| Criminals are increasingly creative in the methods by | | | | Low-Handing Fruit Scheme". |
| which they steal your identity, your money, and your | | | | "Shoulder-surfing" is a low-tech, low-touch technique |
| life. They are usually several steps ahead of the | | | | criminals use to get your information - and they |
| average consumer. With how many of the following | | | | boldly do so in public places usually right under our |
| "creative" schemes are you familiar: | | | | noses or over our shoulders. Typically they would |
| * "Dumpster-diving" | | | | watch or listen carefully as we key our credit card |
| * "Mail theft" | | | | number or password into a keypad, or give the our |
| * "Pharming" | | | | account number over the telephone. And don't for a |
| * "Phishing" | | | | moment think that they have to be standing within |
| * "Skimming" | | | | earshot to steal your info. No! |
| * "Shoulder-surfing" | | | | Sophisticated shoulder surfers have been known to |
| One of the positive things criminals have done, if I | | | | use bioculars, telescopes, or super-sensitive listening |
| may say so, is add "creative" terms to our | | | | devices to steal your info from across the room or |
| vocabulary. It always amazes me how intelligent and | | | | across the street. Sometimes they will record the |
| creative criminals can be! - Always one step ahead of | | | | sounds for accurate playback. Recording of the |
| their next victim, and ultimately, the law! | | | | keypad sounds help them analyze those tones for |
| Whether they go after your mail, or go | | | | replicated PIN numbers and passwords. Some |
| "dumpster-diving", or go "shoulder surfing", or | | | | criminals standing nearby may even use their |
| "pharming", the end results are always the same: | | | | camera-cellphone to record the numbers they see or |
| They become successful over another innocent | | | | take a picture over your shoulder. |
| victim! | | | | "Pharming" comes in several version. I'll just discuss |
| Identity criminals are basically lazy people, in my | | | | one here. Similar to "Phishing", "Pharming" is an |
| opinion. Rather than getting a legitimate job, they | | | | electronic scam in which criminals attempt to steal |
| would rather come up with "creative" schemes to | | | | personal and financial information from numerous |
| part their victims from their personal information and | | | | people simultaneously through something known as |
| their money. | | | | "Domain Spooling". Here the hackers take over a DNS |
| One of the laziest ways they steal our identity, | | | | server and redirect user information to a new |
| usually with our unwitting help, is through | | | | website that they use to gather illegal information. |
| "Dumpster-diving". They simply sort through a | | | | "Phishing" also bears mentioning here. It is a scam in |
| person's trash for paper records such as credit card | | | | which you, the consumer, are tricked into entering |
| offers, bank statements, past paid bills, or anything | | | | your personal and financial information (account |
| that has your personal and financial information. | | | | numbers, Social Scurity number, PIN number, |
| Sometimes they can obtain a full profile of us from | | | | password, etc.) via a bogus email and website form. |
| separate documents (such as church records, car | | | | The email looks as if it was sent from a company |
| repair reords, personal letters, medical reords, etc.) | | | | with whom most consumers may have an affiliation, |
| they find. And businesses as well as consumers fall | | | | such as AOL ®, PayPal ®, eBay ®, or a |
| victim to this one form of theft. | | | | major bank or credit card company; but, in reality, |
| Mail theft is a low-tech method lazy criminals use to | | | | are nothing more than identity theives hiding behind |
| go after your personal and financial information. As | | | | the email. |
| with "dumpster- diving", it another easy way for | | | | "Skimming" is a another growing identity theft scam |
| criminals to get what they want with hardly any | | | | where criminals quickly and temporarily steal a credit |
| effort on their part, thanks to our unwitting help. For | | | | card and run it through a credit card reader known as |
| example, we leave a red falg on our mailbox to alert | | | | a skimmer that has been reprogrammed to steal |
| the mail carrier that there is out-going mail to be | | | | information off the card. Often, this takes place at a |
| picked up. Or the mail carrier might do likewise to | | | | hectic retail store where a consumer might not notice |
| alert us to pick up our mail. Unfortunately, criminals | | | | that their credit card has been taken from them for |
| love this because they tells them that the mailbox is | | | | a few moments. |
| ripe for the picking. A friend of mines calls this "The | | | | |