March 13, 2007

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  NEWS: ID Theft is Way Too Easy

  If you are a law-abiding Average Joe, you may imagine that the world of identity theft is pretty shady. You may picture people in hats and trench coats skulking around dark alleys and dumpsters in the dead of night. In reality, the person who steals your identity is more than likely to be a nondescript young man laughing and drinking coffee in full public as he surfs the web and sell your name, address, and social security number on internet message boards and chat rooms.
  
  Thanks to the virtual anonymity of the World Wide Web, people all over the world can get away with almost anything. The newest news is telling us that identity thieves are placing the integrity of consumers' lives and credit histories up for sale like baseball cards – and, worse, that there is almost nothing that the authorities can do about it.
  
  Here's how it works. A pro hacker in America breaks into a hospital's patient information database and gleans 1,000 "fulls" – the full set of your personal information- and places an ad that he will sell them for anywhere from $5 - $10 each, depending on whether the information is fresh. A second party – located practically anywhere else in the world – buys them. Or, in a second scenario, crooks advertise for partners – offering, say 40% to a female accomplice to pick up a Western Union transfer to someone named "Amy."
  
  Proving again – unfortunately – that anything is possible on the Internet!

  
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