Lionheart Assurance Solutions Warns The Public To Be Cooperative, But Also Beware Of Fake U.S. Census Bureau Workers
As more than 140,000 U.S. Census workers knock on doors all across the country, Lionheart Assurance Solutions offers some advice to ensure people do not become victims of criminals attempting to steal their personal information.
The Better Business Bureau (BBB) has issued a press release alerting the public to be on the lookout for people posing as census workers and then using the information to steal their identities. Lionheart Assurance Solutions, a firm specializing in employee legal plans and identity theft safeguards, says people need to take this danger seriously.
“Identity theft has become the fastest growing white-collar crime in America, and this is a golden opportunity for identity thieves,” says Chuck Siegel, CEO of Lionheart Assurance Solutions, LP.
While we should all certainly cooperate with census workers (this is required by law and failure could result in a fine), it is also important to know the difference between a real census worker and a con artist. There are several different ways that people can ensure they do not fall prey to potential census scams.
Ask to see identification before talking with the worker. All census workers carry official government badges (marked with only their name), a special handheld electronic device and a confidentiality notice. Under no circumstances will a census worker ask to enter your home.
Understand that real Census Bureau workers are only there to verify your address and how many people are living at the location. If a person comes to your door asking for anything else, such as a bank account or social security number, refuse to give them the information. Real census workers do not ask these types of questions.
The 2010 census form asks only 10 questions, all of which pertain to accurately recording the number of people living at a particular location.
The U.S. Census Bureau may come to your door or call you over the phone, but they will not contact you by email. Beware of any electronic communication asking for your personal information.
“This is certainly a timely item to include in our Lionheart Assurance Solutions Scam Prevention Toolkit.” says Siegel. “Many Americans will be expecting to hear from the Census Bureau this year and may not have enough information to discern between legitimate and illegitimate requests for information.”
To find out more ways you can safeguard yourself and your business from identity theft, view the Lionheart Assurance Scam Prevention toolkit.
About Lionheart Assurance Solutions, LP:
Since 1997, Lionheart Assurance Solutions, LP® is a unique business services firm specializing in employee legal plans and identity theft restoration benefits for employers of all sizes nationwide.
Organizations that proactively educate their employees about identity theft threats can reduce their chances of a costly data breach. Lionheart Assurance Solutions’ training is designed to impact the way employees think. Changing the way employees think can result in a change in behavior that could reduce the risk of security breaches leading to identity theft.
Guided by a senior management team with more than a century of proven business success, Lionheart Assurance Solutions, LP® offers employee legal and identity theft restoration plans designed to enhance worker productivity by helping employees keep their focus on their work instead of on personal problems.
For small to medium-sized clients, Lionheart also offers a full range of plans that help small businesses to “level the playing field” by providing access to the kinds of legal and consultative advice that typically only a large corporation can afford.
Visit www.LionheartAssuranceSolutions.com for more information.
Media Contact
Lionheart Assurance Solutions, LP
Michael Hollingsworth
(888) 795-1563 (National)
P.O. Box 38, Hewitt, TX 76643
Lionheart Assurance Scam Prevention Toolkit: How To Prevent An Identity Theft Scam
Lionheart Assurance Solutions Presents Is Your Identity Safe On Social Networking Sites?
Social networking sites have become so popular that if you don’t have a MySpace or Facebook page, people may consider you a little odd, at least if you’re under a certain age. These sites are certainly popular and many find them to be endlessly entertaining; but these sites also present a problem in terms of protecting your privacy.
When you sign up for an account on these sites, you need to provide a lot of personal information, something which hasn’t escaped the notice of identity thieves and hackers. These criminals are finding ways into these systems, stealing personal data and using this information to defraud users.
Scams on social networks are becoming increasingly common as the user bases of these sites continue to grow. Making the situation especially dangerous is the fact that many younger users who grew up with the web are quite a bit more trusting than their older counterparts. These users will often provide a lot of personal information right on their profile page, making the work of scammers even easier.
According to PC World, the average user of social networking sites lists at least three different types of personal information on their profile pages which can easily be exploited by criminals. These include their name, address, date of birth, phone number, the names of their parents and other information which an identity thief needs in order to commit fraud.
The overwhelming majority of social networking users are not even aware of the fact that they can adjust the privacy settings associated with their accounts in order to restrict access to these kinds of personal details. It’s also the case that most users don’t know who can look at this information on their pages and that most people use the same passwords for everything and rarely, if ever change these passwords.
Most instances of identity theft over social networking services happens as the result of adding someone who you don’t know as a friend on the network. They may be listed as a friend of someone you do know personally, but before you go ahead and click that invite button, you may want to ask someone if they have any idea who he or she is.
It’s important to not only know that there are privacy settings which you can configure but to actually use them to prevent access to your profile by anyone except people you actually know and have added as friends.
Other ways to keep your personal data safe on the web:
You can get a credit freeze to secure your credit, preventing new accounts from being opened under your name. This can be done by going to the website consumersunion.org and following the directions given for your state.
Implement identity theft protection and prevention:
There are identity protection monitoring services available which provide round the clock monitoring by scanning public records daily, alerting you if any suspicious activity is detected. In the event that your identity is stolen, there are even services which help you to put a stop to this crime and repair the damage identity theft can cause.
The important thing here is to be aware of the risks of giving out too much personal information on social networking sites; especially if you don’t take advantage of the privacy features these sites offer. Lionheart Assurance Solutions recommends that you protect yourself from identity theft and fraud by knowing the risks and taking action to avoid becoming a victim of criminals and scammers.
Lionheart Assurance Solutions Presents Protect Yourself By Keeping An Eye Out For Fraud
Whenever you type in your PIN number at an ATM or at a terminal in a store, conceal the keypad by cupping your hand over it. While it’s not that common, you never know for sure if the person standing right behind you is only there to try to steal this important information.
Your Social Security Number or other important personal identification data should never be given to anyone who calls you on the phone (though if you’re placing the call, you know exactly who you’re calling and that this information is actually needed, this is OK, obviously). Instead, ask for their number and find out if this number belongs to a company who you can provide this information to in confidence.
If you leave your outgoing mail in your mailbox for the postman to pickup or otherwise exposed, it’s time to break this habit. Instead, make sure that all of your mail is placed into a real post box or sent from your local post office to keep your mail away from prying eyes.
When your credit card statements arrive, look them over closely. There are a lot of small acts of theft which occur, such as bill padding at restaurants. It may only be a few dollars at a time, but it does add up – and unless you’re looking for it, you may never notice. Scammers and identity thieves are learning to fly under the radar by stealing smaller amounts of money, thus avoiding detection.
Lionheart Assurance Solutions recommends that your computer passwords or PIN numbers should never include any part of your Social Security Number. Good passwords are at least six characters in length and are made of numbers, letters (upper and lower case) and symbols. You should also change this password frequently.
The most powerful tool at your disposal for protecting your identity is information. It’s important to know what tactics that scammers and identity thieves are using. Since they change their techniques from time to time to exploit new security weaknesses or avoid being caught, being up to date is essential.
You need to make a habit of being aware of the safety of any items which contain confidential personal information. For example, keep your car doors locked when you’re not on the road and never leave your purse or wallet in your car. Make sure that your laptop is never left unattended in public – your computer is a gold mine for any would-be identity thief.
Lionheart Assurance Solutions, LP reminds its clients that the best way to avoid falling victim to a ripoff or fraud is to understand the tell-tale signs. For more information, visit http://lionheartassurance.com today.
Lionheart Assurance Solutions Presents Protect Your Family And Your Business
What would you do if you became a victim of identity theft, with a criminal making purchases in your name, using your credit? What if you or a family member were tricked into handing over personal or financial information online? Before you sign a contract, how do you know that the terms and conditions it spells out don’t compromise your privacy or expose you to fraud?
Do you have the information you need to make sure that your legal rights are protected? Lionheart Assurance Solutions, LP offers a full range of services which include notification of suspicious activity which may indicate that the security of your personal information has been compromised. Lionheart clients also receive unlimited access to expert legal counsel and legal advice to help them understand and protect their right to privacy.
Have you ever needed to ask an attorney for advice on a legal matter but found the cost of their services to be higher than what your budget would comfortably allow? When you choose Lionheart Assurance Solutions, you immediately gain access to the legal services available to the country’s largest Life Events Legal Plans provider. All it takes is a single call to get in touch with a lawyer who can provide you with the advice you need; and if you need a call made or a letter written for you by an attorney, they can also provide this service.
If you have a teenage child or happen to have a less than spotless driving record yourself, Lionheart’s Life Events Legal Plan gives you access to attorneys who can provide you or a family member covered under the plan with the expert legal representation you need.
Whether you’re facing a looming foreclosure, struggling with credit card debt or are dealing with a severance contract, the law firms which Lionheart Assurance Solutions works with can provide you with the legal services you’re looking for.
By virtue of American citizenship, we’re guaranteed certain legal rights; don’t wait until you run into trouble before you begin exercising these rights and defending yourself. Lionheart Assurance Solutions’ legal plans are becoming part of the benefits packages offered by many employers nationwide in order to reduce the expense borne by the employee in these events, as well as reducing time spent away from work to handle legal matters; it’s a win-win situation.
If you’re looking for the kind of legal representation and services available through Lionheart Assurance Solutions, visit http://lionheartassurancesolutions.com today. An independent agent will happily follow up to help you get the protection you need for your business, yourself and your family.
Lionheart Assurance Solutions Presents How To Avoid PayPal Scams!
The spam that normally fills your inbox can also be highly dangerous for your identity. You may simply discard spam emails from your inbox, but what about the innumerable emails you come across that appear to be from popular social site or shopping platform like eBay and PayPal? If you have an account at either one of these sites or one that is similar, then you must be extremely careful about emails your receive. With identity theft on the rise, it has become essential to know how to protect yourself from fake email scams if you want to keep your finances safe.
Fake messages sent to you by scammers are for the sole purpose of phishing your private information and they are meant to cheat you, both financially and socially. Lionheart Assurance Solutions suggests the best thing to do is to automatically delete email messages that appear to be from PayPal and eBay unless you are expecting something from them or if your full name on the specific account is not in the salutation of the email. Even then, read the email thoroughly and do not reply immediately unless you are absolutely sure the email is legitimate.
Another safeguard to ensure the emails you receive are authenticated by DKIM or Domain Keys Identified Mail. You can enable the feature from within your mail settings. Check with your software provider. This program only authenticates emails from eBay and PayPal.
There are various social networking sites that have their own authentication process. If you are using social networking sites make sure that you are aware of the security and privacy measure for each of these sites you interact with.
Oftentimes, scammers send adware and spyware along with their scam emails so be very careful before you open any suspicious email messages or from an unknown source. If you are a person who does a lot of online transactions you need to be careful about your email. In most cases, your account is hacked by the means of spyware that is sent via spam or suspicious emails.
Lionheart Assurance Solutions advises not to tell anyone about the login id as well as the password for your PayPal or eBay accounts. This information can reach those cyber criminals who are very difficult to trace.
Also, kept in mind that although sites like Google have their own anti-spam firewalls in place, it is not always easy to prevent unwanted spam from popping up in your Inbox. The success rate for anti-spam measures is never 100 percent. Anti-spam software tools are automatically configured in most cases. They are designed to look for probable signs of ‘bad’ emails and block them or warn you against them. But, the problem is most of these ‘bad’ emails are coded and designed to look authentic and clean. It is impossible for any automatic software to stop them all.
With the advancement of technology an increasing number of scammers are finding out newer ways to cheat the gullible people who fall into their lucrative traps.
The whole process of buying and selling over the Net happens electronically with soft cash. For example, if you buy something over a shopping site the exact price of the article will be taken out of your account and placed in the account of the seller. You do not have to worry about the transfer process as everything happens automatically. But, just think how dangerous this process can be if a scammer gets hold of your account number and secret code because you were not more vigilant!
The greatest disadvantage is that most of the time the person who is cheated does not know this for sure and often there is a significant time gap before he realizes it. This often allows the fraud to escape scot free.
In today’s times PayPal scams are being increasingly common. So keep in mind the old adage- better safe than sorry- and act accordingly! Learn more about preventing Paypal Scams and read more articles from Lionheart Assurance Solutions, then stay tuned to this blog.
Lionheart Assurance Solutions Presents What Should I Know About Medical Identity Theft
Most of us carry medical insurance to cover unforeseen problems, as long as we can afford it. Our insurance means we have a unique medical identity, including our health histories, personal information, bills paid, what we pay for insurance and what our account will pay for. This can be a real problem if someone decides to steal that medical identity.
It’s a fact – someone else who gets your insurance number and personal information can use them to pay for their own medical expenses. This includes drugs, surgery, expensive treatments and more. Medical records and information may be falsified and new ones created. If the thief gets away with this, you could end up being charged for what your insurance won’t pay, or discover that your legitimate problems aren’t covered anymore. You’ve become a victim of medical identity theft without even knowing it.
It can be extremely difficult to prove that your identity has been stolen in this way, however. After all, the information and records are on computers in hospitals and insurance agencies all over. Sometimes, people even get the help of a doctor or other medical professional to commit this kind of fraud. That’s why it’s so important to be ready for it.
The Possible Consequences
The biggest impact of medical identity theft is financial. Victims of this kind of theft have credit problems, may have to deal with debt collectors, and might have trouble getting a job. They may also have trouble dealing with the fake entries in their medical identity. After all, if a new insurer believes you’ve had treatment for an illness you haven’t had, they may consider it to be a pre-existing condition. Even if you check your credit report on a regular basis, it may be hard to see the problem.
What Can You Do
Recovering your medical identity under current law is difficult. Since medical records are secret, it can take a long time to find out what happened. Ideally, you should select an insurance company that has transparency of records (to you) and regularly updates credit reports. There are also a number of websites you can check to find out other possible actions.
Most of the time, people who suffer from this kind of theft have a hard time recovering. Since they don’t have the right to change their own medical files, and since information is hard to get to, it may never be fixed. This is why anyone with medical insurance should make sure their credit information and all other data from the insurance company is correct. Lionheart Assurance Solutions recommends that you keep track of your paid bills and keep a close eye on your personal data to reduce your chances of becoming a victim.
Lionheart Assurance Solutions Provides Tips To Keep Your SSN Safe
At a seminar for identity theft, the audience was asked who was carrying their original Social Security card in their wallet. It was inevitable that hands did rise. These experts assisting customers, employees and vendors communicated they use caution with this type of personal identification being kept in wallet or purses regularly. Originals of Social Security cards should be kept in a home or business safe or in a deposit box at a bank. Only carry the card when you have to use it for the purpose of identification in a transaction where it is needed. After which it should be returned to its safe place immediately.
The use of employment scams, in order to get peoples social security numbers, is being used by thieves. Today’s economy making such a scam easy to perpetrate. These thieves take advantage of desperate people who are out of work and looking. It is necessary that we all become educated in all forms of identity theft. Learn to question anyone who ask you for your social security number. Ask they why they need it. How they plan to keep it secure and how they are going to dispose of it when it is no longer needed. All reputable companies will answer these questions.
The estimation is that ten million social security numbers will end up with thieves of identity theft organizations. If your number ends up being one of them and is used by another person for a job, the number will be sold again, again for at least another eight different times to other identity thieves. Your social security number will be involved over and over again. Thus multiplying your difficulties many times. It is not unusual to for parents to get a new born baby a social security card. It is done by many parents for different reasons. These cards are very vulnerable. They can be lost, misplaced and even stolen by the time it is needed when the child seeks employment. No person is too old or too young to have their card stolen and used fraudulently.
It is recommended by Lionheart Assurance Solutions, LP for each person to make a photocopy of all the contents of their wallet and put it in a safe place. If you wallet is ever lost or perhaps stolen you have a record of its contents. All these details would be needed for the law enforcement officials, credit card companies, your bank and the federal and state department organizations who issue identification
Lionheart Assurance Solutions Presents A Guide To Identity Theft Scams – Protect Your Name, Your Life
With the growing popularity of the internet, the cases of identity fraud have increased tremendously in recent years. Information about people is readily available through the net, which makes it easy for scammers to exploit anyone’s financial and social information. Research has shown that single renters and young professionals are at the highest risk. They tend to be more open to meeting new people online and sharing contact information. Some may be honestly looking for roommates or sublet tenants when it becomes difficult to pay their rent on their own. Those who make purchases or sell goods online are also at higher risk, especially those who use auction sites where cheating and scamming are common.
This is an increasing problem everyone wants protection from, but you first have to learn why it takes place so frequently. If you think identity theft is enabled entirely by the websites you visit, you are wrong. In reality, identity theft usually happens as a result of small mistakes made by the victim, either unknowingly or as a result of carelessness.
For instance, you have to be very careful when paying with credit or debit cards on a shopping trip since these cards can be manipulated or stolen in the process of an ordinary transaction. Even as late as 2006, many stores were still printing entire credit card numbers on standard invoices and receipts. This is valuable information for scammers who know how to use credit card numbers to their advantage. Old fashioned carbon machines that were previously used to create copies cards that would later be processed was very dangerous because anyone could have easily picked up those credit card numbers and used them.
Today, standard practice has changed so most stores only provide the last 4 digits of each card number. This is much safer, but there is still room for improvement. Always shred your receipts and invoices and never leave them inside shopping bags, even if they are with your purchased items. You don’t even want to throw them away in public trash cans…or your home trash cans for that matter! Shredding them is the safest way to protect yourself.
Lionheart Assurance Solutions recommends that you try to shop with cash whenever possible, for a very simple reason. Cash cannot be duplicated as credit and debit cards can. Of course, you also have to protect yourself if you use ATM machines to withdraw large sums of cash for shopping trips. Be mindful of how close other people are standing while you use the machine and do not allow them to stand directly beside you. Always be careful of suspicious looking people as they may be trying to acquire your pin number.
Some scammers even use mobile phones with video capability held at just the right angle to record your hand movements, which can later be used to determine your pin number. Other scammers use high-tech gadgets that copy card numbers from the magnetic strips on the back of all credit and debit cards. This is why credit identity theft is the most common variety of identity theft. It is up to you to safeguard yourself against this crime.
Even your personal living space such as your car or home must be secured with extra measures. The good news is you can protect yourself in all instances. Remain on guard even when in your home and vehicle. You don’t want to lose valuable personal information if someone manages to break into your home or vehicle as it can cause a lot more long term damage than losing cash, jewels and other high dollar belongings.
Realize that today, your personal details and all information pertaining to bank accounts and security numbers is more valuable to a thief than your music systems and large sums of cash sitting around. So, make sure that you keep all important documents with any variety of personal information in a secure location. Identity theft has very severe consequences in the future, so be careful and protect yourself!
Lionheart Assurance Solutions Presents Preventing Identity Theft – Strategy For Safe Social Networking
Hacking is a huge problem online today. It’s all too common for users of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook to find at some point that their accounts have been compromised or their passwords changed without authorization. Owners of these social networking sites now consider security their primary concern since they are under immense pressure to offer safe features to their users. Users want features which keep them safe from hackers.
Most social networking sites do not have adequate security in place and do not use SSL. This makes each session ID used by all users available on proxy. That is the information hackers use to break into accounts. In one recent example, Twitter was hacked due to administration failure. It is also well known that YouTube hackers from around the world use cross-scripting failure to enter invalid or virus-infected information to interfere with the system and hack into accounts. This is done to obtain personal data illegally.
It’s quite clear you are extremely vulnerable to Identity Theft every time you use these social networking sites. Too often, users from all around the globe have unlimited blind faith when it comes to friends on these networking sites. Many users will even share personal information through one of these sites at some point. A survey revealed that one in three users have at least three pieces of personal information posted on their accounts. This information is often their name, postal address, or phone number. A professional hacker can take these bits of information and steal your identity through the internet. It can harm you considerably offline as well!
Let’s look at some precautions you can take to use Social Networking sites safely. This will reduce your risk of becoming a victim of Identity Theft:
Never trust someone you don’t know in real life as your online friend because they could just as well be scammers looking to take advantage of your trust. Never share any type of personal information with someone you have not met or seen in person.
Lionheart Assurance Solutions recommends that you reject all unknown friend requests or requests from any person who claims to be a friend of a friend. Check with the real life friend to ensure they actually know the person in real life first.
Never display any personal information online, no matter what the circumstances may be. Do not share your street address, phone number, relative names or bank account numbers through any type of website. Remember hackers are constantly watching for such information to take steal your identity.
Most social networking sites provide personal security settings on all accounts, but most users do not realize they are even there. Always use available features, especially locking your account and all photographs so that only your invited friends have access.
Security Freeze: search for the words “credit freeze” or “security freeze” on any search engine and learn how to set this up for yourself. These programs lock your credit and prevent others from opening accounts of any type under your name. This instantly stops hackers from using any information found online.
Account Monitoring: monitor your credit and bank accounts so you can catch it early if someone does make use of your identity.
Identity Recovery Assistance: if you fear your identity has been compromised, you must report it immediately to the authorities. Quick action can limit the damages long term.