Hoaxs & Scams & Identity Theft, CC skimmers

hycamguy07 · Sep 18, 2006

Greetings~

With the advacements of the Internet and how easy it has become to scam people on the phone, by mail, or on the internet or worse steal your identity. Check out these links for useful info.. Educating the public one step at a time..

http://www.sniggle.net/scams.php

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/doznalrt.htm

http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/scamsdesc.htm

http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal/

http://www.infomercialscams.com/

http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=98269,00.html

http://www.idtheftcenter.org/alerts.shtml

http://www.fbi.gov/cyberinvest/escams.htm

Hoax info:

http://www.symantec.com/enterprise/securit...isks/hoaxes.jsp

http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/

http://vil.mcafee.com/hoax.asp

http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/hoaxes/default.asp

http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/internet/...ent_netlore.htm

Want to fight it?

http://www.elsop.com/wrc/complain.htm

http://www.myfloridalegal.com/identitytheft
If anyone else has reporting links feel free to post them..

Proco · Sep 18, 2006

Great list, PG04! One site I check out regularly for hoax/urban legend type stuff is http://www.snopes.com. They break things out by category.

TonyPSchaefer · Sep 18, 2006

PG04, Thank you for the list. This is great info.

I've explained to others before that I am stubborn when it comes to making threads 'sticky' but I suggest that everyone click the [Options] button in the top-right and the "track this topic." You can choose to subscribe with no notification of new posts. This way, when you go to your Control Panel and in the Subscriptions section click "view topics", you will have this list available without having to dig for it.

Salsawonder · Sep 18, 2006

Fabulous...I copied and pasted to send the list to my friends then moved a copy to my mail folders to keep.

Sufferin' Prius Envy · Sep 18, 2006

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ Sep 18 2006, 07:05 PM) [snapback]321455[/snapback]</div>

I've explained to others before that I am stubborn when it comes to making threads 'sticky' . . . [/b]
Click to expand...

Are you also equally stubborn when it comes to making threads 'UN-sticky' ??

Sticky: Words for today hasn't had a new entry since 19th June 2006 - 01:56 PM
http://priuschat.com/Fred-s-House-of-Pancakes-f3.html

It looks like people either ran out of words, interest, or filled their brains with too many new words. :lol:

Proco · Sep 19, 2006

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ Sep 18 2006, 10:05 PM) [snapback]321455[/snapback]</div>

I've explained to others before that I am stubborn when it comes to making threads 'sticky'
[/b]
Click to expand...

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sufferin' Prius Envy @ Sep 18 2006, 11:12 PM) [snapback]321492[/snapback]</div>

Are you also equally stubborn when it comes to making threads 'UN-sticky' ??

Sticky: Words for today hasn't had a new entry since 19th June 2006 - 01:56 PM
http://priuschat.com/Fred-s-House-of-Pancakes-f3.html

It looks like people either ran out of words, interest, or filled their brains with too many new words. :lol:
[/b]
Click to expand...

How about un-sticking the "Words for Today" and sticking PG04's list in its place?

hycamguy07 · Sep 19, 2006

Equifax: 1-800-525-6285
Experian (formerly TRW):1-888-397-3742
Trans Union: 1-800-680-7289
Social Security Administration (fraud line):1-800-269-0271

Or as Hybridthevibe has pointed out.
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/scams/credit.htm

hybridTHEvibe · Sep 19, 2006

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priusguy04 @ Sep 19 2006, 06:08 AM) [snapback]321543[/snapback]</div>

TIPS TO HELP AVOID IDENTITY THEFT

1. The next time you order checks have only your initials (instead of first name) and last name put on them. If someone takes your checkbook they will not know if you sign your checks with just your initials or your first name but your bank will know how you sign your checks.

2. When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the "For" line. Instead, just put the last four numbers of your credit card. The credit card company knows the rest of the number and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes through all the check processing channels won't have access to it.

3. Put your work phone number on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a Post Office Box use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a PO Box, use your work address. Never have your Social Security Number printed on your checks. You can add it if necessary. But if you have it printed on your checks, anyone can get it.

4. Copy the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine and copy both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel. Keep the photocopy in a safe place. If you travel abroad, carry a photocopy of your passport.

Here's how you can limit the dammage in the event your wallet or purse has been lost or stolen:

We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately. But the key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them.

File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction in which you wallet ot purse was lost/stolen. This provest to credit providers you were diligent, and is a first step toward an investigation.

Call the three national credit-reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and Social Security number. The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit.

Equifax: 1-800-525-6285
Experian (formerly TRW):1-888-397-3742
Trans Union: 1-800-680-7289
Social Security Administration (fraud line):1-800-269-0271
[/b]
Click to expand...

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/scams/credit.htm

TonyPSchaefer · Sep 19, 2006

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sufferin' Prius Envy @ Sep 18 2006, 10:12 PM) [snapback]321492[/snapback]</div>

Are you also equally stubborn when it comes to making threads 'UN-sticky' ??

Sticky: Words for today hasn't had a new entry since 19th June 2006 - 01:56 PM
http://priuschat.com/Fred-s-House-of-Pancakes-f3.html

It looks like people either ran out of words, interest, or filled their brains with too many new words. :lol:
[/b]
Click to expand...

:lol: I will give you one guess as to who didn't sticky those. I'll hustle over and clean 'em up.
I almost exclusively use the "view all new posts" search so I don't know what's sticky and what's not. Thanks.

hycamguy07 · Sep 19, 2006

Identity theft is one of the biggest crimes being comitted at this time. Ive had reportedly the bad guys will even go into your mail box and take those credit card junk mails and reply in your name using a cable bill of phone bill for the nessassary personal information. Use the new card to the limit and guess whos left holding the bill? Until you can prove it wasn't you... <_<

there was a woman that had her power, water & phone shut off because someone stole her identity and closed all accounts & emptied her bank account. before she could act on it...

Oxo · Sep 19, 2006

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priusguy04 @ Sep 18 2006, 06:31 PM) [snapback]321381[/snapback]</div>

Greetings~

With the advacements of the Internet and how easy it has become to scam people on the phone, by mail, or on the internet or worse steal your identity. Check out these links for useful info.. Educating the public one step at a time..

[/b]
Click to expand...

Thanks for these. But there should be a warning on this package of links:

WARNING: THESE LINKS ARE ADDICTIVE

hycamguy07 · Sep 19, 2006

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Oxo @ Sep 19 2006, 03:48 PM) [snapback]321813[/snapback]</div>

Thanks for these. But there should be a warning on this package of links:

WARNING: THESE LINKS ARE ADDICTIVE
[/b]
Click to expand...

:lol: :lol: :lol: "Oxo",

Now for something totally SCARY.. :blink:

I have done reports in the past regargding credit card skimming as it has becomes more prevelent. Say you hand your creditcard to the waiter / waitress at your favorite resturant & you expect to pay for your meal right, or you buy something at a department store. But sometimes that's not all you're paying for.

Example: :huh:
Skimmers are as small as a typical pager and can be easily conceled and caried. This makes it extremely easy for a theif to capture your acount information. The typical example of this would be in a restaurant. You give your waiter/waitress the creditcard and they go to a out of site area to process the sale. A crooked employee could then take your card and swipe it through their own personal skimmer and capture your account information & copy it to a blank card. The typical storage space on a handheld skimmer would hold approximately 100 account numbers.

Another way you can protect your self is instead of signing the back of your creditcard, simply write "SEE I.D." on the back instead.

I really hate to see people fall victim to these types of crimes! :angry:

For more info please see the links below.

Where you can report it & check fraud info:
http://www.ckfraud.org/

ATM Skimmers:
http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/atmcamera.asp

More info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card_fraud

How they do it:
http://idtheft.about.com/od/methodsofthef1/p/Skimming.htm

Oxo · Sep 20, 2006

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(priusguy04 @ Sep 19 2006, 05:24 PM) [snapback]321909[/snapback]</div>

:lol: :lol: :lol: "Oxo",

Now for something totally SCARY.. :blink:

Example: :huh:
Skimmers are as small as a typical pager and can be easily conceled and caried. This makes it extremely easy for a theif to capture your acount information. The typical example of this would be in a restaurant. You give your waiter/waitress the creditcard and they go to a out of site area to process the sale. A crooked employee could then take your card and swipe it through their own personal skimmer and capture your account information & copy it to a blank card. The typical storage space on a handheld skimmer would hold approximately 100 account numbers.

[/b]
Click to expand...

Here you don't sign the bill, you enter a PIN secretly in a little gadget handed to you by the waiter. I don't know if this makes 'skimming' redundant. I doubt if the PIN is picked up by the skimmer.

(PIN=personal identity number)

hycamguy07 · Sep 20, 2006

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Oxo @ Sep 20 2006, 06:02 AM) [snapback]322151[/snapback]</div>

Here you don't sign the bill, you enter a PIN secretly in a little gadget handed to you by the waiter. I don't know if this makes 'skimming' redundant. I doubt if the PIN is picked up by the skimmer.

(PIN=personal identity number)
[/b]
Click to expand...

I belive its programmed into the strip.?.. :mellow:

Becides here they will ask you debit or credit (debit requires a PIN) (Credit can be your zip code or nothing at all).

TonyPSchaefer · Sep 20, 2006

I used to work for a company that produced live credit cards and I wrote informational technical documents about our products - including the 30-mil credit card with mag strip. That was a few years. I have my documents at home; I'll try to remember to look it up.

Unless things have changed recently:
There are three tracks on the standard credit card. One is used for storing information such as for debit cards that hold a balance, one is used to store information about the card itself such as the number of the credit card and the other was designed to be used by automated teller machines.

Track one holds the card number, the expiration date, and I think the card holder's name.

Track two would be for the read/write ability of a debit card potentially changing balances. If you've bought a gift certificate card from a restaurant, for example, you have seem them take a blank card and swipe it to "charge" it. This act writes to the card, storing the value. Because it doesn't hold much information, I want to say that this track has a lower bit-count than the other two. (like I said, it's been years since I worked with these things)

Track three was originally intended for doing business with ATMs. The thing is, the original plan for ATMs didn't have them all networked together, connecting to a customer database. So the original plan was to allow the user to carry their card, ID, and password with them since there was no way to verify with the bank. Think about it, without access to the bank, the only way to verify the account/password connection is to have them both on the card. And if you changed your password, it would overwrite the old one on the card. However, ATMs were interconnected very quickly after they became popular and the use of track three quickly fell. If there's something on track three, I certianly don't know what it is.

Probably more information than you ever needed to know about the three tracks on a credit/debit card. But there you have it.

BTW, this information is compliments of my shotty memory. If anything is wrong, I blame everyone else.

galaxee · Sep 20, 2006

writing "see id" on the back of a credit or debit card is futile at best. i did it, and have been asked maybe 1/10 of the time since.

yeah, helpful when the clerks actually ask for your id.

and when i was one of those retail clerks, and someone wrote "see id" and i had the gall to actually ask for one... the person would get all POd at me. Wth?

tumbleweed · Sep 20, 2006

Two other tips to help make you a little more secure:

Do not use a debit card, use credit cards. If someone steals your debit card they empty out your checking account and you have to prove it wasn't you. You most likely will eventually get your money back if you have a good bank, but a lot of checks could bounce in the mean time. Very embarrassing and it's up to you to explain to everyone who got a bad check from you why it happened. If you have a credit card stolen you might be responsible for $50, most likely nothing. If you want a card for ATMs don't get a debit card, get a dedicated ATM card from your bank that can only be used in ATMs.

If you ever have your identity stolen keep a copy of the police report with you at all times. People have actually ended up in jail because they could not prove they were the victim instead of the thief.

hycamguy07 · Sep 20, 2006

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ Sep 20 2006, 12:57 PM) [snapback]322301[/snapback]</div>

I used to work for a company that produced live credit cards and I wrote informational technical documents about our products - including the 30-mil credit card with mag strip. That was a few years. I have my documents at home; I'll try to remember to look it up.

Unless things have changed recently:
There are three tracks on the standard credit card. One is used for storing information such as for debit cards that hold a balance, one is used to store information about the card itself such as the number of the credit card and the other was designed to be used by automated teller machines.

Track one holds the card number, the expiration date, and I think the card holder's name.

Track two would be for the read/write ability of a debit card potentially changing balances. If you've bought a gift certificate card from a restaurant, for example, you have seem them take a blank card and swipe it to "charge" it. This act writes to the card, storing the value. Because it doesn't hold much information, I want to say that this track has a lower bit-count than the other two. (like I said, it's been years since I worked with these things)

Track three was originally intended for doing business with ATMs. The thing is, the original plan for ATMs didn't have them all networked together, connecting to a customer database. So the original plan was to allow the user to carry their card, ID, and password with them since there was no way to verify with the bank. Think about it, without access to the bank, the only way to verify the account/password connection is to have them both on the card. And if you changed your password, it would overwrite the old one on the card. However, ATMs were interconnected very quickly after they became popular and the use of track three quickly fell. If there's something on track three, I certianly don't know what it is.

Probably more information than you ever needed to know about the three tracks on a credit/debit card. But there you have it.

BTW, this information is compliments of my shotty memory. If anything is wrong, I blame everyone else.
[/b]
Click to expand...

Wow Tony, I didnt know about the three lines of info! Thanks for the info, really
I didnt want that to sound smart alecy, really thanks I've been enlightend B)

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee @ Sep 20 2006, 04:20 PM) [snapback]322422[/snapback]</div>

writing "see id" on the back of a credit or debit card is futile at best. i did it, and have been asked maybe 1/10 of the time since.

yeah, helpful when the clerks actually ask for your id.

and when i was one of those retail clerks, and someone wrote "see id" and i had the gall to actually ask for one... the person would get all POd at me. Wth?
[/b]
Click to expand...

I know Ive been there done that, guilty! but the clerk said it was to protect me from someone becides me from using the card... I wasn't Pod then....

When the clerks dont ask for the ID I ask them why? they seem suprised

Hoaxs & Scams & Identity Theft, CC skimmers

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