Serena Daniels reports: Two women pocketed nearly $300,000 in state and federal tax returns after stealing the identities of more than 60 customers of an Indiana H & R Block branch, federal prosecutors say. The alleged scheme was uncovered after Rosetta Buchanan, 35, and Francesca Foster, 32 — an H & R Block worker —…
Author: Dissent
(follow-up) Kansas Man Pleads Guilty to Stealing Identities in Fraud Scheme
As a follow-up to a breach incident previously reported on this site, Kansas City InfoZine reports that: Robert Leroy Maxwell, 45, has pleaded guilty to identity theft and other charges in a fraud scheme that cost banks and businesses in Kansas City, Kan., Olathe and elsewhere a total of more than $30,000. Maxwell pleaded guilty…
Over 120,000 Sanoma User Credentials Stolen
Antti Vilpponen writes: Not exactly a startup news per se, but a healthy reminder to all those working with user credentials in their online services. One of the largest, if not the largest, online identity thefts has just occured (sic) in Finland. The service to be breached was Älypää, a Sanoma bought gaming site. The…
Compensation should be paid for personal data loss, says report
Urmee Khan reports: Putting a price on privacy will deter organisations from losing or abusing people’s personal details, the influential think tank Demos found. The recommendation comes amid increasing concern that there has been a dramatic expansion of a “surveillance society”, which threatens to erode civil liberties. The report Private Lives, published today, recommended that…
The Five Stages of Data Loss Grief
Back in 1970, Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross wrote On Death and Dying, a now-classic book that identified five stages of grieving and emotions that terminally ill patients go through. Adam Frucci has adapted that to the five stages of data loss grief: So your hard drive just died, and you didn’t back it up. I’m so,…
Patient Billed for Phony Liposuction as Medical ID Theft Rises
Margaret Collins reports on medical ID theft: Sierra Morgan was billed $12,000 on her health-care credit card in November for liposuction, a procedure she never requested or had. “It’s depressing to know that someone used my name and knows so much about me,” said the 31-year-old respiratory therapist from Modesto, California. There were more than…