Identity Theft - How to Avoid, Find, Recover and Report it?

Hello,

how are you doing, i wish to forward this business proposal to you.  i work with Dundee Perth and London shipping company here in UK .the product in question is Kingston oil,

KINGSTON OIL is a product used for the cleansing of precious stones and rough diamonds. This product is in high demand here in UK, i found it very cheap in Asia precisely Malaysia. i got the contact of the agent dealing on this product from a client here in UK who has been dealing with the agent for a long time. it is manufactured in North Korea but because of export duties in North Korea and some product cannot be exported from there to UK that is why i decided to source from agents , it is sold here in UK at rate of 7100usd per carton and it is sold in Malaysia at the rate of 4300usd, my company is not aware of the price in Malaysia ,i have quoted the price to be 5200usd to my company and it was accepted and they have decided to send down our representative to Asia for the purchase of this product.this product has been tested and approved by my company.

My problem now is that i need a Partner who is capable of buying the product from the agent in Malaysia and resale to my company at the quoted price upon there arrival in Malaysia, i am not capable of buying the product at this period and that is why i have decided to consult you. the profit will be shared between us by percentage. you take 60% and i take 40% since you invested your money on the business.

This business is in this dimension as you will not take my company representatives to the main distributor to avoid direct transaction from the source, since this is where we make our own profit,thereafter share the profits after mapping out the money input costs.every money you spend during the transaction will be deducted before the profit is shared . I don’t know if your capable of transacting this business with my company as this is going to be a long term and continuous business, if this is acceptable by you, please get back to me asap.

Best Regards,

Jack Aminoff

My name is xyz, a merchant in Oman. I have recently been
diagnosed with Esophageal cancer, which has defiled all medical
treatment. Expert diagnosis has shown that I have few months to live.

The intention of this email is to employ the expertise of a business
entrepreneur, who can identify a viable investment and guarantee
reasonable returns on my wealth. This is to secure a future for my 4
years old son who lost his mother during birth. I cannot rely on his
closest relatives any more, as they did not show responsible behaviour
two years ago when I entrusted half of my wealth to them to invest on
his behalf. They thought I wouldn’t survive the operation and then
used the money for their personal needs.

To prevent any more mishaps, my attorney will act as a check,
monitoring every aspect of the investment. Funds should be split in
half and distributed to charity organisation and the other half, as
investment for my son.

If this interests you, please reach me on the email address:
**********@***.com. to discuss terms and compensation.

Kind regard
xyz

Below is a spam email that I received today in mail. There are lot of people
who blindly reply without thinking twice.

***************** money is the trap
We hereby confirmed receipt of part payment of US$8,500,000.00 dollars
*****************
only, into our official ESCROW account with paying bank fiduciary Agents in
 the United Kingdom (Barclays Bank and HSBC Bank ) by order of the African Development Bank
 (ADB) incharge of Foreign Debt Recovery Committee on Overdue Contract /Next
 of Kin payments in Africa, as indicated in our database.

Kindly provide us with the below information by email attachment, to
 reconfirm your details in our database for immediate remittance into your designated account;

************ now this the place you lost identity

Beneficiary Name:………….
Beneficiary Address:……………
Tel:……..*Fax:………………..
Receiving Bank:…………………
Bank Address:…………………
Bank Routing Number:………..Swift Code:………
Account Number:…………….

************

We sincerely apologize for the delays and advice you to STOP any further communication with your associate in any of the African countries for they contributed 100% hindrances to the release of your funds. Our final fund release order will be forwarded to our operational paying bank in Europe,for immediate transfer of your allocation into your designated account upon receipt and official re-confirmation of your information in our database.
Fund will be retrieved to treasury after ten (10)business days of this notice.

Yours in service,
Mr. Nelson Ibru.
Manager, Foreign operations Dept
Email: opera*****@*****.com (starred the email - as this email could also be sent to flood someone else email or to
to spoil another company reputation)

Do not give out your SSN :

• Until otherwise is lawfully required do not give your SSN (Social security number) to any company or customer service representative over phone.
• Do not write your SSN in text files or in paper.
• Do not share your Social Security Number with others.

Shred and then Trash Mails (Junk or Normal) :

• Shred expired credit cards, bank statements and other junk mails with your name and address that is not needed. 
• Shred old driver license if you move from one state to another.
• If you receive gift box from friend or family member, dont throw the box with the address on it. Scratch the address, name and then throw it.

Computer :

• Do not store personal information in office computers (it can always be read by someone in the network), take a backup - keep it in your personal computer.
• If your personal computer at home is accessible by visitors/guests - make sure you have personal information folder as password protected.

Safe Place :

• Keep check books, bank statements in a safe place - not in a place where anyone can access.
• When you talk in phone in public, make sure you are not talking too loud about your credit card transaction or password information.

Restaurants :

• Go to legitimate restaurants, some restaurants print the complete credit card number in the sales draft. The restaurant owners are suppose to shred and trash. Some people throw the sales draft bill as is.
• Same applies to any place you stay or have transaction with.

Driver license :

• Make sure who are all taking xerox copies of your driver license. This is not going to be a long list. (Such as apartment lease building, etc.,)

Above are some small steps and there are lots of tips that we follow everyday, if you have any interesting tip - why not post your comment?

Regards,

Shiva

Below are certain emails/activities that people fall for that deceives them and they end up in losing their identity. Let us check some of them so that you can avoid it.

• If you receive an email such as, I am ambassador of so and so, or my husband/wife/father died in an accident, or from a person who claims as an attorney mentioning that they need a bank account number to transfer one Gizzzzilion dollars, beware! - Do not reply. If you give away your routing/account number you will end up in a problem.
• None of the credit card unions or banks will ask you for your username and password. The site will look pretty much (because it is mocked) same as your bank web site, but it is not the same. Before clicking on the url in the mail, just highlight your mouse on top of it and you will see it points to a different URL (different website). This is called Phishing.
• When the original camera/camcorder is 1400 dollars and if someone offers that for 300 dollars, which is too good to be true - your conscious is right, it is definitely too good to be true, do not buy from websites that doesn’t have any history in online or customer reviews and that their site looks unprofessional with no contact information or phone numbers.
• When you go to Coffeeshop/Kinkos or any other place for internet surfing, make sure you delete all cache, that you sign out etc.,
• For password reminder, do not choose very common secret question - that someone who knows you could guess. Longback Lycos had secret reminder question such as what is your favourite pet?, what is favourite color etc., and they revealed the password without changing it, so people were able to access email and their privacy was at compromise.
• When you do credit card transaction make sure that the url starts with https (means secure layer) and that it is valid and verified.
• Do not store passwords of your online bank account or any other sensitive information in your email box.
• Do not pass bank account numbers or any such credential when chatting or through emails.
• Listen and Trust your instincts, remember - when something surprises you, shocks you, upsets you through email, you have to check whether they are because of email spams.
• There are lots of credit card thefts - and junk emails asking you to enter username and password for Western union, paypal, ebay account etc.,
• Have a nick name online, do not disclose your personal information in blogs that could compromise your privacy.

Next post, we will see the precautions that needs to be taken Offline to protect your identity.

Regards,

Shiva

This website entty is dedicated to individuals who likes to avoid, find, recover from and report identity theft.

Many years now - I have seen ID theft happening because of emails, mails, fax, phone-calls, credit card bills, social security number, driving license, online orders, etc., Everytime I had taken extra effort to avoid it and at the same time had seen lots of my friends getting affected due to ID frauds.

Some of my friends had had bad days/nights finding out that their credit card/debit card is used for online shopping by someother person. Spent time talking with bank, shopping agency, renewing card, checking previous transaction and worried about the credit history.

Some receive emails from Mr.XYZ ambassador of some country and want to know your bank details, the routing and account numbers to transact million dollars of money.

Some buy cheap electronic items from unknown websites that never arrives home.

Few restaurants print the complete credit card number in sales draft and they do not trash it.

And there are hundreds more, over years - When I think today - I have spent some good time and I believe many of you would have spent valuable time identifying and fighting against these stupid spams/situations.

I had been compiling a lot of information on how to avoid ID theft and finally came up with this website for one stop solution community that fights against ID theft.

Bookmark this site - you will not want to miss the information.

Regards,

Shiva