Hackers and Crooks a real menace to society

Hackers and crooks, a real menace to society
I am aboard American Airlines flight 857 on my way to Dallas, then El Paso to cross the border into Ciudad Juarez.
Yes, many friends and business associates have warned me on how dangerous it is to travel to Juarez, arguably the most dangerous city in the world, even worse than Caracas which we all know thousands of people are killed every year victims of crime. And yet, it has great, decent people, and I have good friends in the city.
I will be speaking in an event hosted by entrepreneurs that want to help Juarez pull out of that horrible reputation as a high crime city. Yes, they have quite a problem with drug trafficking, kidnapping and murder of innocent victims. But as a society they need to face this situation firmly and do what needs to be done to eliminate these problems.
I am speaking in a wonderful event "Va por Juarez" planned in order to show people that when you work together, great things may be accomplished and even though they are facing a difficult situation, lots can be done if they get together to look for solutions and implement them.
So, even though I could write this article about the perils of visiting Juarez, I will instead focus on a problem that affects most or all of us rather directly: Identity Theft.
It was 1.38pm yesterday when I received a text message from a friend saying that he was so sorry that I had been vacationing in London and that I got mugged. He told me that my wallet had been stolen and that I was in need of some funds so that I could return home.
That was news to me since I was at the time in a law office helping my daughter with a project she was involved in.
I told him that it wasn’t me and that I probably had been hacked. This happened in the highly popular site, Face book. I thanked him for telling me and that I would change my password as soon as I got to a computer.
A few minutes later, I get another email by a friend telling me the same story but he wanted to make sure I was in trouble and that I had written that. So, he asked me where we met so that if it was a hacker, he couldn’t give him the answer.
Another friend wrote me asking me for our secret word, (funny that I had no idea) so that he could establish if it was me the one asking for help.
Then a Face book friend, a nice lady who I really didn’t even remember since I have over 1,200 friends in Face book called me on my cel phone and asked me if I was ok because I had texted her saying that I had been mugged in London, England.
I thanked her, went down to my car, connected with my Sprint card to the internet, went into Face book and changed my password.
What happened to me, luckily, I was able to stop rather quickly. But what if some of my friends had wired money to England to get me out of a jam and it was all a swindle?
I must warn you that even though we are living in the most exciting time in history, we are living in the most dangerous of all times.
Years ago, we only had to worry about rubber checks, phony investment schemes, embezzlement, what they called white collar crime but now, a very simple crime, very easy to carry out and highly profitable is endangering all of us: Identity theft, the wholesale lifting of someone’s identity for illicit gain. It’s stealing that identity, then using it to access a person’s bank account, their most intimate and personal information and their personal finances. It is becoming someone else to take possession of all their money, even their lives.
Listen carefully, if someone gets a hold of your name, your date of birth, and your social security number, that is all you need to become someone else. A phone and a cheap computer is all you need to pull it off.
Last night, a good friend who has a business helping executives present better using power point and other software, called me to tell me that he lost quite a bit of data and money because a Russian Hacker had taken possession of his web site and had taken all of his data and then erased it. It took him a week to try to construct everything again and he obviously wasn’t able to recoup everything.
He described last week as the worst week of his entire life.
If I want your social security number, all I have to do is to go to an online provider of social security numbers, I won’t provide the information here because I know that there is at least one crook reading this article right now, and get the number. It will only cost me $49.00 to do that.
If you go on to that website and you know of a child who is ten or eleven years old and he’s got a social security number assigned to him that he obviously has never used yet, simply type in his name and address and you will get his social security number. What a problem for that child when he enters the work force and faces this situation.
There is even a detective company online whose ad is “we will tell you everything and anything about anybody for a fee. The fee is $150.00.
What they will tell you is where you work, what your salary is, your date of birth, and your social security number, who you are married to, and who you have been married to. They will tell you whether you have had a DUI, if you have ever been arrested, where you went to school and where you went to college, everything a hacker would need to become you and steal your money.
There is even another site who will tell you what the FBI knows about you.
What can you do?
I really don’t know. I do know that for starters you should change your passwords rather frequently, be on the lookout at all times for anything suspicious, never use your debit card anywhere, instead use a credit card. American Express has a very safe system and probably Visa and MasterCard too.
You should check out a service called Privacy Guard, they are experts at guarding your identity.
If you have already been a victim, immediately call the credit bureau’s fraud department and report it.
Shut down all compromised accounts and documents.
If your passport has been stolen, contact the State Department at www.state.gov.
File a police report, not really to catch the thief because it probably won’t happen, but to make it easier to deal with the credit bureaus
Keep a good record of everything you do, send certified mail, return receipt requested, and keep copies of everything.
If you have determined as best as you can the extent of the fraud, file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at www. Consumer.gov/idtheft or by phone at 1 877 IDTHEFT.
It is not a bad idea to report it to the FBI also at www.tips.fbi.gov or give them a call.
Finally, make sure you hire a web developer that knows his stuff, that knows about safeguards and is an expert on avoiding someone hacking into your site and making your life miserable.
This is not a motivational column obviously, but I do hope it motivates you to start taking steps to protect your identity and your life.