identity theft

3 tips to stop annoying and fraudulent robocalls

Spam phone calls have been a nuisance for years, but over the last several months, it seems like there's been a surge of them on our cell phones. Just yesterday, the FCC imposed a record fine of $120 million on a Florida man who is accused of placing nearly 100 million robocalls during a brief 3 month period as part of a “telemarketing scheme.” Robocallers have made their calls even more deceptive by masking their spam with local, genuine looking phone numbers. Last year, the FCC voted on a rule that allows phone companies to block robocallers who use fake caller ID numbers to conceal their actual identities. So far, this has proved ineffective and Ajit Pai, the FCC Chairman, says that an estimated 2.4 billion robocalls are placed to Americans each month.

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EVERYONE should take action because of Equifax data breach

I apologize for using the all caps EVERYONE but it is imperative for every American to take steps to protect their identities because of the Equifax data breach. It was by far the worst data breach in history because social security numbers, birthdays and addresses were exposed. This makes it essential for you to be on the offensive in protecting yourself immediately. You may have visited the Equifax website to see if you were exposed but don't trust the results because the site is virtually useless and Equifax should be ashamed of it (and the breach of course). ZDNet first reported that the checker was giving random responses! I tested it myself three times with the surname “test” and the social security numbers 123456, 234567 and 345678. Two times it said my data may have been exposed and lucky for test 234567, their data wasn't exposed?!?! Because of this, you have to just assume that your data was exposed and take action ASAP. You are better off spending 10-15 minutes of your time locking down your credit reports rather than spending many hours and huge headaches if your identity is stolen.

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5 simple steps to protect yourself from the massive Equifax data breach

Today, Equifax announced one of the largest data breaches in history affecting almost half of the US population, as many as 143 million Americans. Based on the company’s investigation, the unauthorized access occurred from mid-May through July 2017.

The information accessed primarily includes names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and, in some instances, driver’s license numbers. In addition, credit card numbers for approximately 209,000 U.S. consumers, and certain dispute documents with personal identifying information for approximately 182,000 U.S. consumers, were accessed.

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