Phishing… Could You Be A Victim ?

Phishing is a one of the fastest-growing cyber crimes.

Phishers are sneaky low life’s that prey on their unsuspecting victims almost with impunity.

In order to protect ourselves, we must study to know how Phishing works.

Know Thy Enemy…

According to the FBI, it will cost consumers millions of dollars this year alone.

Phishing is a relatively new term, used to describe the act of trying to get private information from anyone by pretending to be someone that they aren’t via the Internet.

Phishing is accomplished through the use of deception mainly through emails and websites that try to convince the victim they are a bank or even the government.

Phishing really is high tech identity theft! No longer are they going through your trash, they operate from the comfort of their own homes.

Cyber Criminals steal your identity and personal information to gain access to your bank accounts, credit card information or even online trading accounts

Email

Emails are the main entry point for phishers and can be sent from anyone claiming to be whomever they want.

Phishers use a number of different social engineering and e-mail spoofing ploys to try to trick their victims.

Phishers regularly & very cleverly disguise the sender identification in an email to make the email look like it is coming from a bank or online merchant.

They use scare tactics, employing urgent language to pressure you into submitting confidential data.

Emails from your bank or ISP will never ask you to send them your private or personal information via email or to fill in a form with sensitive personal information online.

Email messages about tax refunds that claim to be from the IRS are usually phishers who are trying to scam you. The best thing you can do is call the IRS & confirm the email is for real.

Security

Security firm SophosLabs says over 75 percent of all Phishing e-mail targets PayPal and eBay users.

Phishers will try to convince victims to log into their accounts on a website that looks just like Pay Pal or eBay but in reality is owned by the scammers.

When these cybercrooks succeed in convincing an unwitting victim to enter their personal information & passwords, they instantly have access to the victim’s real account.

Security experts recently discovered that vast networks of home computers were being hijacked and then rented out to phishers who would steal private, business or personal information and then steal money from the victims

Bank

Sources say that Bank of America is one of several websites that ask users to select a personal image, and display this user-selected image with any forms that request a password although I haven’t seen this myself

Banks like Citibank have felt the wrath of phishers who have targeted their customers unmercifully.

In conclusion…

Identity theft occurs when someone steals your personal or business information illegally in order to access your financial accounts

Phishing is no longer a nuisance crime. Phishing is fraud on the Internet, just like fraud that happens on the street.

Phishing is a real threat to financial firms from IBM to Morgan Stanley.

Phishing really is an old con game with a high tech twist…

Washington & $10 Million Dollars For Cyber Crime

“Cyber-Security Enhancement Act of 2007″ was passed Monday. It provides the funds to the Secret Service to fight credit card fraud, along with the Justice Department and FBI.

In my opinion lawmakers need to open their eyes & take a look around at some of the spy software applications that anybody can download & install on any computer.

Once a keylogger type spy software application is on a computer, any credit card numbers, bank passwords, personal & business information can all be recorded and mis-used by the bad guys. It's no wonder Identity theft is the number one crime in America today...

It looks to me like we are really responsible for our own privacy protection, because with spy software & keylogger applications a dime a dozen, any eight year old with half a brain can get their hands on this stuff, install it and watch everything happening on that computer.

So how easy is it for someone who WANTS TO STEAL FROM US to put a keylogger or spy software product on our computers???

Duh...

I just checked download.com again and found over a million keylogger & spy software downloads just over the last few months. Hey that's just one download site... What about all the others?

I'm not trying to scare anyone... or maybe I am... At any rate I don't think Uncle Sam will have a lot of answers for us any time soon.

Dating Sites & Scams

If you are one who visits social networking sites or dating sites in search of true love, you need to be aware of the fact that there are predators and scammers who will lie cheat and steal, just to get their hooks in you.

I STRONGLY urge you to shoot over to www.romancescams.org/ and learn what to watch out for!

If anyone falls victim to Identity Theft from any source, the below information will help.

Identity Theft

Victims: Immediate Steps to Take

When you have been scammed you are at risk for identity theft, we suggest that you do the following steps to help protect yourself and your credit:

• Save detail records of your conversations and copies of all correspondence
  
• Place a fraud alerts on your credit reports, and review your credit reports
  
• You only need to contact one of the three companies to place an alert
  
• Equifax: 1-800-525-6285; www.equifax.com;
  P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
  
• Experian: 1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742); www.experian.com; P.O. Box 9532, Allen, TX 75013
  
• TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289; www.transunion.com; Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834-6790
  
• Ask for a free copy of your credit report and go over the report, look for inquiries from companies you haven’t contacted, accounts you haven’t opened or debts. If you find any thing that is not supposed to be there get it removed. Continue to check your credit reports for at least a year after being scammed.
  
• To place an alert on your credit report, or to have them removed, you will be required to provide appropriate proof of your identity: that may include your Social Security number, name, address and other personal information.
  
• You will also need to make a police report if your identity has been stolen, keep a copy of the police report for your records.
  
• If you gave your scammer your banking information, and/ or credit card information you will need to close your accounts:
  
• Call or go to the security or fraud department of each company or your bank. Bring with you copies of supporting documents (emails, instant messages, items received in the mail…anything you have to prove you’re a victim).
  
• If there has been activity on your accounts ask the company for the forms to dispute the transactions. When the dispute is cleared ask for a letter stating this fact.
  

Reporting Agencies and Links:

• Financial Crimes Task Force http://financialcrimestaskforce.com/action.html
  
• AnnualCreditReport.com https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp
  
• Attorney (State) General Contact List Idtheftpolice.php"> http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/Idtheftpolice.php
  
• Better Business Bureau http://www.bbb.org/
  
• Federal Trade Commission http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/06/freeannual.htm
  
• Federal Trade Commission Identity Theft- Complaint Input Form https://rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod/widtpubl$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU03
  
• Identity Theft Government Agency Resources Who to Contact http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/Idtheftresources.php
  
• Identity Theft Resource Center http://www.idtheftcenter.org/index.shtml
  
• Identity Theft Fact Sheets http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/Idtheftfactsheets.php

Software Key Logger Review (Spy Software)

Welcome to my Keylogger review blog.

There are legitimate & illegitimate uses for key logger type Spy Software.

Some watch a child’s Internet activity, or monitor employees while in a work environment. Some use spy software just to see if anyone is using their computer when they are away.

Many times key logger type spy software is used by family members spying on other family members. Husbands & wives watching each others Internet usage. Even ex spouses who want to find anything that will help them in their upcoming divorce proceedings

Computer recording software is, according to our findings, used more & more unethically and even illegally by those who want to steal sensitive or private information from you, or your business, without ever being caught. Some spy software users are just curious as to what you do on your computer.

Identity Theft has graduated to the NUMBER 1 crime in the United States today surpassing drug abuse and all other crimes!

There are over 500+ companies selling this stuff and many are making a fortune. Don't take my word for it,if you want to find examples, a Google search for “Spy Software” will reveal plenty.

At the time of this writing there were over 20 million results in Google for the term spy software.

That should tell you something of the popularity of this type of software and may also cause you to wonder if your computer hasn’t possibly been infected.

I mean think of it. Spy Software gives ANYONE who can turn on a computer the skills of a seasoned computer hacker. Spy Software allows whoever purchases it, the ability to covertly monitor ANY computer in the world!

Many of these key logger type spy software products can be remotely installed right over the Internet.

If you're a credit card thief and you need some credit card numbers to purchase things online, it's very simple to harvest credit card numbers from multiple computers if you have spy software installed.

Heck if you're a really nasty type, you can blackmail people by harvesting sensitive emails, or chats that you capture from others computers.

The biggest problem I've found with this type of monitoring product is that it's perfectly legal to buy or sell.

Many don't understand how identity theft got so big, but we see horror stories everyday, and these stories are increasing exponentially.

Just go to www.ftc.gov and read all about it.

Hardware Key Logger Review

Hardware Keyloggers

These types of keyloggers require that the perpetrator have physical access to your computer. They can easily be installed in less than 5 seconds. They come in the form of USB port connectors, keyboard connectors and even masquerade as keyboards themselves.

Once installed, a hardware keylogger will capture every keystroke entered into your keyboard and then store it for future retrieval on the device itself.

Some hardware keylogger companies boast a two million keystroke capacity! That’s about 5 years worth of typing for the average computer user. Whether at home or in the office, you can easily fall victim to this type of spying. A Hardware Keylogger is installed between your keyboard and computer, like this:


Some hardware keyloggers come in the form of a keyboard, but if you examine the line going to the computer you can see an irregular bulge as pictured below. That should make you very suspicious

Some Key Loggers come in the form of a USB Drive

How do they work?

All hardware keyloggers have to have the following:

· A microcontroller - this interprets the datastream between the keyboard and computer, processes it, and passes it to the non-volatile memory

· A non-volatile memory - this stores the recorded data, even when power is lost
On the whole, typing a special password into a computer text editor retrieves the recorded data. As the hardware keylogger is plugged in-between the keyboard and computer, it detects the password has been typed and then starts presenting the computer with "typed" data to produce a menu.

Beyond text menu some keyloggers offer a high-speed download to speed up retrieval of stored data, this can be via USB mass-storage enumeration or with a USB or serial download adapter.

Spy Vs Spy

Many companies are marketing Spy Software & Key Loggers as an easy way to watch your children’s Internet use or your employees’ use of your computers, but keep in mind that these products can be used by criminals to watch you just as easily.

If they are designed to be concealed from the computer operator, they can be used by the bad guys too…

Covert High Tech Tools We Will Cover In This Blog

· Hardware Keyloggers - what they are and what they look like.

· Computer Spy Software – what spy software is and how it’s used to monitor employees, children and maybe even used to spy on you.

· Computer Spy Software Detectors: what you need to be sure no one is spying on you, including the most popular spy software detection products.

Electronic Eavesdropping & Keylogger Reviews

ID Theft is the number one crime in America as of this writing.

As the smoke clears from the sudden onslaught of computers and the Internet, millions of people are suddenly discovering their private information isn’t as private as they thought it was.

In fact, many law enforcement agencies are learning that electronic information theft is quickly becoming the nation’s number one way that crooks are using to get their hands on goods and services with the least chance of getting caught!

Many successful cyber thieves are finding it extremely easy to scour someone else’s computer for passwords and credit card numbers from the comfort of their own homes.

Most of the tools used to spy on other people’s computers are freely bought and sold over the Internet under the guise of legally sold hardware and software.

This blog will expose the most common and least known ways a criminal can steal from you, without you suspecting a thing.

Law enforcement just can’t keep up with the cyber tide so consumers and business owners are now in the precarious position of protecting themselves or else suffer the consequences.

All of us use computers for filing our taxes, running our companies, and for purchasing everything from prescriptions to automobiles over the Internet.

Most people don’t know how easy it is for anyone with a computer and Internet access to “electronically” peer over our shoulder, while we access our bank accounts, trade stocks or chat with our loved ones.

Our goal here is to expose to you the most used tools of the cyber criminal and show you how to protect yourself.