Bonnie, Ex-Girlfriend and Identity-Theft Scam Partner Sentenced

Jocelyn Kirsch - a previous Drexel University student and the ex-girlfriend and identity theft scam collaborator of 2005 Penn alumnus Edward Anderton - was condemned on Friday to five years in prison.

A federal judge also ordered Kirsch to pay $100,000 for amends and to be supervised by a probation officer for five years after she is discharged from prison.

This summer, Kirsch and Anderton both pleaded guilty to six charges, including money laundering, conspiracy and intense identity theft. The pair has been nicknamed the "Bonnie and Clyde" of identity theft.

From September 2006 to November 2007, Kirsch, 23, and Anderton, 26, directed an identity theft scheme in which they stole info from their family, friends and co-workers in order to acquire fraudulent credit cards.

Authorities say they finally stole about $116,000 from their victims and had meant to steal at least $122,000 more.

Anderton is set to be condemned on Nov. 14.

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8 Million Americans Are Victims of Identity Theft

More than 8 million Americans became victims of identity theft in 2007, ensuing in close to $50 million stolen.

Additionally to the individual thefts, there have been breaches of secure information in almost every sector of the business community, sometimes effecting hundreds of thousand of people at one time.

8 shocking facts from the Federal Trade Commission about Identity Theft -

• Identity theft has been the big top consumer complaint to the FTC for the past five years in a row.

• The FTC estimates that victims each spend 600 hours recuperating from ID theft, and approximately $1,400 repairing damage to their good name and credit record.

• It is approximated that victims of identity theft lose an average of $5,720 per incident.

• In 26 percent of all cases, the victim knew who had abused their personal information.

• It is calculated that 9 percent of all victims reported a family member or relative as the person responsible for misusing their personal information.

• 39 percent of victims ascertained that their identity was stolen more than seven months after it first occurred.

• 29 percent of identity theft complaints were a part of Generation Y (ages 18-29).

• 25 percent of identity theft victim information was misapplied through credit card fraud.

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10 Tips to Avoid Identity Theft

Identity theft is a serious problem today. Identity theft can make it difficult to improve your credit score. It can also lead to legal troubles. If your credit history is affected, you may have trouble getting a new job, housing, or insurance.

Here are 10 tips that can help you from becoming a victim of identity theft:

• Memorize your social security number and your PIN numbers.

• Don’t use easy to guess passwords, like your birthday or your mother’s maiden name.

• Secure your computer by using firewall software and always update your computer security to safeguard your computer from spyware.

• Confirm if the website URL that is requesting your personal information is authentic or legitimate.

• Beware of emails, especially with attachments, belonging to someone you don’t know. Emails like these contain viruses or spyware that can easily be installed in your computer and can send your personal information stored in your computer to thieves.

• Websites that ask for personal information should be secure. A secured website usually has URL that starts with “https://” with the “s” meaning secured.

• Beware of telephone inquiries asking you to give your personal information, unless you contacted them.

• If you lost your credit card, report it immediately to concerned authorities. It could have been stolen by identity thieves.

• Get your mail as soon as it is delivered.

• Do not discard bank, credit card or any other transaction receipts in public areas. Someone might obtain these information by dumpster diving.

Source: CreditScoreAide.com

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24 Cracking Tips to Save Yourself from Identity Theft and Credit Card Fraud

Don't just rely on insurance to protect you from identity theft and card fraud. It's much better to take these precautions to prevent it from happening in the first place!

These tips can save you from financial loss and the pain and effort needed to make it right again:

Identity-theft insurance:

A typical identity-theft insurance policy will pay for such things as rejected loan application fees and lost wages if you have to take time off work to reclaim your identity. The biggest benefit, in my opinion, is that many providers will be able to tell you what to do, who to report to, which companies to call and so on. This might be useful if you think you wouldn't keep a cool head in that situation.

Credit-card protection insurance:

A typical credit-card protection policy will cover you for loss due to fraud up to a specified limit, perhaps £5,000. Once you have reported the loss to the insurer, the limit for any additional losses that occur after the report could rise to £50,000 or £100,000. In addition, these insurances will often cover cash that has been stolen with your cards (up to a few hundred pounds).

Other benefits can include a service that will contact all your card providers to notify them of theft and to get replacement cards re-issued. Furthermore, if, because of the theft, you have no money to get home, the policy will probably pay for your transport costs too. The cost of replacing documents such as your driver's license and passport may also be covered if they go missing at the same time as your cards.

Are these insurances worth it?

Identity-theft and card protection insurances may particularly benefit people who are victims of fraud that is committed outside Europe, as it can sometimes be harder then to recover your money. However, I believe that identity-theft and card protection insurances are of negligible value to most people. This is because of these basic rights:

1. Credit-, debit- and charge-card issuers must bear the cost of fraudulent use. In some cases, you have to pay for part of the loss, but this is limited to £50. The exception is if you're grossly negligent, e.g. if you write your PIN on your card.
2. If you make a purchase worth £100 to £30,000 with a credit card and you have a problem with your purchase, your credit-card issuer is equally liable to refund you. This means you can ask your credit-card company to refund your account in addition to the vendor.

This leads us to the third way to protect yourself and your money:

Be careful!

If you're careful, the chances of suffering from fraud are very low. If you have a loss, it can take a while to fix it and get your money back, and this can be stressful. That's why it's best to be alert. We've not shared any tips on this for a while, so here are the better ones:

Documents:

1) Keep your cheque books separate from your credit cards.
2) Keep your driver’s license separate from your keys (as your license has your address on it).
3) Keep your passport safely hidden away when traveling.
4) Shred all documents with your personal or financial details, rather than bin them.
5) Check bank and card statements for unfamiliar transactions
6) Re-direct your post when you move and notify all companies that send you post of your new address.
7) Check your credit report occasionally.
8) Ignore letters that seem too good to be true; the ones that offer you money for nothing or ask for personal details.

Cards:

1. Report missing cards immediately.
2. Don't let restaurant and shop staff take your card out of your sight, because they might clone it.
3. Inform your bank if you're planning a trip abroad, so they don't get suspicious of your overseas transactions and bar your cards.
4. Be paranoid about people finding out your PIN number. Try to memorize it, not write it down, and cover it up when you enter it into readers or cash machines.
5. Put all your cards on a photocopier and copy both sides. Write the emergency contact numbers for each provider on the paper. Then store it somewhere secret and safe.

Computer and telephone:

1. As with letters, ignore dodgy calls or emails that ask for money or personal details from you.
2. Don't click through links sent to you by email from your bank or any other financial organization. Often these are cleverly disguised 'phishing' attacks to lead you to fake websites, where you enter, and therefore reveal, your personal details and passwords.
3. Be careful with your passwords, and don't choose anything obvious.
4. Don't give passwords to anyone who calls you, regardless of who they say they are. Find the correct number online and call them back, so you know it's not a fraud.
5. Make sure you see the padlock sign before you type personal details into forms on the Internet.
6. Get some anti-spyware and anti-virus software. Don't be conned into buying a fake product though! Get tips from your IT friend, or pick software you know has a good reputation. I've used Ad-Aware and Spyware Doctor for anti-spyware, but other well-known packages are Norton and McAfee. I've used McAfee's anti-virus software too.
7. Scan all attachments you receive by email for viruses.
8. If you download (i.e. open or save) any files from the Internet, save them to your computer first and then scan them. Don't just open them.
9. To be extra safe, don't download files from sources you don't know and trust.
10. Try to resist putting your personal details on networking sites such as Facebook for all to see.

Source: Motley Fool UK, UK

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