I've Been Mugged

The New Identity Theft Trifecta

2012-01-27T11:58:00-05:00

Slowly, More Consumers Consider Website Privacy Policies Before Buying

2012-01-26T09:58:00-05:00

PC Pro recently reported the results of a recent Forrester Research study. Forrester surveyed 37,000 consumers in North America, and found that a growing percentage of consumers consider companies' website privacy policies in their decisions about whether to do business with a company: "Websites need to rethink their privacy policies...

Investigate The Banks

2012-01-25T09:58:00-05:00

Professor, political economist, author and former Secretary of Labor chief Robert Reich called on President Obama to hold big banks fully accountable for their part in the alleged mortgage abuses and housing market crash -- which the President finally addressed, in part, during his SOTU speech last night: "We'll also...

The Personal Data Elements Consumers Want To Keep Private Online

2012-01-24T09:58:00-05:00

At the All Things D blog, Liz Gannes has posted a very interesting inforgraphic about the data elements consumers care about and want to keep private online. The inforgraphic was created from a research report by Forrester Research. Some of the data elements and the percent of consumers that care...

Learn About Credit Unions. Free Workshops At A Nearby City

2012-01-23T08:58:00-05:00

While there hasn't been much mentioned lately in the mainstream news media, consumers are still moving their money out of the big banks to local community banks and credit unions. If you want to learn more about what a credit union is and its benefits, the National Credit Union Administration...

Data Breach At City College Of San Francisco Affects Thousands

2012-01-20T09:58:00-05:00

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that a data breach at the City College of San Francisco (CCSF) could affect tens of thousands of students, employees, faculty, and staff. After the Thanksgiving holiday, computer viruses were found installed on computers in the college's computer labs. The computer viruses had been installed...

Scammers Target American Airlines Customers With Phishing Emails

2012-01-19T09:58:00-05:00

Earlier this week, a reader wrote about an email message he had received. The email message included a confirmation for tickets purchased through the American Airlines website. The reader was concerned that his bank information had been hacked, because he had not purchased any airline tickets. The email message: Subject:...

Several Websites Are Dark Today To Protest SOPA And PIPA

2012-01-18T08:58:00-05:00

To protest the proposed SOPA and PIPA legislation in the U.S. Congress, several websites have gone dark for the day. Critics of the legislation are concerned about the legislation's negative impacts on jobs and on free speech on the Internet. You could call the proposed legislation an online mugging. Some...

Zappos Data Breach Affects 24 Million Consumers

2012-01-17T09:58:00-05:00

Several news organizations and USA Today reported about the data breach at Zappos.com, an online shoe and clothing retailer. Identity thieves hacked into the Zappos website and stole the names, street addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, the last 4 digits of credit card numbers, and the online passwords of 24...

Thoughts For Today

2012-01-16T12:14:00-05:00

While writing this blog, I have tried to consistently argue for the rights of consumers... of individuals. Given today's holiday and threats such as Internet blacklist legislation, these quotes seem as relevant today as when they were originally said: "Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance...

Debit Cards: A New I've Been Mugged Topic

2012-01-07T14:58:00-05:00

Since many consumers have shifted their purchases from cash and credit cards to debit cards, I have added a new topic in the tag cloud in the near right column. With recent events in the banking industry, new offerings allows employers to perform direct deposits to employees payroll cards, a...

Plenty Of Collateral Damage From a Credit Card Theft

2012-01-06T14:28:00-05:00

There is a good article in PC Magazine that describes the scope of damages from identity theft when credit cards, smart phones, and spammers intersect. Jacqueline, a sales manager, had her credit card stolen and cloned, which resulted in over $2,000 in fraudulent charges. (Damages #1.) Her bank cancelled the...