CSQmag.com
INDUSTRY: Privacy Protection
Quick Tips for Financial Security
By Robert J. Rebhan
Former LAPD Detective & Financial Crimes Expert
If you want to reduce your vulnerability to identity theft, stop depending upon others to protect you. It’s all about you and what you do. Credit monitoring services can be a tool incorporated into your overall defensive plan, but they are not the whole plan. The police cannot protect you. The courts cannot protect you. Your bank, your homeowner’s association, your local politician, and guardian angels cannot protect you. It is all about you and what you do.
Look At Your House. Sadly, identity thieves are often related to their victims, or they are individuals invited into our homes to perform services, so take a look around. Is your checkbook, wallet, handbag, or financial document sitting out in view of workers, visiting neighbors, nosy relations, or domestic help? If so, secure them! Why tempt a dear nephew who needs to pay off a Texas-hold-em poker debt?
Protect Your Mail. Identity thieves steal mail to get your check, credit card, banking, and/or other personal information. After delivery, promptly remove mail from your mailbox. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, place outgoing mail in your curbside mailbox, raising the red flag indicating “pick-up.” Deposit outgoing mail at the post office, not in any type of unsecured street mail receptacles.
Shred. Purchase a criss-cross shredder that makes confetti out of your unwanted documents and mail. Destroy anything with personal information on it.
Sign Checks, Credit Cards and Other Documents with a “Gel” Ink Pen. This ink is near impossible for crooks to chemically “wash” the ink off. Eighty-five household products like oven cleaner, bleach, and automobile brake fluid can be used by thieves to steal your money by altering checks.
Review Your Credit and Bank Statements as Soon as they Arrive. Match all credit card receipts against the statement and then destroy the slips if not needed for tax purposes. Do not delay reporting unauthorized charges or missing statements. You have a limited amount of time to dispute customer service issues and fraud.
Use Caution When Using the ATM. Thieves sometimes rig the ATM equipment to record account numbers or trap inserted cards. Then they use hidden cameras, or they shoulder surf (peeking over your body to capture PIN numbers). Later in the day, they can withdraw your money. Politely ask the encroaching person behind you to give you some privacy.
If your card ever gets stuck in the ATM and it is the weekend, immediately use your cell phone to cancel the account. Criminals sometimes insert a device to “trap” cards and steal them when you walk away.
Review Your Credit Reports. You will minimize the damage and shorten the life of a financial intrusion if you read the reports. Every 12 months, you can get the first reports free of charge. If you need more frequent reports to relieve stress and increase your level of awareness, feel free to buy more copies from each of the three major credit bureaus. You can access all three via the Web at www.annualcreditreport.com, or by phoning 877/322.8228.
Mr. Rebhan is an expert and speaker on the issue of financial crimes. He is a former Los Angeles Police Detective Sergeant and a special consultant to the American Express Company. His Web site is www.robertrebhan.com.
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Privacy: Shooting Your Mouth Off by Robert Rebhan
No wonder identity the
ft is on the rise. Thieves aren’t the only ones fishing for information. It seems our whole society is in on encouraging the disclosure of one’s personal details. We mainline social networking sites and reality television, where the more personal and shocking the information revealed, the better. All the while, we are overwhelmed with stories of victimization. In a time when we should be practicing prudence, many of us continue to offer up our private information, inadvertently sacrificing our financial wellbeing in the process. It’s time to pull back on the reins and think seriously about how vulnerable we are making ourselves.
When I was a kid growing up in New York City, there were lots of idioms for depicting the act of talking too much. If you told a secret or spread a rumor, you were said to be shooting your mouth off.
Sometimes shooting your mouth off was done without malice, like when one enamored employee at the local pool hall revealed that his boss always carried a huge wad of cash. Other times, talking too much was done maliciously. Like when a kid snitched to his friends that his girlfriend’s father had a collection of guns and gold coins displayed in the living room curio cabinet. After the kid opened his yap, his tipped-off pals would burglarize the place.
Private investigators and police detectives are pretty good at getting people to spill their guts. When they’re on the trail of a thief or a missing person who doesn’t want to be located, they use a tactic called pretexting, or they would use a ruse to get an associate or relative of the guy on the lamb to inadvertently reveal information.
These days there is a quaint term being used attributed to the act of trying to get a person to blab some tidbit that he or she shouldn’t reveal. The person who is trying to get information is called a social engineer, and his quest is called social engineering. Sometimes this social engineering is done to commit a criminal act like identity theft or business fraud. And unfortunately, books are being written on how to do it well.
So in your personal affairs and in business think twice before you shoot your mouth off. Over the telephone, only tell people what they need to know. And of course, only post something on your social networking site that won’t cause you grief later.
Remember, If you want privacy, then set secrecy as your goal.
Some sources put the number of identity theft victims in 2009 at around ten million. Every few seconds another person is victimized.
A few days ago another victim’s case was profiled. The story in the Miami Herald revealed a case involving a dozen undocumented workers all using the Social Security number belonging to 18-year-old Tia Nicole Holzworth. Detectives think as many as one hundred others, including a fugitive, have fraudulently used Tia’s number for employment. In doing so they have caused undue grief for Tia, and they’ve corrupted her credit and tax histories.
Internally, the Social Security Administration actually recognizes multiple users of a single number. They don’t report the criminal acts, however, as they are not legally obligated to do so. Ignoring the crime and compounding the identity theft, the government just keeps collecting the withheld taxes. I want to know where the money is that has been collected from identity thieves.
You see, I know these collected funds don’t go into the general S.S. lockbox. They are diverted into a black hole, a special account called the Earnings Suspense Fund. These are professed to be untouchable funds. They are supposed to be there. They are not. A few years ago I asked a congressman where the money was. He didn’t know.
According to federal sources, to date, the fund is supposed to be populated with nearly three quarters of a trillion dollars. I guess it was simply inappropriately appropriated by another imposter masquerading as a representative of the people.
My name is Robert Rebhan and it is important to me that everyone know their rights and think about privacy. Should you have any questions or comments please email me at RJRebhan@aol.com and be sure to check out my blog regularly at http://robertrebhan.wordpress.com where you can subscribe and get this helpful information delivered direct to your email.
According to a Los Angeles Times article dated March 8, 2010, over 18,000 patients whose medical information is stored on the computer systems of five doctors in Torrance, California became potential victims of identity theft in September when cyber criminals penetrated the doctors’ computer networks.
Privacy
After I left the military, I applied to become a cop. It was a full year before I could start the police academy, so I took a job connecting wires for Pacific Bell. I was assigned to a building in Hollywood referred to as the Melrose Avenue frame. It was an interesting job. Some of the Pac Bell employees were amusing themselves by tapping the phones of people who lived in the Hollywood area. Every day, employees shared stories of calls involving Hollywood hookers, dope dealers, Playboy Club bunnies and lots of celebrities. One story I remember was that of a popular movie star’s mistress who was whining over the telephone to her boyfriend about the fact that his wife drove a luxury car and she only got to drive a mustang convertible. She threatened to dump him.
The citizens of Hollywood had the expectation of telephone privacy. They had little. And when the wires of high profile subscribers were silent, ordinary people’s conversations became fair game.
Times haven’t changed.
Employees of various companies are still being entertained by their clients. And theft of data for profit or fun—a secret to tell—is still hot stuff. The recent UCLA Medical Center Patient record breach is a great example. The case was impressive, not because of the number of victims or gigabytes of data stolen, or even who was victimized (Britney Spears among others). It was formidable because of the number of technicians, doctors, nurses and clerical staff that violated patient privacy, committing federal crimes while violating personal agreements and oaths.
When polled, the American people respond that members of the medical profession have far more integrity than politicians and used car salesmen. But I don’t need to remind you that even the sacred professions of law and the clergy are riddled with corruption. My files are filled with cases of fraudulent behavior by professionals including judges, bookkeepers, notary publics, and computer repair technicians who, after being hired to repair home computers, arranged it so they could come back in remotely to snoop through the customer’s computer files.
Corrupt Data
I subscribe to and read For The Record, arguably the leading publication dealing with medical data entry. The April 12, 2010 issue revealed a headline, “Injections & Infusions, Will the Confusion Ever Go Away?” Lisa A. Eramo’s entire article relates to data entry mistakes.
I have O Negative blood. I have been told it will kill me if during an emergency I get any other type of blood. The Negative is normally denoted by a minus (-) and the Positive as a plus (+). Data entry is obviously an issue. When I arrive at the emergency room I want a transfusion of the right kind of blood.
The May-June 2010 issue of Psychology Today magazine revealed that nearly twenty percent of medical trainees rated their personal mental health as “fair to poor.” This isn’t necessarily an indication that they will actually compromise the privacy or financial integrity of their patients. However it is a reminder of the frailty of human nature. And those medical workers, as ordinary human beings, can be expected to have an occasional lapse in judgment, possibly corrupting the entry of health care data and or misusing data they retrieve.
Lost Data
Currently, and with alarming frequency, I am reading reports of numerous mobile computers containing unencrypted state secrets, intellectual property, credit data and medical records being lost, stolen and compromised. And with more frequency, in the near future, they will surely be loaded with your medical history and financial records because the government—with certainty—must outsource the job of managing all of this data. And this is another example of where you will have ever increasing risk to your health records and financial well being. Financial, because the health care bill also includes a provision to link your personal bank accounts to the health care system.
In tech talk, “end point devices” are computers or other electronic devices that connect to the internet. In business they are usually located behind historically vulnerable “fire wall” barriers. End point devices can also be those mobile devices outside of the protections of firewalls. And because humans use them, end point devices cause security professionals to have nightmares. End point devices are the personal computers sitting on a government employee’s desk, with porno on the monitor. End points are also the unattended wireless devices sitting on vacant tables in Starbucks, as patrons order their Lattes. These people are not thinking about security.
It is my opinion, as long as people are fallible, curious and corrupt, you will be personally vulnerable. And as long as section 163 of the new health care plan remains unchallenged and unchanged you are in jeopardy.
I am very concerned by these intertwined issues of privacy and financial data insecurity. It is my opinion the government should stick to being gatekeepers of our boarders, not our medical records.
The health care bill should be modified to remove these provisions.
My name is Robert Rebhan and it is important to me that everyone know their rights and think about privacy. Should you have any questions or comments please email me at RJRebhan@aol.com and be sure to check out my blog regularly at http://robertrebhan.wordpress.com where you can subscribe and get this helpful information delivered direct to your email.
Privacy—My Medical Records Exposed – by Robert Rebhan
A few weeks ago, at a seminar hosted by a federal law enforcement agency, I asked an off topic question of the lecturer. “How do you feel about the Obama administration’s drive toward centralized-digitalized health records? He paused and replied, “If you can store it . . . I can steal it.” His answer was more confirmation for my position. Anyone who knows anything about data collection, transmission and storage knows it can be intentionally and accidentally corrupted and/or stolen.
Richard Skinner, the Inspector General of Homeland Security is on record stating the federal government cannot protect any secrets from cyber criminals. After he made the statement, the Department of Homeland Security was hacked, as was the White House and hundreds of municipalities, businesses and universities across the nation.
I don’t want the government to have my health records or to be a gatekeeper for sharing the records. I want the data to stay in a cardboard folder, in a metal file cabinet, in my orthopedic surgeon’s office, with my payment records sandwiched between x-rays of my wounded knees and layers of cryptic notes only the old doc can read.
Sharing health records should be at the discretion of the patient; those with catastrophic illness, disabilities and perhaps mobile entities like the military.
That is true privacy. You can take that to the bank.
My name is Robert Rebhan and it is important to me that everyone know their rights and think about privacy. Should you have any questions or comments please email me at RJRebhan@aol.com and be sure to check out my blog regularly at http://robertrebhan.wordpress.com where you can subscribe and get this helpful information delivered direct to your email.
