Posts Tagged ‘identity theft’

If you shopped at Montgomery Ward’s last year, check your accounts and credit reports. Montgomery Ward’s Hacked 6 Months Ago, But Victims Weren’t Told | Consumerist

ABC News did a great piece on debt collection, arbitration, and especially the National Arbitration Forum, where consumers in California lose 99% of the time. A former NAF arbitrator says on camera that she was forced to quit for ruling in favor of a consumer one time. Stick around for the great commentary at the [...]

To add (just) insult to (just) injury, a Florida judge awarded $518,301 to Angela Williams’s attorneys (PDF link). Ms. Williams recently won almost $3 million in a lawsuit against Equifax for Equifax’s refusal to fix her credit report after her identity was stolen.
While it may not be obvious when a consumer receives such a high [...]

Alex Stenback of Behind the Mortgage recently posted the LendingTree data breach story seen here [and here], and his posting attracted a provocative comment regarding LendingTree’s lending practices. In short, the commenter alleged that LendingTree does not let banks compete, but has its own internal lending division (Home Loan Center) that does all the “competing.”

It’s bad enough that identity thieves are now resorting to brick-and-mortar thievery, according to the Red Tape Chronicles, now mortgage lenders are stealing personal financial information, too. Apparently, some former LendingTree employees helped some unnamed mortgage lenders to hack into the LendingTree system and steal information for LendingTree customers from 2006 to early 2008.
LendingTree notified [...]

On March 21st, thieves removed eight computers and a server from Central Collection Bureau’s headquarters in Indianapolis. On the server was personal information, including names, addresses, and social security numbers of as many as 700,000 consumers that CCB was collecting from.
The information on the server was stored behind three locked doors and protected by a [...]

Infosecurity Europe recently offered a chocolate bar to 576 office workers if they would reveal some personal information. Passwords, dates of birth, names and telephone numbers. In short, more than enough to steal an identity. Sadly, 45% of women and 10% of men happily gave away their passwords for a bit of chocolate!
Listen, folks, all [...]

Or if it does, it is doing a pretty good job of hiding it. Last Thursday the House Financial Services subcommittee was ready to hear testimony of, among notable others, actual consumers concerning the Credit Card Bill of Rights proposed by Representative Carolyn Maloney. Unfortunately, it seems the committee members’ hypocrisy goes only so far, [...]

I was a first-hour guest on the CTX Home & Wealth Show this morning. Sue, Alex, and I talked about foreclosures, including looking out for equity strippers and dishonest mortgage brokers, and about using conciliation court. It was a fun experience, and I hope to be invited back to follow up with other consumer topics. [...]

CE apparently got a mention on KTLK’s “CTX Home and Wealth Show” yesterday morning during a segment on identity theft, referencing my post on the risks posed by copiers.
The podcast will theoretically be available here at some point.