You have probably heard the television and radio ads warning about how your home can be stolen out from under you by title thieves. Is it true? Can bad guys claim your home equity, and even your home, with title fraud? Although there is some truth to the scare tactics,…
There are privacy laws being passed seemingly every day; however, there is no comprehensive national U.S. law and current laws are largely a patchwork of state and federal laws. Since there are no federal privacy laws regulating the actions of many companies, they’re pretty much free to do what they…
There are things we all think we know to be true about cybersecurity that may not actually be true. We are going to bust some myths you may believe about the best ways to keep yourself safe online. Myth: You should change your password every 30 days. Reality: More important…
It has often been said that if something is free, you are the product. That is certainly true when it comes to “free” tax preparation software. The good news is that tax prep companies cannot automatically use the information in your tax return for any purpose other than preparing your…
The Russian invasion of Ukraine got a lot of people talking about World War III and what it might look like. One common concern is the possibility of cyberwarfare. Cyberwarfare is not contained to a battlefield and cyberattacks on Ukraine could have effects well beyond its borders, even affecting the…
What do potential employers, lenders, friends, and relationship partners see when they search for your name online? Google and other search engines are often the first stop for someone who wants to learn more about a person. One employer wrote that he had an applicant with an excellent resume, but…
Biometrics measure users’ physical characteristics to verify their identity. Biometrics may be physiological traits, such as fingerprints and eyes, or behavioral characteristics, such as the unique way you’d complete a security-authentication puzzle. They can be more secure than simply using passwords, but they are not immune to privacy and security…
As part of their efforts to stem the massive amounts of tax fraud we have seen over the last few years, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) introduced a new requirement for managing your tax records online. However, they are now backing off from having taxpayers log in to their IRS…
We know there are many things we can do to protect ourselves from identity theft and other security threats. But surprisingly, we often do not do them. The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) and DIG Works surveyed 1050 U.S. adults about data breaches and credit freezes. They found that although…
Although it is almost impossible to know exactly how many spam emails are sent every day, we know the number is significant and that spam is not going away. One reason that it is hard to know how many spam emails are sent is that many people do not understand…
Are you always misplacing your keys or other items? Apple AirTags give you an easy way to locate your personal items. Just attach an AirTag to your purse, your pet or anything you want to be able to find, and you can easily locate it with an app for Apple…
The Identity Theft Resource Center has released their predictions of six expected trends in identity theft and identity fraud for 2022. There will be a shift from identity theft (the accumulation of personally identifiable information (PII)) to identity fraud (the misuse of that information). Identity fraud will cause consumers to…
There are positive benefits to be obtained from being connected to others via social media, but there is a downside as well. We will examine the negative effects that may be experienced by both adults and children from exposure to social media and the unrealistic expectations that can develop. Expert:…
On June 15, 2021, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) released its 2020 Elder Fraud Report. According to the report, IC3 received a total of 791,790 complaints in 2020, with reported losses exceeding $4.1 billion. About 28% of the total fraud losses were sustained by victims over the age…