18 Snagged In Home Invasion Ring

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When a municipality has an organized ring of home invaders you know they have problems.

In Fresno Country California a special task force including officers from the sheriff’s department, SWAT teams, and local police agencies had to be created to conquer the growing problem of home invasions in their district. As you know a home invasion occurs when the home owner is at home, there is forcible entry, a weapon is often involved and violence and theft is on the invaders agenda.

In states like New Hampshire the “Live Free or Die” state they have actually passed laws making the crime of home invasion a consideration for the death penalty.

In a concentrated period of time, there were at least 6 home invasions carried out by this gang. They used a common ruse to gain entry by posing as census workers and in some cases as tree trimmers.

When they pose as tree trimmers it often involves the homeowner being taken into the back yard while the invaders go in through the front door and ransack the home.

CrimeVoice.com reports “And in one case they actually took a photograph of the child in the house.  (They) threatened if they did call police; they had a picture of the child, knew what they looked like, and would harm them.  Jewelry has yet to be recovered; the task force did help uncover $25,000 in cash, along with eight weapons ranging from pistols to one automatic shotgun that was also seized during the serving of dozens of search warrants”

Prevent home invasions:

Never talk to strangers via an open or screen door. Home-invaders pose as delivery people, law enforcement or public workers.

If someone is in distress tell him or her you will call the police for them. Don’t open the door for them.

Under no circumstances do you open the door unless you get phone numbers to call their superiors. Even if that means making them wait outside while you call 411.

One reason your house is chosen is someone tipped off the home-invader that you have valuables. You may have done it via social media or your friends or children or baby sitter might have unintentionally bragged. Loose lips sink ships!

Install a home alarm. Be proactive with the help of ADT Pulse™, a new interactive smart home solution that goes beyond traditional home security to provide a new level of control, accessibility and connection with the home.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to Home Security Source discussing ADT Pulse™ on Fox News.

Hackerville: The Epicenter of Romanian Hackers

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Scammers and hackers often originate from Ghana, Nigeria, Romania, Korea, Israel, Columbia, Argentina, Philippines, Malaysia, and, of course, China and the good old USA. These developing countries breed MIT-like hackers who spend all their days targeting consumers and Internet users like you and me.

But Râmnicu Vâlcea is different. Wired describes the odd contrast between flapping clotheslines and the luxury Mercedes-Benz dealership in this small Romanian town, where young men in expensive jewelry drive luxury cars, all paid for with money from eBay scams, Craigslist scams, advanced fee scams, ATM skimming, phishing, infiltrating databases, new account fraud, and account takeover fraud.

Early scams were obvious but successful. English is a second language to Romanian scammers, so over the past decade, consumers caught on to the broken English and typos typical of phishing emails or classified scams. Romanian scammers responded by hiring English speakers to clean up their communication and give them an appearance of legitimacy.

Over time, U.S. authorities and corporations who were being defrauded caught on to Romania being the hub of organized computer crime, and so began flagging wire transfers, product shipments, and credit card orders. In response, scammers developed a distribution chain involving “mules,” who often ship products or collect money in countries like the United Kingdom, in order to avoid authorities monitoring Romanian IP addresses.

There are sophisticated anti-fraud companies that work around the clock to stay ahead of scammers to make the Internet a safer place to conduct business and interact.  One such company is Oregon-based iovation Inc. They have a highly effective fraud protection service called ReputationManager 360 offering device reputation management to determine if a PC, smartphone, or tablet has been used to commit fraud, regardless of the country of origin. Their device reputation management is the only solution that leverages the shared experience of global brands across numerous industries, with thousands of fraud professionals from major online brands reporting and sharing fraud and abuse attempts each day.

Robert Siciliano, personal security and identity theft expert contributor to iovation, discusses another databreach on Good Morning America. (Disclosures)

Protecting Mail from Identity Theft

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While criminal hackers are cracking databases and stealing millions of electronic records every year, street level identity thieves are a more insidious element of the identity theft epidemic. Thieves of this nature live in your neighborhood. In some parts of the country, local identity thieves tend to be meth heads.

Local identity thieves understand all too well that the money is in your mailbox. They simply open your mailbox and steal any mail that could provide an opportunity for identity theft.

Think about what comes in the mail. Bank, credit card, and financial statements. Utility, mobile phone, and membership statements. Pension, Social Security, and benefit statements. Employment, tax, and income statements. Checks, disbursements, and credit card offers.

These sensitive documents contain enough information for an identity thief to take over your existing accounts or open new accounts in your name. While some data is left off paper statements for privacy’s sake, they generally contain enough sensitive details for a thief to impersonate you over the phone in order to obtain even more details, enough to fill in the puzzle pieces of your identity.

Protect yourself by getting rid of paper statements. Electronic statements in your email inbox are eco-friendly and more manageable and secure than paper statements.

Get a mailbox with a lock. You can get a chain for under $60 at most hardware stores, which allow the carrier to put mail in the box, but requires a key to get mail out.

Get a P.O. box. Any sensitive mail that I can’t receive digitally goes to my P.O. box. A P.O. box is locked, and the only one with access is the postal carrier.

If you go more than a few days without receiving new mail, it may be getting stolen, so call the post office.

Pay attention to the delivery dates of all bills. You should know when to expect recurring mailings, so you’ll notice if they don’t arrive on schedule.

Have yourself removed from the Direct Marketing Association’s lists. Eliminate all unnecessary solicitation to minimize mail that creates a risk.

Opt out of preapproved credit card offers. Go to OptOutPrescreen.com or call 1-888-5-OPT-OUT (1-888-567-8688) and get removed now.

McAfee Identity Protection includes proactive identity surveillance to monitor subscribers’ credit and personal information and access to live fraud resolution agents who can help subscribers work through the process of resolving identity theft issues. For additional tips, please visit http://www.counteridentitytheft.com

Robert Siciliano is a McAfee Consultant and Identity Theft Expert. See him discussing how a person becomes an identity theft victim on CounterIdentityTheft.com (Disclosures)

Stalker Caught in Madonna’s Mansion

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The songstress wasn’t home at the time, but her security team was. Madonna’s London manse worth an estimated $10 million is equipped with security guards, cameras and a home alarm system. And while these are all effective layers of security and are often good deterrents they didn’t stop her stalker from breaking a window and climbing through.

However, her security team quickly picked up on the intrusion due to all the security technology in place and quickly apprehended him.

For most people, a basic home security system would do an effective job of keeping an intruder out or at least notifying law enforcement of a break-in and dispatch the police ASAP. However in the case of one of the world’s top 100 celebrities  security guards are necessary, and I believe she should have shatter proof glass film to prevent window breaks. Shatter proof glass film is affordable and doesn’t affect the clarity of the window.

The Sun reports “Madonna has had several stalkers. In October one was found with an ice pick after scrawling “Meet me” outside her New York apartment. Ex-Beatle George Harrison survived being stabbed by an intruder in Henley-on-Thames, Oxon, in 1999.”

Stalking is messy. Stalking is about domination. It is one or more persons continually making efforts to control another person’s life and thoughts by paying unwanted attention. Stalkers become obsessive investigators, interrogators, intimidators and terrorists. According to current statistics, almost a million and a half people are being stalked by an ex-boyfriend, ex-girlfriend, ex-husband, ex-wife, estranged husband, estranged wife, secret admirer, or an infatuated mentally unstable individual.

The most effective deterrent is an acute awareness of your environment at all times and investing in your security. Physical self defense education is necessary to give a person an edge in the event of attack. Home security systems and home security cameras are layers of protection that in most cases are effective deterrents.

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

5 Gotta Have Social Media Apps

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Applications on mobile phones are all the rage. I spend more time on my apps than I do making calls. That time spent is often with those I connect with on social media.

Twitter and Facebook are the major players in social media and applications for them are a plenty.

TweetDeck

FREE. TweetDeck is your mobile browser for staying in touch with what’s happening now on Twitter from your iPhone or iPod Touch. TweetDeck shows you everything you want to see at once, so you can stay organized and up to date no matter where you are.

Create groups, search Twitter, manage multiple accounts and easily post your tweets or share photos, link and much more. Plus sync your existing TweetDeck columns between your desktop and iPhone. Nice and easy.

Twitpic Poster

FREE. This is a simple app for sharing pictures on Twitter using Twitpic service.
It’s super easy, all is done in 3 taps:
1. Select an image or take a picture
2. Upload to Twitpic
3. Enter Twitter message

You can also just take a picture and email it to your Twitpic address, but I find the Twitpic Poster easier and less cumbersome.

Seesmic

FREE. Do you have multiple social media accounts? More than one Twitter? Facebook? MySpace?  Seesmic for iPhone lets you update and view multiple social networks in an efficient and powerful application. Manage multiple Twitter accounts, your Facebook account, a Ping.fm account and organize all your accounts, searches, trending topics and lists in your customizable dashboard.

Facebook

FREE. Facebook for iPhone makes it easy to stay connected and share information with friends. Use your iPhone to start a conversation with Facebook Chat, check your friends’ latest photos and status updates, look up a phone number, or upload your own mobile photos to Facebook while on the go.

PingChat

FREE. PingChat! is the ultimate way to communicate with all of your friends, whether they use an iDevice, Android or BlackBerry. PingChat! provides free, unlimited, cross-platform, smartphone-to-smartphone messaging, with real-time conversations, group chat, media sharing, and much more. Simply create a Ping! ID, share your ID with all your friends, and start Pinging!

You won’t need to pay your carrier for text messaging. Wi-Fi or your current data plan is all it takes to send messages. Some apps offer free texting, but are exclusive to the U.S, or support few other carriers.

Send photos, videos, voice notes, contacts and map locations seamlessly directly in your conversations.

Robert Siciliano, personal security expert contributor to Just Ask Gemalto. Disclosures

Go “New and Shiny” or Wait?

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Keeping up on the latest advances in technology has always been my thing. I once had a beeper the size of a pack of cigarettes, and a mobile phone bigger than a shoebox.  I’m something of a gadget geek and a wannabe innovator. I like new and shiny.  .

You probably haven’t run across the name Everett Rogers in People Magazine. In 1962, Everett Rogers developed a theory for the adoption of innovations.

According to Rogers, innovators are the first individuals to adopt a new innovation, and are often the inventors themselves. Innovators are risk takers with close ties to scientific sources and connections to other innovators. Because of their high tolerance for risk, innovators often adopt technologies that ultimately fail.

Early adopters are the second wave of individuals to adopt an innovation. These individuals are opinion leaders, and realize that early adoption will help maintain their position as central communicators.

The early majority tends to be slower to adopt an innovation. They have less contact with early adopters and seldom hold positions of opinion leadership.

The late majority approaches innovation with a high degree of skepticism and waits to adopt until after the innovation has been widely embraced by society. This group displays very little opinion leadership.

Laggards, the last to adopt an innovation, are basically dinosaurs. These individuals, who tend to be advanced in age, show almost no opinion leadership and are typically resistant to change.

Early adopters are willing to camp out overnight, wait in line, and spend lots of money for an item that is not ready for prime time. Many new technologies have flaws that should be resolved before you make a commitment.

One example of early adoption is using a browser that’s still in beta. I can tell you firsthand, this is a painful process, yet once you go beta, you never go back. The newest browser lures you in with enticing bells and whistles, but has the stability of a toddler just learning to walk. This frustrating scenario involves plenty of reboots.

Influencers are going to go New and Shiny. That’s what they do. They are the pavers of the road and we thank them for that.

But unless your business or job requires you to be on the cutting edge, I’d recommend that most people wait until the early majority begins to adopt a new technology. That way, you get to check out the new and shiny thing without the hassles, headaches, and instability. Let others learn from the mistakes, and then you can benefit from their efforts.

Robert Siciliano, personal security expert contributor to Just Ask Gemalto, discussing Digital picture frames with built in viruses on Fox News. Disclosures

Cyber Criminals Target Online Gambling Sites

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Do you gamble online? Millions outside the U.S. do and love it. My gaming experience consists of online Solitaire and Tetris, which shows you how adventurous I am. But for those who gamble online, there can be significant risks.

The same cyber criminals targeting banks and retailers working hard to collect and sell stolen personal data, including names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and credit card details, are using those stolen identities to win big in defrauding online gambling sites.

And as more people turn to online poker, bingo, sportsbooks, and betting sites, cyber criminals are developing more sophisticated ways to take advantage of legitimate players and the gambling sites themselves. Financial fraud such as chargebacks and money laundering are major issues for gambling operators, not to mention player collusion and bonus abuse.  Plus, the operators have the responsibility of keeping problem gamblers (self-excluders) from re-entering their sites.

Bonus incentives, as explained in this case study on WagerWorks, are offered to attract new players to games and to increase overall play time, but these incentives also attract the attention of cyber criminals since they can set up multiple accounts under stolen identities, and take advantage of the free money offered for each new account.

Gambling sites, like banks and retailers, are forced to deal with a wide spectrum of Internet crimes and other in-game abuses that cost the industry hundreds of millions of dollars in fraud losses each year.

Many gambling sites have increased efforts to detect suspicious players, but Internet-savvy criminals have learned to mask their true identities, changing account information to circumvent conventional methods of fraud detection.

It is increasingly necessary for online casinos to deploy more effective solutions, which analyzes information beyond that which is supplied by users. By starting the fraud detection process with a device reputation check from companies like Oregon-based iovation Inc., gambling sites can stop problem players within a fraction of a second and avoid further checks and fees when the device is known to be associated with fraud.  According to Chrystian Terry, Director of Casino Operations at WagerWorks, “iovation helped us shut down 20 sophisticated rings. Imagine the lifetime value of bonuses on nearly 300 accounts – that’s tens of thousands of pounds! The service paid for itself on the first day.”

At the recent Caribbean Gaming Show and Conference in Santo Domingo, Max Anhoury, Vice President of Global Sales at iovation, shared in his presentation to attendees that 350,000 fraudulent attempts within gambling sites alone have been reported and shared in their global knowledge base in the last 12 months. And while iovation’s database of half a billion devices typically sees about 2% of devices within most industries associated with negative behavior, within the online gambling industry, that number increases to 5% of devices associated with fraud. That’s approximately 500,000 “known” unique devices trying to defraud gambling sites. Sites armed with device reputation know when they are on their sites and can keep them out.

The online casino industry has an opportunity to work in tandem with merchants, banks, travel sites and even shipping companies to share data that helps pinpoint the devices responsible for fraudulent activity. Shared device reputation intelligence makes this possible for the first time.

Robert Siciliano, personal security and identity theft expert contributor to iovation, discusses Social Security Numbers as National IDs on Fox News. (Disclosures)

How To Prevent Investment Fraud

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The Securities and Exchange Commission defines a Ponzi scheme as “an investment fraud that involves the payment of purported returns to existing investors from funds contributed by new investors. Ponzi scheme organizers often solicit new investors by promising to invest funds in opportunities claimed to generate high returns with little or no risk. In many Ponzi schemes, the fraudsters focus on attracting new money to make promised payments to earlier-stage investors and to use for personal expenses, instead of engaging in any legitimate investment activity.”

The best way to avoid being taken by a Ponzi scheme is to make an effort to understand how the system is supposed to work.

The North American Securities Administrators Association recommends the following precautions:

– Contact your state or provincial securities regulator to see if the investment vehicle and the person selling it are registered.

– Contact your local Better Business Bureau to see if any complaints have been filed against the venture’s promoters or principals.

– Deal only with financial advisers, broker-dealers or financial institutions having a proven track record.

– Ask for written information on the investment product and the business. Such information, including financial data on the company and the risks involved in the investment, is contained in a prospectus.

– Don’t take everything you hear or read at face value. Ask questions if you don’t understand, and do some sleuthing for yourself.

– Steer clear of investments touted with no downside or risk.

But these tips wouldn’t be enough to prevent someone like Bernie Madoff from making a convincing play for your money.

To prevent yourself from falling for a more sophisticated scam, you need to understand the concept of “custody,” which refers to where the funds are housed. Make sure your funds are under the custody of a reputable investment firm such as a Charles Schwab, Fidelity, or Merrill Lynch. You should be able to see your accounts when logging into their website. Financial advisers may be employed by a custodial firm or may be independent brokers. Your funds should be with a large, well-known firm, not in the custody of a broker.

Bernie Madoff was a financial adviser who got away with his fraud because he controlled his clients’ assets and falsified the documentation. If you invest with a financial advisor that generates his own statements, you are at risk.

A financial adviser or broker should only have access to your funds in order to manage them, not to control them. They shouldn’t be able to withdraw funds without your consent. And they should never have the ability to move funds without your awareness.

Identity theft can happen to anyone. McAfee Identity Protection, offers proactive identity surveillance, lost wallet protection, and alerts when suspicious activity is detected on your accounts. McAfee Identity Protection puts victims first and provides live access to fraud resolution agents who work with the victim to help restore their identity even from past theft events. For additional tips, please visit http://www.counteridentitytheft.com.

Robert Siciliano is a McAfee Consultant and Identity Theft Expert. See him discussing Ponzi Scams. on CBS Boston (Disclosures)

Home Invasion Suspects Don “FBI” Gear

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In Buffalo New York WBEN reports  “Buffalo Police are investigating a home invasion at a Sussex Street home. The male victim told police the suspects accosted him, wearing what appeared to be FBI badges and jackets.”

“The victim reported that he was driving down Welker Street at around 8:45 AM, when four or five black males wearing “FBI” gear stopped him, and forced their way into his van. The then made the man drive them back to his house. Once inside, the victim said the suspects tied up and pistol-whipped his wife. They then ransacked the home, and made off with jewelry and possibly other items. Before they left, the suspects shot the male victim in his hand.”

That’s a tough one. In a recent post “Fake Cops Home Invasion — Respecting Vs. Trusting” It is important to respect the position of the title. Everyone deserves some respect until they don’t. But, to blindly trust the person behind the title/uniform/badge etc, can get you hurt.

We live in a society that has many rules. We need rules because without rule, we’d devolve into chaos. Those rules are often broken by those who believe they are above them or are simply so desperate that they need to break them to get their next fix. Some of these rules are more “guidelines” than they are law.

If the homeowner drove straight to the police department because he was concerned for his personal security, regardless of what kind of jacket the perpetrators were wearing, he could have saved himself lots of trouble.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to Home Security Source discussing home invasions on the Gordon Elliot Show.

10 Social Media Security Considerations

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Social media security issues involve identity theft, brand hijacking, privacy issues, online reputation management, and users’ physical security.

Social media provides opportunities for criminals to “friend” their potential victims, creating a false sense of trust they can use against their victims through phishing or other scams.

Register your full name on the most trafficked social media sites, and do the same for your spouse and kids. If your name is already taken, include your middle initial, a period, or a hyphen. You can do this manually or speed up the process by using Knowem.com.

Get free alerts. Set up Google alerts for your name and kids’ names, and you’ll get an email every time one of your names pops up online. You should be aware if someone is using your name or talking about you.

Discuss social media with your kids. Make sure they aren’t sharing personal information that would compromise their own or your family’s security with their “friends.” Monitor what they do online. Don’t sit in the dark, hoping they are using the Internet appropriately. Be prepared not to like what you see.

Be discreet. What you say, do, and post online exists forever. There is no way to completely delete a digital post. Keep it professional, and be aware that someone is most likely monitoring you, possibly including your employer.

Maintain updated security. Make sure your hardware and your software are up to date. Update your antivirus definitions, your critical security patches, and so on.

Lock down settings. Most social networks have privacy settings. Don’t rely on the defaults. Instead, set these preferences as securely as possible. The main social media websites offer tutorials, which you should use.

Always delete messages from unfamiliar users. I get messages from scammers all the time, and I’m sure you do, too.

Don’t share personal information through games or applications. Nothing good can come from publishing “the 25 most amazing things about you.”

Always log off social media sites before walking away from the PC. If you ever use a friend’s or a public PC, this habit will save lots of aggravation.

Don’t use geolocation features, which literally track your every move in order to announce your location to the world. There’s no reason to allow anyone, anywhere, to stalk you. And don’t post status updates sharing the fact that your home is vacant.

Robert Siciliano, personal security expert contributor to Just Ask Gemalto, discusses hackers hacking social media on Fox Boston. Disclosures