News for Economic
Researchers have found a way to root out identity thieves by analyzing their mouse movements with AI
Sunday, June 11, 2017
I found this really interesting. Maybe AI can be scary, but in this instance AI is showing promise. Identity theft is often a multi-layered process. Once a thief gets one bit of your information, they try to use it to get more. The hackers behind the 2015 data breach of the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS), for example, used personal information they’d previously stolen from thousands of ...read more
Categories: Chamber, Community, Economic, General News Article
Monday, June 05, 2017
From a local news story in North Dakota. Read the bottom. How nice being offered monitoring for one year. However, if like similar offerings, aka Target, the monitoring will only cover breaches as a result of this event. You need complete monitoring. The North Dakota Department of Human Services is notifying 2,452 Medicaid program recipients or their guardians/personal representatives about a ...read more
Categories: Chamber, Economic, Education, General News Article, Human Interest
Monday, May 29, 2017
From an article in ConsumerAffairs: “ Here's a good reason to carefully guard your credit card information. A new report predicts thieves are stepping up their credit card fraud activities. The Radial eCommerce Fraud Technology Lab reports what it calls an alarming increase in credit card "testing." That's when criminals who have obtained stolen credit card numbers use ...read more
Categories: General News Article, Economic, Chamber, Education, Human Interest
Monday, May 15, 2017
No doubt your personal information is all over the place. “ One of the keys to preventing identity theft is in your pocket or purse. It's your car key. All the fancy online programs, firewalls, and apps are fine, but locking your car is the most basic protection against having your identity stolen. Case in point: a Texas couple turned thefts from cars into a booming identity theft ...read more
Categories: Economic, General News Article, Education, Human Interest
Monday, May 08, 2017
Sometimes change is good, but the hidden message here is LESS cybersecurity for the consumer. An article from ConsumerAffairs: Some of the major banks have proposed changes to Dodd-Frank financial reform rules governing the way consumers access their financial information. Personal Capital, a firm providing financial asset tracking tools, charges the bank-supported changes would restrict ...read more
Categories: Chamber, Education, Human Interest, Economic, General News Article
Monday, April 17, 2017
From an article in Forbes Magazine . This is scary. My mother-in-law actually received her application for Medicare back from Riverside County which had been obviously opened. Whoever sent it back had merely used the metal clip without securing the lip. The metal clip was broken and the paperwork was out of sequence. I immediately signed her up for IDShield. I felt it was worth the $9.95 each ...read more
Categories: Chamber, Education, Human Interest, Economic, General News Article
Sunday, April 09, 2017
Just when you thought it was safe to go into the water again . . . well, maybe not, but the IRS is back in the news and it's not positive. As I've said before the IRS has basically admitted it cannot keep its own citizens safe from security breaches. From an article by RT Question More: “ The IRS has discovered a breach that could mean the personal information of up to 100,000 ...read more
Categories: Economic, General News Article, Political, Education, Human Interest
Sunday, April 02, 2017
Well, you've probably read that our state leaders are increasing our gasoline taxes another 12 cents to pay for infrastructure improvements, including streets. I won't get political here but now is the time to go back to gas station shopping. This was my thing when gas pricing had gone through the roof. Maybe time to re-institute comparison shopping: “ The price of gasoline has been ...read more
Categories: Economic, General News Article, Chamber, Education, Human Interest
Monday, March 06, 2017
Every day I see more and more issues with all types of identity theft. I read this from a publication called “DailyDirt”. It reminds me of the issue with Apple cell phones. Can you imagine the government obtaining a 'backdoor' program for iPhones? How quickly do you think that software would be hacked? Read on . . . “ Last year, the personal records of 100,000 taxpayers ...read more
Categories: Chamber, Economic, General News Article, Human Interest
Monday, February 27, 2017
Americans remain apathetic about identity theft protection, according to the second annual Tax Season Risk Report , from Scottsdale, Ariz.-based CyberScout, which suggested taxpayers must still take ownership to protect their filings. While the Internal Revenue Service took steps to reduced tax ID theft a pattern of poor practices leaves much of the public vulnerable. Most Americans (58%) are not ...read more
Categories: Community, Economic, Education, General News Article, Human Interest
Monday, February 06, 2017
Just when you thought this would be old hat, it's BACK!! Read on . . . I really endorse “Hiya”. I have this app on my cell and find it very useful. “ Scams seem to be cyclical. The "Grandparents scam" was big for a while, but faded away once the public began hearing about it. But now it's back, ensnaring senior citizens once again. That's how scammers ...read more
Categories: Economic, General News Article, Community, Education, Human Interest
Monday, January 30, 2017
A lthough concern runs high, most consumers do little to nothing to protect themselves. An article from ConsumerAffairs' founder and former editor, Jim Hood says, “Americans don't agree on much these days, but on one topic, we're united -- most of us have been data breach victims, according to a new study. Democratic Party leaders were famously hacked, possibly by the Russian ...read more
Categories: Education, Economic, Political, Chamber, Human Interest, General News Article
Monday, January 23, 2017
By combining our Small Business plan with our partner company GoSmallBiz a small business lessens the chance of risk. With LegalShield Small Business Solutions our goal is to give small businesses big business resources on a small business budget; “ According to Small Business Administration (SBA) statistics approximately 40% of small businesses fail to survive more than three years. It is ...read more
Categories: Chamber, Economic, General News Article, Community, Education, Human Interest
Monday, January 16, 2017
Here we go again. Some of these suggestions I've posted before, but demands repeating. The more educated are the more vulnerable due to complacency. Here's a compilation by James Limbach : “ Among the most lucrative areas for con men and scam artists is the federal income tax season. And as usual, there's an array of evolving tax scams related to identity theft and refund ...read more
Categories: Education, Human Interest, Economic, General News Article
Tuesday, January 03, 2017
Small businesses pay an average of $7,600 a year in legal expenses. Avoid surprises and prepare for common legal issues by reading our top tips of 2016. Nearly 60% of small businesses have experienced significant legal events in the past two years. Understanding potential legal issues faced by many small business owners will save you money by helping you avoid common problems and being prepared ...read more
Categories: Community, Economic, Education, General News Article, Human Interest
Monday, December 12, 2016
My wife recently had knee surgery and was laid up in a care facility for physical therapy for a couple of weeks. As I become more aware of identity theft and fraud my eyes are opening up to how easy this is. In both facilities, I could not believe how easy it is to get around. And as staff became more familiar with my 'smiling face' it would have made it that much easier to move around. ...read more
Categories: Chamber, Economic, Human Interest, Community, General News Article
Monday, December 05, 2016
Tis the season for shopping, and retailers big and small are enticing customers with their best deals of the year. According to TIME , this year also represented an important shift: sales in brick-and-mortar stores on Black Friday dropped from $11.6 billion in 2014 to $10.4 billion in 2015, while online sales jumped 14 percent to $2.72 billion. “Brick and mortar stores will never go away, ...read more
Categories: Chamber, General News Article, Economic, Human Interest
Monday, November 28, 2016
"If your business accepts credit or debit cards you may have to deal with disputed charges, also known as chargebacks. Chargebacks were developed to protect consumers from fraud and defective products but when misused the system can be costly for legitimate business owners. The following tips are designed to help you prevent chargebacks and challenge any that you may receive in error. If you ...read more
Categories: Chamber, General News Article, Economic, Human Interest
Monday, October 31, 2016
Happy Halloween, and another scary story eminating from the IRS. Add this bit of information to the tax scams we've spoken about before. Found this in an AARP article by Sid Kirchheimer : “ IRS impostors have a new scam: fake emails that claim to contain a tax bill related to the Affordable Care Act. This latest scheme, which triggered a warning from the Internal Revenue Service late ...read more
Categories: Chamber, Education, Human Interest, Economic, General News Article
Monday, October 24, 2016
I had read sometime back, that many contractors were including in their contract with you a clause stating that the contractor would be able to sue you if you wrote a bad review about that contractor. As a member of LegalShield we receive timely newsletters. And remember, with LegalShield one of the benefits is Trial Defense Services. So, if you or your spouse are named as a defendant or ...read more
Categories: Community, General News Article, Chamber, Economic, Human Interest
Monday, October 17, 2016
Great information, but has anyone out there tried to do it alone? There are actually 12 steps if you are victimized. Whether with IDShield or some other service, it is important to have some sort of monitoring. Especially with the recent Yahoo breach – 500 MILLION accounts stolen. "The Canton Regional and Greater West Virginia Better Business Bureau offers tips and advice for ...read more
Categories: Economic, Education, General News Article, Human Interest
Monday, October 10, 2016
It's a never ending battle. Either go at it alone or find yourself a reputable monitoring company. I encourage you to visit my site at IDShield . Here you can access a comparison-chart of the more popular monitoring services and compare them to IDShield. But in the meantime here's a good read: "A favorite tactic of fraudsters is to pretend to be someone that they are not in order to ...read more
Categories: Economic, General News Article, Human Interest
Monday, October 03, 2016
One of the many perks being a member of IDShield are the timely newsletters we receive. Here is the latest concerning voting scams. “ Ever react to something quickly and then almost immediately feel regret? Recently an IDShield member called after having such an experience. She explained that as she walked out of a local store, two individuals holding clip boards and pens approached her ...read more
Categories: Economic, General News Article, Fun Facts, Human Interest, Community, Education
Monday, September 26, 2016
From a recent AARP article. This pops up every once in awhile. It seems like scams run in cycles. You ever see an ad on TV that you haven't seen for quite some time? It seems the same with scam – there's seasonal scams, and then there are scams that seemed to go away. But then come back – bigger and better than ever! “ The latest ploy cybercrooks are using to spread ...read more
Categories: Community, General News Article, Chamber, Economic, Human Interest
Monday, September 19, 2016
A study finds these legal documents are over the heads of most consumers Why take the chance on “playing” lawyer? With our legal plan costing under $20/month don't take the chance. Do you have a cell phone? What about satellite or cable TV? Have you ever pressed “Accept” on a phone app? All these are contracts. Doesn't it make sense to have a qualified attorney ...read more
Categories: Education, Economic, Chamber, Human Interest, General News Article
Monday, September 12, 2016
Subtitle: Four in 10 consumers say their accounts have been compromised We are being victimized every which way we turn. From the IRS to banks, we are literally on our own. This story from ConsumerAffairs “ Banks and other financial institutions spend billions of dollars on information and data security, mainly because they are such lucrative targets for cybercriminals. Yet despite this ...read more
Categories: Education, Human Interest, Economic, General News Article
Tuesday, September 06, 2016
Your movements could be tracked by your employer, your spouse, a stalker, or advertisers Another article I found concerning hacking of autos. You remember the story about hacking GM WiFi enabled cars and the like. Well, it continues. Here's a story from Consumer Affairs: “ What if your car could talk? What might it say about you? Would it gossip with other cars or divulge your secrets ...read more
Categories: Economic, Human Interest, Chamber, General News Article
Thursday, September 01, 2016
It's an on-going concern that will only grow. Unfortunately many children don't find out that they have been a victim until they apply for some sort of credit. This is years later! Also, and this is very disturbing, but a good percentage of child identity theft is directly attributed to THEIR PARENTS. I'm not going to pass judgment, but why would a parent put a child at this kind of ...read more
Categories: Chamber, Economic, General News Article, Community, Education, Human Interest
Thursday, August 25, 2016
Subtitle: Thieves use high and low-tech strategies to steal personal information Just like the opposite end of the age spectrum, college students are also at risk. Parents often overlook the fact that young children are often at risk. And sad to say, most identity theft of young children is done by their own parents. This is an article by Jonathon Berr: “ College students and their parents ...read more
Categories: Economic, General News Article, Community, Education, Human Interest
Monday, August 22, 2016
Subtitle: Security expert calls it a 'nightmare' for corporate networks Almost like a Trojan Horse. When this game became popular I thought that it would come to this. Or was this part of the original software. And as we know, businesses are very vulnerable. Keeping up with security risks can be expensive. Found this in the latest edition from Consumer Affairs: “ Sometimes it can ...read more
Categories: Chamber, Economic, General News Article, Human Interest
Monday, August 15, 2016
Nearly two-thirds of Americans own a smartphone. For many it is the primary access point for email and web browsing. Businesses have also taken advantage of these tools to speed up service or promote a brand. If your business is not mobile ready, it probably should be. The following information explains the benefits of mobile technology and how it may help you grow your business. Google Searches ...read more
Categories: Chamber, Economic, Community, General News Article
Monday, August 01, 2016
As a LegalShield member we receive timely information from time-to-time. The following is the latest article: “ If you fail to properly collect or report sales tax you could face sizable fines or even prosecution. Many states and localities require collection of a sales tax. As a small business owner it is your responsibility to understand the sales tax laws that apply to your business. ...read more
Categories: Chamber, Education, Economic, General News Article
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
The greatest risk to your business may be something you have never even considered. Taking the time to perform a legal checkup helps you identify potential liabilities. As a LegalShield small business member you have access to attorneys who can help you limit risk and plan for challenges. Carefully read the following information and call your LegalShield provider law firm if you have any ...read more
Categories: Chamber, General News Article, Economic, Human Interest
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
Subtitle: HummingBad now used to generate revenue but could have more sinister purposes I read a report recently that, as an exercise, college students were able to extract personal information from Android cell phones that had gone through a Security reset. Now this taken from a report I found in Consumer Affairs: “ Check Point, a cyber security firm, has warned that millions of Android ...read more
Categories: Economic, General News Article, Education, Human Interest
Wednesday, June 01, 2016
It's difficult to stay ahead. Trying to stay up-to-date is nearly impossible. Professional monitoring by an established, reputable company is your best bet. The problem of identity theft is a serious one. As we have reported on in the past, millions fall victim each year. But as these hackers get more experienced in stealing your identity, the ways they do it become more advanced. This is ...read more
Categories: Economic, General News Article, Community, Education, Human Interest
