Identity Theft

More than 50 people have been indicted in Southern California, Las Vegas and Charlotte, N.C., in connection with a "phishing" scheme to steal bank account information from thousands of victims in the United States, authorities said Tuesday. The federal grand jury indictment, which was unsealed Wednesday, names 53 suspects -- 33 of whom have already been arrested -- as well as 47 unindicted co-conspirators from Egypt, said FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller. All of those who were indicted face charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud.

Thinking of selling your smartphone or laptop computer? If you have a BlackBerry or an iPhone, go right ahead. If you were planning to sell an Android phone or a computer running Windows XP, however, you may want to think again,  McAfee identify theft expert Robert Siciliano says. Siciliano recently purchased 30 electronic devices from Craigslist - mostly smartphones and laptops - to see how effective normal people are at removing personal information from their gadgets before selling them.

Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer warned Tuesday that the timing of new federal protections against identity theft threatens to expose California consumers to the very scams the laws were designed to prevent. Some of the new federal safeguards in a law signed earlier this month by President Bush will take effect in June, others on Dec. 1. However, the law prohibits states from enacting stricter protections in the field of consumer credit than those approved by Congress, a practice known as preemption.

Match.com, eHarmony and Spark Networks agreed Tuesday to screen their prospective online dating clients for histories of sexual assault, violence and identify theft, California Atty. Gen.Kamala D. Harris announced. The agreement stemmed from a lawsuit brought last year by a Match.com client who was raped on a date with a repeat sex offender to whom she had been matched by the dating service. The companies also promised to improve safe-dating advice offered online and to educate clients about the risks of being targeted in financial scams.

Its chief executive prominently displays his Social Security number in ads for his identity-theft protection company. But LifeLock Inc. couldn't protect customers from the company's own misleading advertising, according to state and federal authorities. In a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general from California and 34 other states, LifeLock agreed Tuesday to tone down claims about the effectiveness of its service and to pay $11 million to customers and $1 million for the costs of the investigation.

Identity theft, hiding income offshore and inflating expenses are among the frauds that commonly pop out during tax preparation season, the Internal Revenue Service warns. The federal agency, which administers tax collection, has released its annual list of the so-called dirty dozen tax scams. Such scams often become more prevalent as the tax season comes to a head; this year's tax deadline is April 17. The ranking is designed to protect taxpayers from the unscrupulous as well as ensure the government gets the funds it needs to operate.

Now it's my turn to be a statistic. Not that kind. I'm still here and writing. So far, anyway. Let me check my in-box -- nope, no pink slip. So where was I? Oh, right. A statistic. Add me to the thousands of victims of identity theft (313,982 reported last year, according to the Federal Trade Commission). Although in my case, it's still potential identity theft, and I'm spending a lot of time and money to keep it that way.

A woman who faced identity theft charges for allegedly creating a fake Facebook page to trash her ex-boyfriend -- a police officer whose false status updates described him as "scum with a gun" with a penchant for drugs, booze and prostitutes -- could have charges dropped after changing her legal tactic. Dana Thornton, 41, of Belleville, N.J., agreed Monday to enter a pretrial intervention program that will require her to visit a probation officer and undergo psychological counseling for a year, the Star-Ledger reported.

Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for. March Madness - Not that Southern California college basketball fans have much to worry about, but the Better Business Bureau warns that scams frequently pop up during the men's college basketball playoffs. Fans should be careful when buying tickets on websites such as Craigslist, which does not guarantee that products sold on the site are authentic and does not collect personal information from sellers, the BBB said.

For the 12 th consecutive year, identity theft was the most common complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission in 2011, the agency announced. Of the more than 1.8 million complaints filed with the FTC last year, more than 279,000 - or 15% -- involved the fraudulent use of consumers' personal information. California residents filed 38,607 complaints of identity theft, the most in the United States, followed by Florida (33,595) and Texas (24,162), according to the FTC report, which was released Tuesday.

A woman who faced identity theft charges for allegedly creating a fake Facebook page to trash her ex-boyfriend -- a police officer whose false status updates described him as "scum with a gun" with a penchant for drugs, booze and prostitutes -- could have charges dropped after changing her legal tactic. Dana Thornton, 41, of Belleville, N.J., agreed Monday to enter a pretrial intervention program that will require her to visit a probation officer and undergo psychological counseling for a year, the Star-Ledger reported.

Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for. March Madness - Not that Southern California college basketball fans have much to worry about, but the Better Business Bureau warns that scams frequently pop up during the men's college basketball playoffs. Fans should be careful when buying tickets on websites such as Craigslist, which does not guarantee that products sold on the site are authentic and does not collect personal information from sellers, the BBB said.

For the 12 th consecutive year, identity theft was the most common complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission in 2011, the agency announced. Of the more than 1.8 million complaints filed with the FTC last year, more than 279,000 - or 15% -- involved the fraudulent use of consumers' personal information. California residents filed 38,607 complaints of identity theft, the most in the United States, followed by Florida (33,595) and Texas (24,162), according to the FTC report, which was released Tuesday.

A Marina del Rey anesthesiologist has filed a lawsuit accusing the president of the 1-800-GET-THIN marketing firm of identity theft for using the doctor's name to establish a corporation that billed insurers without his permission. Dr. Martin E. Flynn alleged in the lawsuit that Robert Silverman set up a company in May 2011 called MAFL Medical Inc., which was used to bill insurers for anesthesiology services provided to Lap-Band weight-loss surgery patients. Flynn acknowledged in the lawsuit that he performed anesthesiology during more than 200 Lap-Band surgeries at outpatient clinics affiliated with 1-800-GET THIN.

Identity theft, hiding income offshore and inflating expenses are among the frauds that commonly pop out during tax preparation season, the Internal Revenue Service warns. The federal agency, which administers tax collection, has released its annual list of the so-called dirty dozen tax scams. Such scams often become more prevalent as the tax season comes to a head; this year's tax deadline is April 17. The ranking is designed to protect taxpayers from the unscrupulous as well as ensure the government gets the funds it needs to operate.

As most folks start preparing to file their income tax returns, the IRS and the Justice Department began unveiling their annual reminders of what happens to those who don't.  The Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday that federal authorities in an extensive sweep across 23 states last week charged 105 people of fraud and identity theft in connection with filing false returns to try to obtain refunds. “ID theft is a growing problem all across the country, and we've come to find out that the tax system isn't immune,” said IRS spokeswoman Anabel Marquez.

California Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris has created a unit within the state Department of Justice that will fight technology crimes and identity theft. The eCrimes Unit will "make sure that vulnerable populations are safe, that consumers are safe and that we allow good behavior to occur," Harris said at a news conference Tuesday in San Jose, chosen because of its location in the tech hub of Silicon Valley. "Where there are predators and predatory practices, we want to ensure we have the skills and technology to go after them and that there is accountability and consequences," Harris said.

Medicare scams seem to come with the holiday season, especially during the open-enrollment period that lasts through the end of the year. Scammers typically seek financial information from seniors over the phone in a scheme that amounts to Medicare identity theft. A South Florida Sun Sentinel story describes it this way: "The callers in the latest scheme claim to work for insurance giant Humana or its CarePlus subsidiary, and say they need the senior's birth date, Social Security, bank account and Medicare numbers to arrange the refund, Humana officials said.

California Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris has created a unit within the state Department of Justice that will fight technology crimes and identity theft. The eCrimes Unit will "make sure that vulnerable populations are safe, that consumers are safe and that we allow good behavior to occur," Harris said at a news conference Tuesday in San Jose, chosen because of its location in the tech hub of Silicon Valley. "Where there are predators and predatory practices, we want to ensure we have the skills and technology to go after them and that there is accountability and consequences," Harris said.

Victims of identity theft will tell you: The shock of being defrauded isn't the worst part. What really stings is having to spend days or even weeks undoing all the damage. At the very least, you'd think businesses caught up in bogus transactions would be ready and willing to assist in bringing the ID thief to justice. But Blanca Elizabeth Cervantes, 43, of Manhattan Beach found herself on her own after a collection agency said she owed $671.58 for a DirecTV subscription she never ordered at an address she's never visited.