Daytime Burglaries on the Rise, Police Say

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Many studies show burglaries actually happen more in the daytime than in the evening. Depending on whom you ask, the hours of 7-10 a.m. seem to be the most attractive times for burglars.

This is a time of the day when people are leaving for work. The bad guy may see you leave and take the opportunity to check if you locked your doors. First, he rings the bell and knocks on the door to see if you are home. If there is no answer, he jiggles the handle, if you didn’t lock your doors, he is in. If you locked the door, he may use a screwdriver or crowbar to force it open. If you don’t have a home security system, then, he is in with relatively little resistance.

In Downey California the local police sent out this message:

“In recent months the city of Downey has experienced a rise in the number of daytime residential burglaries reported to the police department. Many of these incidents have occurred in the same fashion and the police department is asking for your help in the prevention of such occurrences.

The following is a scenario often used by suspects looking to burglarize homes in your neighborhoods:

A suspect may simply walk to the front door of a residence and knock on the door. If someone answers, the suspect will make an excuse for being at the wrong house and walk away. If there is no answer, the suspect will either leave the location before returning a short time later, or make his way into the back or side yard to find a way into the house.

Once out of view of the street, he will look for open windows or doors to gain entry into the residence. If the house is locked, the burglar will oftentimes force entry by breaking a window or forcing a door open.

A car with additional suspects will oftentimes wait a short distance away for the suspect to return with stolen property. The suspect may also call them to respond to the house to assist in the actual burglary of the location.

Because the actions of the burglars are usually not visible from the street, it is difficult for police to discover the crime in progress. Because of this, it’s imperative that residents in the area pay close attention to suspicious subjects in their neighborhood. This is especially true if you see someone knock on a door of a residence, then go to the back of the house when they fail to get an answer.

If you see people in your neighborhood – whether they are walking or sitting in a vehicle – that you feel may be looking for an opportunity to commit a crime, please call the Downey Police Department”

Robert Siciliano personal security expert to Home Security Source discussing Home Security on NBC Boston. Disclosures.

Toddler Used As Decoy in Burglaries

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A confidence trick or confidence game (also known as a bunko, con, flim flam, gaffle, grift, hustle, scam, scheme, swindle or bamboozle) is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. The victim is known as the mark, the trickster is called a confidence man, con man, confidence trickster, or con artist, and any accomplices are known as shills. Confidence men or women exploit human characteristics such as greed and dishonesty, and have victimized individuals from all walks of life.

Social engineering is the act of manipulating people into performing certain actions or divulging confidential information. While similar to a confidence trick or simple fraud, the term typically applies to trickery or deception for the purpose of information gathering, fraud, or computer system access; in most cases the attacker never comes face-to-face with the victim.

Call them con men, grifters, scammers, or thieves. Or simply call them liars. Lying is what they do best. They stare you in the eyes and lie through their teeth. They do it casually and with such conviction that we have no reason not to believe them. Their craft and skill is a remorseless trait called social engineering, which is also known as pre-texting.

Lying is a learned behavior. One day as children we stumble upon a situation, one that we created or were a party to, and we are confronted by someone in authority. Most likely mom, dad, or a teacher. We are asked a question and we respond with what we think they want to hear, as opposed to the truth. We lie. They believe us and we are relieved of the burden of truth’s consequences.

“They all thought they were helping a woman and her child, but Sanford police say the woman duped them. She cried wolf they said.

They said she knocked on four of her neighbors’ doors with a sob story. Twice she used her toddler to get into their houses. “She asked me ‘help, I need help. My car’s overheating. My baby’s suffocating,’” a victim. “I went into my room and I noticed that my jewelry box was open and everything was gone, I’m nervous. I sleep armed. I can’t sleep,” the unidentified victim said. “You feel stupid at first and you just wish the world wouldn’t be that way.”

Sometime the most effective way to penetrate the most secure system is through someone else’s good nature. It’s always important to help. And, it’s equally important to smell a rat.

Robert Siciliano personal security expert to Home Security Source discussing Home Invasions on Montel Williams. Disclosures

Summertime Scams and Identity Theft

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For everything in life, there is a corresponding scam. Scammers spend their energy trying to separate hardworking, law-abiding citizens from their money, and they’ll take advantage of any opportunity to do so. The four seasons provide various opportunities for scams. Summers “hottest” scams include:

Stealing your mail. While you’re on vacation, your mailbox fills up with credit card offers and bank statements. The bad guy can steal this mail and use it to open new credit cards in your name, or to take over existing accounts.

Solution: Get a mailbox that locks in order to prevent thieves from stealing your mail. Have a trusted friend retrieve your mail while you’re away. Opt out of prescreened credit card offers.

Credit card fraud. Paying with cash is so 1800s! Credit cards are convenient and cleaner than dirty dollars. Therefore, credit card fraud is so 21st century! When you are out and about, anyone who handles your credit card can steal your digits and make unauthorized charges, as can anyone on the other end of an online purchase.

Solution: Check your credit card statements as frequently as possible. I recommend that you review them weekly, at a minimum. Federal law requires that credit card companies allow you to refute unauthorized charges for up to 60 days. Keep your receipts and scrutinize those statements.

Internet cafe spyware. Anytime you use any PC other than your own, your identity is at risk. Spyware is software installed on a computer that records every keystroke, username, password, and website visited. Autocomplete is a browser function that remembers your passwords. Autocomplete on a public computer means potential identity theft.

Solution: If at all possible, avoid business center or Internet cafe PCs. Many mobile phones can function as a temporary replacement for a PC, and netbooks are cheap and easy enough to travel with. If you even encounter autocomplete on any computer, turn it off before browsing and always log out and shut down a browser before walking way.

To ensure peace of mind during summertime festivities—and year-round—subscribe to an identity protection service, such as McAfee Identity Protection, which offers proactive identity surveillance, lost wallet protection, and alerts when suspicious activity is detected on your accounts. For additional tips, please visit http://www.counteridentitytheft.com

Robert Siciliano is a McAfee consultant and identity theft expert. See him discuss spyware on Fox Boston. (Disclosures)

Dumb Thief: How to Locate a Stolen iPhone

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With 20+ million iPhones on the market there is a good chance you have one. According to San Francisco police, the 31-year-old city resident rode a bicycle up to a woman and snatched an iPhone out of her hands, and then pedaled away.

Problem was, the woman was carrying the phone as part of a company’s demonstration of a real-time GPS tracking program. If the bandit would have taken a peek at the screen, he would have seen himself traveling across a map of San Francisco.

Using the tracking software enabled on the iPhone, the victim was able to tell a 9-1-1 operator the exact location of the thief as he peddled through San Francisco, which the operator then relayed to police. Ten minutes later, he was in police custody.

This is either the greatest ever publicity stunt or most likely the dumbest and unluckiest thief ever!

The iPhone has gone through numerous upgrades in both hardware and software and still holds its value. Even the iPhone 3G is still commanding $150-200 on eBay, while the 3GS is going for as much as $400 and the iPhone 4G is a whopping $800.00! .  That being said it is suggested to protect this hardware as you would a laptop.

Apple has a service called Find My iPhone that will allow iPhone owners to remotely locate their lost or stolen iPhones using the iPhone’s GPS. The service is available as part of Apple’s MobileMe online subscription service.

Find My iPhone will:
-Locate your iPhone or iPad on a map
-Display a message and optionally play a sound for two minutes at full volume even if your device is set to silent
-Remotely set a passcode lock on your device (or lock it using your existing passcode)
-Remotely wipe your device to permanently erase all of your personal data

The app will automatically sign you out after 15 minutes of inactivity or you can manually sign out at any time. You must first set up your MobileMe account and turn on Find My iPhone on each device you want to locate (installing the app is not required).

Robert Siciliano personal security expert to Home Security Source discussing iTunes Giftcard Scams on NBC Boston. Disclosures.

Man lived under stolen identity for more than a decade

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Identity cloning generally encompasses all types of identity theft. In most cases, the thief is intentionally living and functioning as the victim. The thief’s motivation may be to hide from the law, evade child support, or skirt immigration.

A man lived a quiet life with a steady job. But he wasn’t who he claimed to be. He was an identity thief. The ruse was so elaborate that his own girlfriend said she was unaware of it.

His victim lived hundreds of miles away and for over a decade, he was unaware that his identity had been stolen. When the victim applied for a passport for the first time, he learned that someone else already had a passport under his name, and had since 1996.

Prosecutors aren’t even sure of the perpetrator’s real name. The man claims he’s a German national who entered the country under his real name in 1983 via Mexico. He even got a birth certificate and a driver’s license.

In cases of identity theft, generally, the goal is to commit financial fraud. Kind of like a smash and grab. The thief comes in, wreaks havoc, makes a mess, destroys your credit, and then moves on to another victim. But with identity cloning, the person may actually pay the bills and live a decent life.

In some cases, though, that person may also be a sex offender or have other recurring legal troubles. Either way, at some point, there is inevitably a mess that needs to be cleaned up. Some people spend hundreds of hours, thousands of dollars, and face years of aggravation.

Our systems of identification rely on antiquated paper and plastic documents, often without photographs, coupled with ubiquitous numeric identifiers. Since the beginning and especially today, all forms of documentation are easily counterfeited. This means anyone can simply copy, scan, manipulate, and print a document, obtain your digits, and become you.

This means that your identity is anything but safe and secure. It is entirely vulnerable to attack, and may already be compromised.

Your best option is to lock it down in a way that makes it difficult for an identity thief to use it undetected, and in some cases makes your identity useless to a thief. And if your identity is ever compromised, McAfee Identity Protection fraud resolution agents work with you to restore your stolen identity.

Police After Con-man Impersonating Cops

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Our unending fascination with “Cops” must be due to the edgy dangerousness of their jobs. After all they are law enforcement officers who are often public bouncers and deal with the craziest of crazy situations. There’s also the whole “power of the badge” and the flickering blue lights that gives them authority over civilians.

It’s no wonder they have their own TV shows, movies and many dramas that depict them as both hero and villain.

With all the fanfare that comes with being a police officer, there is also the pressure of such an often difficult and stressful job. Next time you see a cop, thank him or her. They will appreciate it.

Impersonating a police officer is sometimes committed in order to assert police-like authority in order to commit a crime. Posing as a police officer enables the offender to legitimize the appearance of an illegal act, such as: burglary, making a traffic stop, or detaining.

In New York Police are hunting a con-man who pretends to be a cop while stealing from at least seven businesses cops said. The man sports an imitation police shield and NYPD jacket as he swipes items off the shelves and then returns the goods to the cashier as though he had previously purchased them, officials said.
It is not uncommon for police impersonation to occur when someone is driving and is being pulled over by a fake cop. It’s just as distressing when the criminal knocks on your door trying to gain entry.

This is a difficult scam to protect yourself from and just as tricky to advice on due to the fact that we are trained to obey authority coupled with the fact you don’t want to resist a real officer of the law.

My best advice is to always make a phone call to your local authorities or the state police whenever or wherever you are in a situation where you have the slightest inkling the “cop” may be a fake. Never let someone into your home who holds a badge or ID until you call their superiors to confirm their arrival.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security expert to Home Security Source discussing Home Security on NBC Boston. Disclosures.

Identity Theft Targets Hispanic Community

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Jose Marrero, who was born and lived his entire life in Puerto Rico, had no idea that someone else was using his name and Social Security number to charge thousands of dollars in Miami and Chicago. At least, not until the police showed up at his job to arrest him for car theft. Marrero told the Associated Press, “All of the information [on the warrant], all of it, the driver’s license, the Social Security, my address, was mine. I was shocked. I told them simply that it wasn’t me.”

In the U.S., a Puerto Rican’s identity is worth as much as $6,000, since it can be used to hide illegal immigrants. Like most personally identifying documents, Marrero’s were probably stolen from schools or church rectories.

Puerto Rican stolen identities have surfaced in immigration raids all over the country. “Birth certificates have become legal tender,” said Puerto Rico’s secretary of state. Here in the U.S. there are over 14,000 variations of the birth certificate. I personally have five versions of my own. That’s a stupid system.

Puerto Rico’s current solution is to void all existing birth certificates and have everyone reapply for new ones with better security, a plan that will make it harder to get fake documents in the future. But with millions of legal existing passports and driver’s licenses still valid, how is the real person identified?

The AP article states that the problem stems from the Puerto Rican tradition of requiring birth certificates to enroll in schools or to join churches, sports teams, or other groups. But the fact is, all Americans of every descent do the exact same thing. I remember having to bring my birth certificate with me to the YMCA summer camp. That’s why I have five, because we always needed duplicates for school, camp, even field trips!

Organized crime is likely involved in selling “tripletas,” consisting of a birth certificate, a Social Security card, and a driver’s license. Similarly, in criminal hacking communities, full sets of identifying information that can be used to steal an identity are packaged as “fullz” and sold for less than $100.

Victims face damaged credit, criminal records, and years of credit restoration. The time spent restoring one’s identity can potentially result in thousands of dollars in lost wages.

One victim, a 32-year-old married father of two whose credit has been ruined, told the AP that local authorities were dismissive: “They told me, ‘There are cases more important than that little case.’”

Not all identity theft can be prevented. However McAfee Identity Protection continually monitors your information and works to proactively protect you and will be there to assist you in the even your identity is compromised. Protect your most important asset, your identity.

Robert Siciliano is a McAfee Consultant and Identity Theft Expert. See him discussing illegal immigrant identity theft on Fox news. (Disclosures)

100 Million Facebook Profiles Published via P2P

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Personal information on 100 million Facebook users has been scraped from the social media site and is being shared and download as a single file via what is called a Bittorrent. BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing protocol used for distributing large amounts of data.

Facebook  takes on the issue is the data that was scraped wasn’t private at all. To a degree, I agree. The data is being shared through the site, it’s already public.

Here’s how it went down: a good guy hacker developed a program that went through all 500 million profiles and was able to skim (scrape) all the data from Facebook that wasn’t locked down via the users Facebook privacy settings. Basically if you didn’t lock your privacy settings down, it’s now available in this file. If you lock down your settings today, it’s still in this file.

What’s the point? Hackers like to tinker, and some like to make a point. It seems the hacker here wanted to make a point that your data on social media is up for grabs whether you like it or not.

What’s the risk? It seems the format and way the data was compiled is now searchable in a way that can benefit advertisers and marketers. Can it be used by thieves? It’s too early to tell. In this situation my first concern would be data that you may not want to be around in 20 years that may damage your reputation down the road.

This incident should highlight the lack of privacy and lack of security that exists in social media. Recognize that whatever information you share online, can ultimately end up in anyone’s hands, whether you like it or not.

Lock down your privacy settings and be very conscious of what you share. It may bite you someday.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security expert to Home Security Source discussing social media Facebook scammers on CNN. Disclosures.

Apartments Likely Targets of Burglary

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According to the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC), apartments are 85% more likely to be victimized by a burglary than any other form of housing.

There are many reasons why apartments are targeted for burglaries. Here are a few:

Problem: In an apartment setting the residents live among other people. One tenant in a complex who has a propensity for theft may target units within. When he knows you aren’t home, that’s when he breaks in.

Solution: Alarm it. Apartment security systems trump all other options. And keep your TV or radio on to give the impression you are home. Even if your car is gone and he knows it, the alarm will screech and alert the authorities when you’re gone.

Problem: Mailboxes often signal who lives at the apartment. A single name on a mailbox may give the burglar the impression you might not be home during the day due to the fact most people work 9-5.

Solution: Put Your Name and Another Name on the mailbox. Tell your landlord ahead of time so they understand why.

Problem: You go on vacation or travel on business and the mail piles up and the lights are always off. Your apartment is seen by many other who notice you’re gone. This is called : “a crime of opportunity”.

Solution: Give your apartment the lived in look. Keep a TV on, shades down, put your lights on timers and have a friend grab your mail.

Problem: People in apartments often do not lock windows on upper levels thinking they are more secure. They forget that ladders and fire escapes can provide access even 3-4 levels up.

Solution: Lock your windows and make sure your apartment security system is applied to your windows and alerts you via the alarm whenever they are opened. You can also install motion sensors and glass break sensors as extra layers of security.

Robert Siciliano personal security expert to Home Security Source discussing burglar proofing your home on Fox Boston. Disclosures.