How many times have you handed over your credit card at a fast-food joint and never thought twice about the security of your identity? Here's some news that might give you pause.... read full story

Consumers can now protect personal information from identity theft by utilizing reverse phone lookups as part of their normal routine. Websites such as FreePhoneLookup.com lets individuals easily research creditors or bill collectors before calling to reduce their risk of being a victim of identity theft. ... read full story

Schools are putting children at risk of identity fraud by obtaining their Social Security numbers when it is not required by law and often unnecessary, the Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector General has concluded.

Some school systems in at least 26 states collect the nine-digit identifiers when students from kindergarten through high school register for classes, even though the respective state does not require it as a matter of law, according to a report released last week.

If you have diabetes, you may have another potential risk: becoming the target of an identity theft scam.

The disease-specific scheme first showed up in Mississippi, where diabetics have reported telephone calls from people claiming to be from the Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi and the American Diabetes Association. The callers request personal information such as social security numbers, dates of birth and credit card information....
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If a thief steals your wallet, you know to cancel your credit cards immediately, but how much should you worry about your missing insurance card?
Or what if a fraudster obtains medical care in your name and you get sent the bill? And how do you remove the erroneous health information from your file? ...
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Using publicly available information on Facebook, a researcher has been able to gather personal details of nearly 170 million users of the service, or about a third of all users. The data includes names, addresses, e-mails, phone numbers, and birthdays: essentially anything that was not marked as private is now part of this file.... read full story

Computer hackers continue to steal hotel guests' credit-card data more than any other industry - and there's little consumers can do to protect themselves, Nicholas Percoco, an Internet expert who investigates corporate data breaches, tells Hotel Check-In. read more

The chances of being a victim of: