Security Information

If you suspect that your credit information may be compromised. If you lost your wallet or had it stolen. If you gave any of you pin numbers out over the phone. Here is information to help you make sure your credit is not compromised.

• † A "Fraud Alert" removes your name and address from pre-screened offers, instructs credit grantors to contact you prior to providing credit, and gets you a complementary copy of your credit report.
• Make sure you stay on the phone until the end of the call or your request may not go through.
• In general, it takes about 10 days to receive a report after you have ordered it.

Social Security Administration

• Office of the Inspector General
  • fraud line: 800-269-0271
  • fax: 410-597-0118
• Fraud Reporting Form

SSA Fraud Hotline

P.O. Box 17768

Baltimore, MD 21235

Bogus Email Alerts

Email Alert

You may have received a widely circulated E-mail that claims that as of July 1 credit reporting agencies can share your credit history with anyone, at any time for any reason. The Federal Trade Commission wants you to know that this E-mail is full of half-truths and misinformation.

THIS IS A BOGUS EMAIL:

Opt-out request line: The four major credit bureaus in the US. will be allowed, starting July 1, 2001, to release your credit info, mailing addresses, and phone numbers to anyone who requests it. If you would like to 'opt out' of this release of info, you can call 888-567-8688. You can take care of anyone else in the household while making only one call, you'll just need to know their social security number. Be sure to listen closely, the first opt out is only for two years, make sure you wait until they prompt you to press '3' on your keypad to opt out for good. Pass this info on to every one you know. (<http://www.transunion.com/Personal/MarketingOptOut.asp> NOTE: this link is a dead page, so the link is not activated.)

Here's the story:

• Credit bureaus can release your credit information only to people with a legitimate business need, as recognized by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). For example, a company is allowed to get your report if you apply for credit, insurance, employment, or to rent an apartment.
• In addition to the uses described above, lenders and insurers may use information in your credit file as a basis for sending you unsolicited offers. This is known as "prescreening." However, you have a right to opt out of these offers. The toll-free number -- 888-567-8688 -- is the "opt-out" line for the major credit bureaus for "prescreened" offers only.
• The July 1 deadline relates to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLB), which set July 1, 2001 as the deadline for financial institutions to give you notice of their privacy policies and a way for you to opt-out of some of their information-sharing practices. You may recall getting mailings or statement inserts recently from your financial institutions, creditors, insurance companies and brokerage firms about this. The July 1 date is not a deadline for consumers to do anything. In fact, consumers can contact their financial institutions anytime to opt-out under GLB.
• The FTC strongly advises that you not give out personal information on the phone, through the mail or over the Internet unless you know who you're dealing with. Identity thieves may pose as representatives of banks, Internet service providers and even government agencies to get you to reveal your Social Security number, mother's maiden name, financial account numbers and other identifying information. Legitimate organizations with whom you do business have the information they need and will not ask you for it.

You can check out email's that you receive to see if they are real or a hoax at:

CIAC Hoax Pages - U.S. Dept of Energy - Computer Incident Advisory Capability.

SANS Institute - computer security information and resources.

Symantec Security Response - Hoax Page

McAfee.com - Virus Hoaxes

F-Secure : Security Information Center - Searchable Virus & Hoax Description Database.

Don't Spread That Hoax - urban legends and hoaxes.

Urban Legends - general urban legends.

Federal Trade Commission:

• Consumers can file a fraud complaint with the FTC:
  • 877-FTC-HELP (877-382-4357) or online.
• Consumers can file identity theft reports: 877-ID-THEFT (877-438-4338).
  • ID Theft: When Bad Things Happen To Your Good Name

ISP Notification

I've only included AOL since there are so many ISP's.

AOL fraud line

• 800-307-7969

Opt-out Lists

Direct Mail Opt-out:

DMA Mail Preference Service

P.O. Box 643

Carmel, NY 10512

Or go online.

Telemarketing Opt-out:

DMA Telephone Preference Service

P.O. Box 1559

Carmel, NY 10512

Or go online.

Prescreened Credit Offers Opt-out:

You can remove your name from prescreened credit or insurance offer mailing lists from Experian, Innovis, TransUnion and Equifax by calling 888-5OPT-OUT (888-567-8688). You will be given a choice to opt out for two years or permanently. If you elect to opt out permanently, you will be mailed a Notice of Election to Opt Out Permanently, which you must sign and return to activate your permanent opt-out. Even though your request becomes effective with about a week of your notification, it may take several months before you see a reduction in the amount of solicitations.

Telemarketing Alert Do-Not-Call Registry -- FTC registration, online and telephone:

The toll-free number for nationwide registration will be announced by the Federal Trade Commission in June. Telephone registration will be phased-in region-by-region during an eight-week period starting in western states in July. Online registration will be available in July. To learn more about the Federal Trade Commission’s do-not-call registry, visit its web site. Duration: Consumers' names will remain on the registry for five years, or until they change their phone number. At that point, consumers will be able to renew their registration. As of October 2003, it will be illegal for most telemarketers to call a number listed on the registry. The registry will be available to telemarketers and other sellers in September 2003, and they will be required to "scrub" their call lists against the names on the registry at least once every 90 days. In October 2003, the FTC and the States will begin enforcing the national "do not call" provisions of the Amended TSR. Violators will be subject to a fine of up to $11,000 per violation. Consumers listed should begin to receive fewer unwanted telemarketing calls approximately three months after they register. The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint or to get free information on consumer issues, visit www.ftc.gov or call toll-free, 877-FTC-HELP (877-382-4357); TTY: 866-653-4261. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. You will be able to register for free online or by calling a toll-free number. If you are registering by phone, you will have to call from the telephone number that you wish to register. If you register online, you may need to provide limited personal information for confirmation. The only identifying information that will be kept in the registry will be the phone number you register. You can expect fewer calls within three months of the date you sign up for the registry. Your number will stay in the registry for five years or until you take your number out of the registry or change phone numbers. After five years, you will be able to renew your registration.

The FTC's implementation schedule for the national "do not call" registry will be updated at <http://www.ftc.gov/donotcall/> -- note this link is due for activation in July 2003.

Sample Opt-out Letters

The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse has posted sample opt-out letters, in text, Rich Text and PDF format, to ensure that financial institutions comply with your information sharing preferences under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. (Similar forms are available from Junkbusters.)

A generic form for restricting use of private information (sample 1, sample 2).

TO: [COMPANY NAME]	____________________________________________
Street:	____________________________________________
City:	______________________________	State	___	Zip	___________
Attention: "OPT OUT" Department
FROM: [FULL NAME]	____________________________________________
Street:	____________________________________________
City:	______________________________	State	____	Zip	___________
RE: My account(s) with you
Name(s) on the Account:	____________________________________________
Type of Account:	____________________________________________
Account Number:	____________________________________________
I am asserting my rights under the Financial Services Modernization Act and the Fair Credit Reporting Act to "opt out" of the following two uses of my personal information: Please do not disclose personally identifiable information with your non-affiliated third-party companies or individuals. Please do not disclose my creditworthiness to any affiliate Further, I request the following, even though it may not be required by law: Please, do not disclose my transaction and experience information to any affiliate of yours. Please, do not disclose any information about me in connection with marketing agreements between you and any other company. Thank you for respecting my privacy and honoring my choices regarding my customer information. I would appreciate confirmation from you regarding my requests.
Signature:	______________________________	Date:	__________

Financial Institutions Opt-Out addresses

Alternate Email Addresses

Get rid of SPAM email. Free email address. Just for those cases when you don't want to give out a real email address.

SpamCop, BurntMail.

Fighting Email SPAM

CAUCE - The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email is an ad hoc, all volunteer organization, created by Netizens to advocate for a legislative solution to the problem of UCE (a/k/a "spam").

JOIN THE SPAM FIGHT - the Association of Apple Computer Users & Groups (AACUG) needs your help fighting SPAM (Unsolicited email). Please fill out this survey.

spam.abuse.net - how to fight Internet spam

Watch Out How You Search the Web

GoogleWatch is an anonymous search engine that submits your request anonymously to Goolge. They are encouraging submission of Google as Big Brother of the Year, citing nine issues, including Google's tracking of individual searches, its "illegal" caching, toolbar tricks, and others (link).

Google Feature <http://www.google.com/>

Searching for a telephone number with Google yields the name and address for that phone number along with directions to the address. This is a form of reverse phone number lookup.

To check if you are listed -- type your full phone number 555-555-5555 in Google's search field and click the search button.

Your name and phone number may appear along with your address. Clicking on the Yahoo Maps or MapQuest URLs will display a map to your house along with directions to your house from anywhere in the country.

If your number appears in the mapping database, a telephone icon will appear to the left of the entry on the results page. You can remove your name from this database. Click on the telephone icon and it will take you to a page containing a description of the service, and a link to request your number be removed. NOTE: You do not have to supply your email address, just leave that field blank.

The change is not immediate, it may take a couple of days, so check back in a couple of days to ensure you are no longer listed.

Getting a new computer? You need to beware of data on your old computer hard drive.

• Handling E-Waste - Computerworld - no company wants its data recovered from a junked PC.
• Wired.com article - Junked PCs Offer Data for the Taking, primarily through unsanitized hard drives.

When you get rid of an old computer, your hard drive can contain data that is not really erased. this is because when you trash a file the actual file is not overwritted, the OS merely deletes catalog information about that file. Until the file is overwritten, the data remains on your hard drive. Prior to getting rid of your old computer, you should at least wipe the free drive space. A utilitiy that does this is:

Norton Utilities / Norton SystemWorks - the "Wipe Info" component.