Rental Research Services, Inc. , a consumer reporting agency, and its principal, Lee Mikkelson, settled FTC charges that they failed to properly screen prospective customers and sold at least 318 credit reports to identity thieves. Under the settlement, the company and its principal must ensure that they provide credit reports only to legitimate businesses for…
Category: Other
Rogue app ruins Facebook’s weekend
Social networks Facebook and MySpace were dealing with new security issues on Friday that could compromise personal information and communications from friends. […] One of the problems is that Facebook allows anybody to write an application, and third-party applications are not vetted before they are made available to the public. So, even as Facebook stamps…
Bits ‘n Pieces (update 1)
In the criminal justice system: A Baldwin woman who used to work for CitiBank will now spend two years in prison for aggravated identity theft and bank fraud. A federal judge in Jacksonville handed down 26-year-old Isla Brumfield’s sentence Thursday. According to court documents, Brumfield had worked in the Customer Service Sales Department at CitiBank….
GA: ID theft suspects in jail until trial
Sandy Hodson reports: Two Augusta residents accused of stealing the financial identities of more than 50 people will remain in jail pending trial. […] According to the indictment, federal investigators think Mr. Love used telephone books from cities outside Augusta to identify potential victims, especially elderly women. Mr. Love allegedly pretended to be “David Jason,”…
VA suspends contractor over patient data security
Adam Levine reports: The Department of Veterans Affairs has suspended a contractor for failing to follow the department’s policies for securing sensitive data about patients, the department said. A routine inspection revealed that a transcription contractor, with access to information including name, Social Security number and diagnosis, was using computers that did not follow guidelines…
Court Orders Permanent Halt to Illegal Qchex Check Processing Operation
At the request of the Federal Trade Commission, a United States District Court has ordered a permanent halt to the illegal operations of an Internet-based check creation and delivery service and ordered the operators to give up all the money they made from the illegal operation. In September 2006, the FTC charged Qchex with violating…