Theft Alert: Be aware of pretexting
Pretexting is one of the latest ways identity thieves steal your information. The technique is so named because the scammers use a pretext to get data—either they pretend to be you and try to get your information from someone else or they pretend to be someone you do business with and try to trick you into divulging information they can use to steal from you.
Federal officials don’t know how widespread the use of this technique is, but they know it’s happening and they know that pretexters are very resourceful.
Never give out information over the phone, through the mail, or over the internet unless you’ve initiated the contact or know whom you’re dealing with. It’s a sad fact, but when it comes to your personal information, you need to be suspicious of everybody these days.
Jackie
Comments
Your article on identity theft is very informatal. I have been a victim of this twice. I first experienced this when I went to deposit money into my checking account. Once the teller got access to my account she told me that I was overdrawn by $500. My reply was "say what, how can that be since I haven't used the account for over a month?"
The teller then printed out a activity summary of my account. I then saw that $500 was electronically withdrawn by a company that I never authorized or ever heard of when I was in New York (I live in California).
The bank closed my account and opened a new account, what a nightmere.
Posted by: Cristina | January 16, 2007 05:16 PM