007 increased by 26% over the 2006 total convictions. The bad news: that’s only 1,943 convictions out of the 1.6 million identity theft complaints in the Federal Trade Commission’s files. There were 1,534 convictions in 2006.

The numbers come from a 70-page report released by the Identity Theft Task Force established in May 2006 by President Bush. It is chaired by the US Attorney General and the FTC Chair. (more…)