New Identity Theft Scam on the Loose
Fraud scams are on the rise, partially due to the weak economy and the desperation many people are feeling financially. The latest scam involves getting you to reveal your credit card’s security code over the phone. Rather than try to paraphrase or blog about it, I’ll just re-post the email I got from one of my banks, Farmer’s and Merchants Bank in Southern California.
Dear Valued F&M Customer, We would like to inform you of a new tactic fraudsters are using so that you can protect yourself. The goal of this scam is to illicitly obtain your credit card information by getting you to reveal the 3 digit security number on the back of your VISA or MasterCard. Here is how the scam works. The fraudsters, posing as a member of the Security and Fraud Department at VISA or MasterCard, will contact you claiming that they have noticed unusual purchase activity on your card and need to confirm it. When you tell them that you did not authorize the purchase, they will pretend to credit your account, but need your 3 digit security code on the back of your card to do so. Do not provide them with this number. Doing so will give the scammer the final bit of information they need to make fraudulent charges on your card. If you are contacted under these pretenses, simply hang up and file a police report. Farmers & Merchants Bank wants to help protect you. Should you have additional questions, please contact our Fraud Department at (562) 344-2350.
Watch out folks! Scammers are getting cleverer! There is never any reason for you to give out your security code over the phone! Don’t fall for this.
read moreKISS Your Privacy Away
A startling article in Wired today exposed the existence some of the technology base of a company called KISSmetrics. What is startling about KISSmetrics is not that they have an excellent web statistics tool, but that they have been found to be “using sneaky techniques to prevent users from opting out of being tracked” according to the article.
What does this mean for online privacy and identity theft? Several things…
read moreWho is Facebook’s Customer?
Business is simple. You create a concept for a product. You build the product. You sell the product. The people who buy your product are called customers. If your customers complain, you fix the product to keep them happy so they will buy more. If the improvements cost you a lot of money and improve the product dramatically, you might even be able to charge more for the product.
Time goes by and your product becomes more and more popular. You decide that in this capitalistic society, you can charge more for your product due to the laws of supply and demand. You make more, you sell more, your business grows.
read moreRep. Speier of California starts the ‘Do Not Track’ ball rolling
On Friday, Feb 9, 2011 Jackie Speier (D-CA) introduced H.R.654, a bill designed to take the next step forward in protecting consumers’ privacy on the internet. Several items caught my attention.
The first thing to know is that this is not a bill that produces law. It is a bill that encourages the FTC to take action within 18 months. There are no clear definitions of how any of the Do Not Track processes would work, just that they should be there and they should be enforced and that the FTC has a year and a half to figure it out.
read moreConsumers just don’t want to be tracked
This gallup poll show that a majority of consumers would rather just not be tracked. But it’s not the tracking that bothers them, it is the potential for bad behavior by the trackers. There is no trust. Apparently, a self-regulating industry hasn’t convinced consumers of its ability to self regulate.
The ‘Do Not Track’ Minefield
The privacy landscape is bumpy and dangerous. It all started with the FTC’s report in early December. A distant cry was heard calling for a system like ‘Do Not Call’ that could apply to internet advertising and solve the woes of the consumer, protecting them from the evils of behavioral tracking. Shortly thereafter, we hear that Microsoft is planning a do not track option in the next version of Internet Explorer. Then this month Mozilla announced that it will provide a unique new type of header that when set, will tell websites not to track this particular user. And to cap it all off we have the DMA proposal of placing a little icon on every ad allowing the consumer to click on the icon, read privacy policies and then decide whether to allow that advertiser or not.
The Commerce Department Weighs In On Privacy
I guess it was inevitable. The FTC released their report a few weeks ago and this was the Commerce Departments opposing viewpoint. In summary, they noted that consumer were losing trust in online commerce providers and that their main objective was to address this issue while preserving innovation. This is always the excuse companies use when being threatened by ANY law or regulation. It goes as far back as the late 1950′s when car companies claimed that if they were forced to put seat belts in their cars, innovation in the automotive industry would stop.
The basic problem is that regulation causes increased costs. Costs to implement, costs to regulate and costs to litigate violations. And as consumers those costs get passed on to us so we don’t want them either. So what did the Commerce Department propose?
read more