“My name is Todd Davis.  My social security number is….  I’m Todd Davis, CEO of LifeLock, and yes, that’s my real social security number*. Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in America, victimizing over 10 million people a year and costing billions of dollars. So why publish my social security number? Because [...]

Phishing is a criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information including passwords, credit card numbers, and the like.    It typically occurs when you receive an email that appears to be from your bank or an online service (think PayPal or eBay) instructing you to click on a link to provide information to verify [...]

Pharming is a hacker’s attack aiming to redirect a website’s traffic to another bogus website.  Hackers redirect a legitimate Web site’s traffic to an impostor site, where you’ll be asked to provide confidential information.  Common targets are ecommerce and online banking websites.  Pharming is used to steal identity information.
To help protect yourself from pharming, you [...]

Spyware is computer software that is installed on a computer to intercept or take partial control over the user’s interaction with the computer, without the user’s consent.  You’ve unknowingly downloaded illicit software when you’ve opened an attachment, clicked on a pop-up or downloaded a song or a game. Criminals can use spyware to record your [...]

MSN Money published an interesting article entitled 8 Signs You May Know An Identity Thief.  The article discusses how many people fear identity theft from a stranger when, in fact, studies show that most identity theft victims know the thief in some way.  The article provides an excellent graphic showing this.  In summary, of those [...]

MSN Money has a short credit quiz sponsored by Experian.  It tests your knowledge on general credit subjects such as

Who are the three major credit reporting agencies?
Can your employer pull your credit report without your permission?
What information is used to calculate your credit score?
What happens to your credit report when you marry?
If you liked that [...]

Debt to income ratio is the percentage of a consumer’s monthly gross income that goes toward paying debts.  This sometimes includes more than debts.  Debt to income ratio can also include certain taxes, fees, and insurance premiums.  For a more detailed explanation, click here.
If you liked that post, then try these…Fair Credit Reporting Act Terms [...]

…credit report dot com baby.  We’ve all got the jingles stuck in our heads.  It is important to note that this service is not necessarily free.  As posted by Kevin Gipson, you are entitled to a free annual credit report from each of the three credit reporting agencies.
I encourage you to visit www.annualcreditreport.com to order [...]

In an informative post, Pushpa Sathish describes identity theft insurance as insurance that provides reimbursement to victims of identity theft so that they can restore their identity and repair their credit reports.  He goes on to state that the typical policy also provides reimbursement for expenses such as phone bills, lost wages, mailing costs and [...]

A 2003 amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act known as “The Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act” (FACTA) mandated the creation of an “official” website which became located at the following URL: www.annualcreditreport.com. Annualcreditreport.com is a great resource for credit report questions and answers. Regarding fraud alerts, the site explains:
If you liked that post, [...]