Home  |  Personal Finance  |  Other Finance  | 

Resources for Identity Theft

What are some common examples of internet identity theft scams?

To properly view this site, javascript must be enabled and Flash version 9 or higher must be installed.
Get the latest Flash player
Linda Sherry
Director, National Priorities, Consumer Action
http://www.consumer-action.org  
 

Linda Sherry, Consumer Action’s director of national priorities and one of the organization’s chief spokespersons, joined the San Francisco-based national consumer education and advocacy group in 1994 from a background as a weekly newspaper reporter.

Consumer Action (www.consumer-action.org), founded in 1971, has a national reputation for free multilingual consumer education on personal finance issues.

Sherry, who moved to Washington, DC, in August 2004 to establish an office for Consumer Action, is responsible for the organization’s national advocacy work and for the research and writing of Consumer Action’s free educational publications and web site content. Her recent projects for Consumer Action include publications on home buying, credit card terms and conditions, bankruptcy, ID theft, Internet privacy, cell phones and investing vs. savings. Sherry is chief surveyor and coordinator of Consumer Action’s popular pricing surveys of rates for credit cards and telephone services. She is the editor of Consumer Action’s newsletter, Consumer Action News.

Sherry has received awards for Consumer Action publications from the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators (Excellence in Consumer Education, 1996, 2000 and 2003) and U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs (1995 National Consumer Week). Sherry serves as a member of the National Consumers League Fraud Alliance steering committee.

Before joining Consumer Action, Sherry was managing editor of AsianWeek in San Francisco from 1991-1994. Previously she was a reporter at The Almanac newspapers in Menlo Park, CA; The New York Times Long Island Section and The East Hampton Star in East Hampton, NY. She was the founding editor of the Sag Harbor Herald, a weekly newspaper in Long Island, NY.

What are some common examples of internet identity theft scams?

In this video, Linda Sherry details the best ways to prevent identity theft and what you can do if you think your identity has been stolen.

This expert: 28,916 views

This series: 3,838 views

Download - Coming Soon!
Tags:

Id

,

Theft

,

Identity

,

Fraud

,

Internet

,

Abuse

,

Stolen

,

Scam

Comments:

0 (Read Comments) (Add Comment)

Print

Transcripts

Speaker: What are some common examples of Internet identity theft scams?

Linda Sherry: There are some common ways that these use the Internet to steal your steal your identity and a couple of those are spoofsites and phishing, which is, say, emails that are tempting to get your personal information out of you. So, spoofsites, for instance, if you are trying to go to your bank, Bank of America and you type in Bank of Amerrica, a lot of these spoofsites have actually taken these URL's, purchased these URL's, just so that they can trick you that way.

So, be very careful, bookmark your regular websites you go to and try not to -- so you don't go to the wrong site. Then if you receive an email very often they'll just send tons of these phishing emails to people even if you aren't a customer of a certain bank, the day will come when you do get one of these email that is from your bank supposedly, never respond to an email like this; certainly you should never go click on any kind of link inside these emails or go to your website that way.

There is also a related form of phishing, which is called phishing, which is they call you on the phone and you want it to be careful that when people call you on the phone and ask for personal information that you don't give it out. You should always initiate a call where you're going to actually be giving out your personal information.

Other Videos

  • Are there rules for handling finances when you are married?

    Are there rules for handling finances when you are ...

    In this video, David Marotta discusses why it's important to agree in a marriage how finances are handled, and what the five principles should be.
  • What is FAFSA?

    What is FAFSA?

    In this video, Mr. Barnett defines some important financial aid terminology that will assist you in understanding more about financial aid in general.
  • Why is savings so important for debt management?

    Why is savings so important for debt management?

    In this video, Vikki Frank, Kandance Beamon, and Linda Stroman, financial education providers describe several key areas to address regarding debt reduction and elimination. This video is designed to deliver basic financial information to assist individuals and families to be able to identify goals and process strategies for their specific financial needs. The topics included in this video cover are: self-evaluation of debt load, budgeting strategies, understanding the effects on your credit and scores, why savings is important, how to develop a debt elimination plan, and the importance of financial education and how financial counseling may be useful.
  • How to Teach Your Kids About Money

    How to Teach Your Kids About Money

    In this video, Deputy Editor of Kiplinger's Personal Finance and author Janet Bodnar answers questions on the many issues surrounding what kids should know about money.
  • Financial Planning Basics

    Financial Planning Basics

    In this video, financial planning professional and member of the Financial Planning Association®, Alexandra Armstrong, CFP®, describes the six important steps in the financial planning process. This video is designed for individuals who would like to create a financial plan and achieve their goals. This video series includes an overview of establishing your goals, gathering data for your financial plan, analyzing and evaluating your financial status, developing and implementing the plan and monitoring the plan and making necessary adjustments.
  • Tax Return

    Tax Return

    This video series will discuss tax return preparation. It gives basic information on preparing an individual income tax return, Form 1040 and the basic schedules. This video is designed for those individuals who want to undertake the preparation of their tax return. There are tips and pointers for those who have attempted this feat in prior years.