Purchase
The Ultimate Identity Theft Prevention Plan
Broadway
May 2007
On Sale: April 24, 2007
256 pages
ISBN: 0767925866
EAN: 9780767925860
Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction
The charismatic forger immortalized in the film Catch Me
If You Can
exposes the astonishing tactics of today’s identity theft
criminals and
offers powerful strategies to thwart them based on his
second career as
an acclaimed fraud-fighting consultant.
Consider these
sobering
facts:
*Six out of ten American companies and government agencies
have already been hacked.
*An estimated 80 percent of birth certificate requests are
fulfilled
through the mail for people using only a name and a return
address. So
I could take your name and use my address, and get your birth
certificate. From there I’m off to the races.
*Americans write 39 billion checks a year, and half of these
folks
never reconcile their bank statements.
*A Social Security number costs $49 on the black market. A
driver’s
license goes for $90. A birth certificate will set you back
$79.
When
Frank Abagnale trains law enforcement officers around the
country about
identity theft, he asks officers for their names and
addresses and
nothing more. In a matter of hours he can obtain everything
he would
need to steal their lives: Social Security numbers, dates of
birth,
current salaries, checking account numbers, the names of
everyone in
their families, and more. This illustrates how easy it is
for anyone
from anywhere in the world to assume our identities and in a
matter of
hours devastate our lives in ways that can take years to
recover from.
Considering that a fresh victim is hit every four
seconds, Stealing Your Life is the reference everyone
needs by an unsurpassed authority on the latest identity
theft schemes.
Abagnale
offers dozens of concrete steps to transform anyone from an
easy mark
into a hard case that criminals are likely to
bypass:
• Don’t
allow your kids to use the computer on which you do online
banking and
store financial records (children are apt to download games and
attachments that host damaging viruses or attract
spyware).
• Beware of offers that appeal to greed or
fear in exchange for personal data.
• Monitor your
credit report regularly and know if anyone’s been “knocking
on your door.”
• Read privacy statements carefully
and choose to opt out of sharing information whenever
possible.
Brimming with anecdotes of creative
criminality that are as entertaining as they are
enlightening, Stealing Your Life is the practical way
to shield yourself from one of today’s most nefarious and
common crimes.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
| 
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy