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Active Duty Servicemembers are More likely to Report Identity Theft than Other Adults, New FTC Data Shows

Nearly three times as likely to report someone used a debit card or some other electronic means to take money directly from their bank account Active duty servicemembers are 76 percent more likely than other adults to report that an identity thief misused existing accounts, such as a bank account or credit card, according to …

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Starting Today, New Law Allows Consumers to Place Free Credit Freezes And Yearlong Fraud Alerts

Starting today, consumers who are concerned about identity theft or data breaches can freeze their credit and place one-year fraud alerts for free. Under the new Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, consumers in some states – those who previously had to pay fees to freeze their credit – will no longer have …

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Lead Generation Firm Blue Global Media Sold Personal Consumer Data, Not Easy Loans

The operators of a lead generation business have agreed to settle charges brought by the Federal Trade Commission that the company misled consumers into filling out loan applications and sold those applications – including consumers’ sensitive data – to virtually anyone willing to pay for the leads. In its complaint, the FTC alleges that Blue …

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Student Loan Financial Aid FAFSA-IRS Data Breach

I had previously reported a curious statement by the Department of Education and the suspension of the online Data Retrieval Tool when applying for student loan financial aid using the online FAFSA form. At the time the concern was the “issue” was “relatively isolated,” but a Washington Post report says 100,000 people are impacted. The …

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FTC Smacks LifeLock for Violations of Previous Agreement

The Federal Trade Commission today asserted that LifeLock violated a 2010 settlement with the agency and 35 state attorneys general by continuing to make deceptive claims about its identity theft protection services, and by failing to take steps required to protect its users’ data. In documents filed with the U.S. District Court for the District …

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Help! Someone Used My Kid’s Identity to Get a Bigger Tax Refund

Filing your taxes should trigger a feeling of relief — it’s a huge thing you get to scratch off your to-do list — but millions of taxpayers have submitted their taxes only to have a very unpleasant experience: that their Social Security number has already been used in a tax filing. Most people discover this …

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Identity Thieves Con the Department of Education Out of Student Loan Money

We’ve heard a lot in the news about people stealing information on people and using that personal information to file for tax refunds. It’s a growing form of identity theft. But in a new twist, Ronzell and Stephanie Mitchell were using stolen personal information to scam the Department of Education out of $270,000 of student …

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Identity Theft in a Digital Age: Deter – Detect – Defend.

Written by Daniel Boylan, instructor of finance at Ball State University Student debt is rising. It is rising at an alarming rate. According to NerdWallet, a typical student will leave college with about $33,000 in debt. Credit card is rising. It is rising at an alarming rate. According to JumpStart, a typical student will leave …

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