Filed under: Cards, Ripoffs and Scams, Fraud

According to a report from Gartner, about 15 million American were victims of identity theft from mid-2005 to mid-2006. And, based on the headlines — as well as the improvements in technologies — it seems like the threat isn’t abating.

To get some perspective on things, I interviewed Scott Mitic, who is an expert on ID theft and the CEO of TrustedID (he also has a great blog).

What are you seeing with ID theft?

We’re seeing increases this day in both child identity theft and medical identity theft — two relatively new ways for thieves to use personal information for financial gain. Of course, the more common forms of identity theft — credit card fraud and “new account origination” id theft — aren’t going away either.

Some ways for consumers to protect themselves?

Consumers need to be taking proactive steps to protect their identity. Shredding documents and subscribing to a credit monitoring service no longer suffice. TrustedID advocates putting fraud flags on your credit report, checking your kids’ credit reports at least once per year, and requesting that your insurance company regularly send you a summary of all medical claims paid in your name.

Speak a bit about the Suze Orman deal?

TrustedID and Suze teamed up together to create a product that offers the broadest and strongest possible protection for a whole family. We’ve purposely priced it at under $50 dollars to make it inexpensive to all Americans.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar On the internet Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

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Filed under: Extracurriculars, Ripoffs and Scams

Here’s an item to file under “insensitive morons.”

Businessman Tomas Delgado is suing the family of a 17-year old biker whom he struck and killed with his automobile. The reason? The impact of the boy’s body caused $20,500 worth of damage to the body of his Audi A8.

He is also asking for money to cover the cost of the other vehicle he drove while his car was being fixed.

According to Reuters, the biker’s “family won 33,000 euros compensation from Delgado’s insurance company after the firm acknowledged he had been driving at excessive speed and this could have contributed to the incident.”

Ugh. Hopefully a judge will dismiss the suit with some strong words for this reckless insensitive brute.

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Filed under: Ripoffs and Scams

A multi-million dollar shoplifting ring has been uncovered in Florida, and so far 18 people have been implicated in the theft of $100 million of health and beauty items. The arrest of two shoplifters at a Publix supermarket in June 2007 got the ball rolling. They stole $4,500 of Oil of Olay products that day and were charged with grand theft. They and their cohorts used special bags that helped conceal the stolen goods, and police say they were very good at what they did. The shoplifters were paid up to $3,000 cash for each delivery of stolen goods to the leaders.

The shoplifting ring has been operating for at least 5 years and there are victims in at least 11 counties. The police say everyone reported to two middlemen and two ringleaders who sold the stolen beauty products out of warehouses and flea markets. They also made sales through eBay and through a website they set up to sell the stolen goods.

How do you know that the goods you’re buying on eBay and other websites aren’t stolen? Quite simply, you don’t. I’m sure none of the buyers from these people had any idea that they were selling stolen goods. That’s the risk we take when we buy on the internet.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

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Filed under: Law, Employees, Scandals, Headline news

Prosecutors investigating the fraudulent trading scandal involving J

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