FTC: Identity theft remains top consumer complaint
505541
InfoWorld - Identity theft remained top of mind among U.S. consumers last year, but complaints about Internet auction fraud dropped noticeably, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
191745
Internet still a den of thieves For the seventh year in a row, identity theft is the number one complaint reported to the US Federal Trade Commission.â¦
484329
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has asked a federal court to require an alleged Web page hijacking operation to obey previous orders barring unfair and deceptive practices.Walter Rines, business partner Sanford Wallace, and Rines&#39; company, Online Turbo Merchant, diverted users of MySpace.com to other Web sites and barraged them with ads to earn advertising commissions, according to court papers filed with the FTC. The defendants used pagejacking, phishing, and other methods to target MySpace users in violation of a previous court order, the FTC said in a news release.The FTC, in a Jan. 23 filing, asked the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire to order the defendants to give up the money they earned from their MySpace scheme.Rines&#39; listed phone number in New Hampshire was disconnected.In October 2005, the FTC charged Odysseus Marketing and its owner, Rines, with luring consumers to their Web site by offering free software, including a program that supposedly allowed them to engage in anonymous peer-to-peer file sharing. The software was bundled with spyware that intercepted and replaced search results and barraged consumers&#39; computers with pop-up ads, the FTC said. The software also stole users&#39; personal information, and users were unable to locate or uninstall the spyware through reasonable means, the FTC said.The FTC alleged that the defendants&#39; software captured consumers&#39; personal information and transmitted the information to the defendants&#39; servers. Consumers were unable to locate or uninstall the spyware through reasonable means, the agency charged. The court ordered a preliminary halt to these practices pending trial, and in October 2006 Odysseus and Rines settled the charges by stipulating to a permanent injunction.The permanent injunction prohibited the defendants from redirecting consumers&#39; computers; from changing any Web browser&#39;s default home page; and from modifying or replacing the functions of any computer application. It required Rines and his company to obtain consumers&#39; express consent before downloading or distributing any content to their computers.The permanent injunction also imposed a $1.75 million judgment, and all but $10,000 was suspended based on the defendants&#39; inability to pay.In its recent filing, the FTC alleges that Rines, his company, and Wallace knew of the permanent injunction and violated that order by diverting users from MySpace.com to their Web sites.
5343
Blog: Auditors say only a fraction of largest intrusions in recent years showed clear evidence of resulting identity theft, but they admit that's not always easy to gauge.
41774
Sears Holdings has come under fire from privacy advocates for making the purchase history of its customers publicly available on its Managemyhome.com Web site.Manage My Home is a community portal where Sears shoppers can download product manuals, find product tips, and get home renovation ideas.The Web site has a feature called &quot;Find your products&quot; that lets users look up past purchases. Ostensibly, this is designed to help customers keep track of items they&#39;ve bought from the retailer, but the site also lets them look up the purchase histories of other people.&quot;Sears offers no security whatsoever to prevent a Manage My Home user from retrieving another person&#39;s purchase history by entering that person&#39;s name, phone number, and address,&quot; wrote Ben Edelman, an assistant professor with Harvard Business School, in a blog posting.This is a violation of Sears&#39; own online privacy policy, which does not allow the company to share users&#39; purchase history with the general public, Edelman said.The information could be misused by scammers, said Benjamin Googins, a CA senior engineer who has also written about the issue. &quot;A potential burglar or scam artist could quite easily sit at home with a phone book, checking to see what people in a given neighborhood had purchased,&quot; he wrote.Googins said that he was able to track purchases as far back as 1978 on the site.One Sears customer said he was upset by the disclosure.&quot;It&#39;s pretty amazing that in 2008 a major corporation such as Sears Roebuck can show such blatant disregard for the privacy of its customers. It definitely will make me think twice before ordering from them again,&quot; said Doug Fuller, an Oakland, Calif., realtor. &quot;It&#39;s not like it is some rinky-dink company. This is a major corporation. And with all the identity theft going on, this is the best they can do?&quot; he said via instant message.A Sears spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment. Sears Holdings, the owner of the Sears Roebuck and Kmart department stores, is the third-largest retailer in the United States.This is the second time Sears has come under fire for privacy concerns in recent weeks. In December and early January, Googins and Edelman blasted Sears for&#160;downloading invasive comScore Web tracking software&#160;to some users of its MySHCcommunity.com Web site without adequate disclosure.Sears has defended its use of the tracking software, pointing out that users are notified of the software&#39;s features before they download it.
536599
The Internet Crime Complaint Center, which is run jointly by the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center, says it logged its millionth consumer complaint sometime during the second week in June.
595002
SEEKONK -- With help from US Secret Service agents, Stop &amp; Shop Supermarket Cos. executives scrambled yesterday to determine how many consumers may have had their credit and debit card data stolen by high-tech thieves who apparently broke into checkout-line card readers and planted the equivalent of bugs to steal information.
486022
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has settled a complaint with an online company it says was illegally selling telephone records.
729030
FTC is mailing forms to consumers who believe they were victims of identity theft.
290553
A seamy practice with a slightly annoying name is separating unwary consumers from their banking information, according to a bulletin released by the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center.
477901
Ask Eileen Harrington, associate director of the FTC's consumer protection bureau, questions about spam and consumer fraud on the Internet.
582350
(InfoWorld) - Credit-card payments giant Visa is hoping to shed new light on problems like consumer data theft and identity fraud through a conference that will bring together leaders from the business, government, and technology communities to discuss security for the electronic payments industry. Hosted in partnership with the publishing arm of Harvard Business School, the day-long set of briefings is being held March 8 in Washington under the banner "Maintaining Trust in Payments Summit." In a series of panels, controversial topics like the amount of time companies should be allowed to wait before disclosing data breaches to card issuers and consumers will be up for debate, as will the role of the government in providing protection for consumers and industry. The list of scheduled speakers for the event includes Visa CEO John Philip Coghlan, business leaders like eBay CEO Meg Whitman, executives from retailer Nordstrom and Wells Fargo Bank, and a representative from ChoicePoint, the consumer data collection firm that was involved in one the most notorious electronic records mishaps ever reported. Public sector heavyweights will also take part, including Homeland Security cyber-czar Greg Garcia. Visa controls the world's largest payment system. Like other payment companies, Visa finds itself at the center of a rapidly-changing fraud landscape driven by the spread of Internet usage and malicious software. "The reality is that payment security is a complex issue, and the only way to reach a solution is to have an open and honest dialogue," said Rosetta Jones, vice president of corporate relations for Visa USA. "The goal for us was to bring together leaders from the technology, retail, law enforcement, and financial industries to raise the consciousness of data security among all the partners involved with payment systems." The emphasis will be on shared responsibility among the many players involved in combating the exposure of sensitive consumer records and related fraud, Jones said. Developers of payment systems applications used in point-of-sales devices will also participate in this year's summit in the name of expanding the debate. Visa considers application vendors crucial pieces of the payment security puzzle. Robert C. Cresanti, the chief privacy officer and undersecretary of Commerce for Technology, said that it's not useful to get caught up in the blame game or focus too much on single any aspect of improving security for records and payment systems. Cresanti said that the government's first objective in trying to improve the situation must be to "clean up its own house" in terms of reviewing the manners in which it gathers, stores, and protects data. There also needs to be a better understanding in both the private and public sectors of how the exposure of electronic records has truly affected the growth of identity fraud, according to the expert. "We're in an environment where these issues are forcing companies to make decisions between profits and losses every day, we see punishment in stock prices for those who have had incidents, and loss of consumer trust," Cresanti said. "We need to examine how we can put a fine edge on things to ensure that people are careful with the information they collect and hold while creating better public awareness of what is actually going on." But media attention to data breaches may be creating too much awareness of the threat of data loss and too little understanding of the underlying causes, said analyst James Van Dyke  of Javelin Strategy and Research. Van Dyke plans to devote part of his time speaking on a show panel about a recent report produced by his company that contends identity theft led to fewer related losses in 2006 ($49.3 billion) than in 2005 ($55.7 billion) despite a mounting number of consumer records that have been lost or stolen. "The biggest issue might be that too many people take simplistic view and assume that it's all about the Internet and data breaches, but it's really much more varied than that," said Van Dyke. "It's very much a shared problem, and merely handing out blame is unhelpful in terms of addressing the real issues." Avivah Litan, analyst with Gartner, said that businesses walk a thin line when deciding about the reporting of potential breaches to customers and partners, including credit card issuers like Visa. The business community is anxious to point out that every breach is different and that the exposure of credit card data has not proven as disastrous for consumers as some parties have predicted, she said. Litan will host a panel discussion at the summit that, among other topics, will discuss the media's approach to handling data breach stories and whether or not the press has become too sensational in reporting some of the incidents. "Companies have taken a lot of heat for not disclosing breaches faster, but they've been doing so in part because of their work with law enforcement -- they want to get that out and try to come to some consensus about how to handle these situations while catching the crooks," said Litan. "Issuers want to know immediately, but criminals will hide if they know they're being watched; there's a need for some system in place that better serves the needs of all parties."
52556
(InfoWorld) - The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has filed a complaint against digital music service BurnLounge Inc., accusing the company of operating an illegal pyramid scheme, the FTC announced Tuesday. The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California June 6, asks the court to permanently shut down the alleged illegal pyramid practices, the FTC said in a press release. BurnLounge recruited customers through the Internet, telephone calls and in-person meetings, the FTC said. In its sales pitch, BurnLounge told customers they were likely to make substantial income if they would buy one of its product packages, ranging from US $29.95 to $429.95 per year. The more expensive packages purportedly provided participants with an increased ability to earn rewards through the BurnLounge compensation program. BurnLounge, based in New York, called its business model "unique and revolutionary," in a press release in response to the FTC court filing. "BurnLounge will continue to afford its customers the opportunity to enjoy sharing their tastes in music and films, while providing an avenue for them to express their entrepreneurial talents," Sheldon Sloan, attorney for BurnLounge, said in a statement. So far, the court has refused to grant a temporary restraining order, Sloan added in his statement. The denial is "a significant victory, and furthers the company's belief that it has conducted its business lawfully," he added. BurnLounge, which launched its service in mid-2006, calls itself the "world's first fan-driven download community." Customers open their own digital music stores and sell music and movies they recommend to friends. But the FTC alleges that the BurnLounge compensation program primarily provided payments to participants for recruiting of new participants, not on the retail sale of products. Retail sales would result in a substantial percentage of participants losing money, the FTC said. The FTC accuses BurnLounge and its owners of operating an illegal pyramid scheme, making deceptive earnings claims, and failing to disclose that most consumers who invest in pyramid schemes don't receive substantial income, but lose money, instead. The FTC has asked the court to halt the alleged deceptive practices and misrepresentations and to freeze the defendants' assets, pending a trial. At a June 8 hearing on the FTC's request for a temporary restraining order, BurnLounge's attorneys asked for more time to respond fully, and U. S. District Court Judge George Wu ordered that a full hearing on the FTC's request for a preliminary injunction and asset freeze be held on June 19.
760540
(InfoWorld) - Identity theft remained top of mind among U.S. consumers last year, but complaints about Internet auction fraud dropped noticeably, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). More than a quarter of a million ID theft complaints were lodged with the agency last year, accounting for 36 percent of the 674,000 complaints the FTC received. That number is down slightly from 2005, when ID theft accounted for 37 percent of all complaints. This marks the seventh consecutive year that identity theft has been ranked number one. The second-largest number of complaints, 7 percent, came from consumers who were unhappy with products they had ordered from catalogs. Internet-related complaints were up too. According to the 2006 data, they made up 60 percent of all fraud complaints. Last year, they accounted for 46 percent. But one area of Internet fraud declined noticeably: Internet auctions. In last year's report, complaints relating to products purchased on online auction sites like eBay made up 12 percent of the FTC submissions. In the 2006 numbers released Wednesday, that number had plummeted to 5 percent. The FTC has made identity theft a priority over the past few years, and the agency maintains a Web site where consumers can learn how to protect themselves and file complaints if they've been victimized. The FTC is also one of the agencies heading up the U.S. government's Identity Theft Task Force, created by President George Bush in 2006. "It's not surprising to me that identity theft is number one because we're the ID theft clearinghouse," said FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras. The fact that the FTC saw a slight drop in the percentage of its complaints that related to ID fraud appears to back upÂ a downward trend reported last week by Javelin Research. The research firm said that ID fraud was down in the U.S. with the cost of this type of crime dropping 12 percent in 2006. The FTC stressed that its consumer complaints data is merely anecdotal. However, the agency is working on a more rigorous study of identity fraud trends and is expected to release that data in the coming months. Majoras said it was unclear whether ID fraud is increasing but hopes that the Javelin numbers are right. Her sister was the victim of identity theft recently after falling prey to a phishing attack, she said. "I said to her, 'You can't fall for stuff like that,'" she said. Â
167306
The Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday will release its latest "Consumer Sentinel" statistical analysis on identity theft, a precursor to a more comprehensive report later this year on ID fraud.
28989
A coalition of privacy, labor and civil-liberties advocates filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission yesterday, urging the agency to investigate railroad and other transportation employers who violate the Fair Credit Reporting Act by failing to give employees proper notice when conduct...
162029
Rise in online identity fraud has companies on the hook: Educate customers or lose them.