The Lionheart Assurance Scam Prevention Toolkit recommends that businesses take immediate action on the following 5 strategies to reduce the likelihood of identity theft leading to data breaches:

1. Companies with an educated workforce, familiar with the many ways thieves can access company data, are much more likely to have employees who notice any unusual activities. These employees are much more likely to notice any phishing scams online or notice unauthorized personnel copying highly sensitive information.

2. Companies should have protocols in place for all their information systems. These can range from strict screening procedures before hiring new employees to safeguarding computers with passwords and encryption technology.

3. Companies should restrict access to sensitive information. Computers should be password protected, laptops and PDAs locked in steel cabinets when not in use, and file cabinets locked when no one is in the room.

4. Redundant or obsolete information should be properly disposed of when no longer needed. If the information is on discs, these should be destroyed using special devices for that purpose. If the information is on paper, these should be run through a paper shredder. And if the information is on hard drives, special software should be used to completely purge all files.

5. The Federal Trade Commission has published guidelines on information security in their document entitled “Complying with the Safeguards Rules.” This publication outlines security measures a company can take to reduce the possibility of identity theft leading to a data breach.

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Lionheart Assurance also recommends that companies who have installed various procedures for data protection stay up to date on security issues because identity thieves are constantly improving their ability to break into databases.

About Lionheart Assurance & The Lionheart Assurance Scam Prevention Toolkit

Lionheart Assurance is a business consulting company that has specialized in keeping clients up to date on issues related to identity theft. Numerous companies have recognized Lionheart Assurance as an outstanding service provider and, as a result, Lionheart Assurance has earned an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, which is their highest awarded rating.

Lionheart Assurance is a consulting company that has mentored hundreds of companies on information security and identity theft issues. Lionheart Assurance is focused on helping people reduce the likelihood of becoming a target of identity theft scams. This consulting organization has been a champion in the war to fight identity theft since 2003.

The Lionheart Assurance team consists of professional business consultants with regional offices throughout the US who specialize in offering unique employee benefits, identity theft education and identity theft risk mitigation. Lionheart Assurance – through the Lionheart Assurance Scam Prevention Toolkit – champions ways to better inform the public and their clients on how to mitigate the risks associated with identity theft.

Lionheart Assurance launched the Lionheart Assurance Scam Prevention Toolkit in 2009 in response to the growing needs of the business community to stay on top of the latest scams perpetrated by identity thieves.

Scammers use one of two methods to defraud merchants online.

One method is to use fictitious numbers that imitate the algorithms produced by authentic credit card numbers. These numbers pass authentication and get authorization codes.

The other method is to buy stolen credit card information from a newsgroup and use these fake credentials to buy a merchant’s products online.

Lionheart Assurance Solutions recommends the following 5 action steps related to this scam.

1. Refuse to accept an order unless there is full verification of address and telephone numbers.

2. If the billing field is different from the shipping field on the online order form, the customer should fax their signature and credit card number before the transaction is authorized.

3. If the verification address uses a free email service that anyone can open within minutes, pay attention. Although a legitimate order can come from a free email address, it also opens the door for the use of a fake credit card number. Such an order necessitates more concern and consideration.

4. An order that is much larger than the typical amounts customers order is suspicious.

5. International orders must have the same billing and shipping address.

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If an order has a different billing and shipping address, comes from a free email service, or is larger than typical order quantities, pick up the telephone and speak to the customer to confirm the transaction.

Started in 1997, Lionheart Assurance Solutions is a business consulting company that focuses on reducing the likelihood of identity theft. They have an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. They educate companies on how identity theft can occur and suggest ways that a business can be proactive about protecting sensitive information. Lionheart Assurance Solutions released the Lionheart Assurance Solutions Scam Prevention Toolkit in 2009 in order to enhance awareness of scams perpetrated by identity thieves.

This information can be stolen in many ways. Here, for example, is one possible scenario:

After buying a client a meal, a company executive hands the corporate credit card to the waiter. The credit card is taken into the backroom and then returned. When the credit card was out of sight, all the information on it could have been copied.

Lionheart Assurance Solutions recommends the following 5 ways to protect a corporate credit card.

1. When a company opens up a credit card account, it should use a unique password. This verification information should be unique, not something that can be found by going through routine company documents.
2. Question the authority of the person requesting the information about the credit card. Does the person asking for information have a valid need to know it?
3. Avoid putting credit card numbers on forms or checks. If someone is calling on behalf of the company, make sure they are an authorized user of the credit card, not any available employee who has been delegated the task of calling a vendor to order merchandise.
4. Check the billing statements every month to make sure that only authorized charges have been made. If the billing statement itself does not come, someone could have made a fraudulent change of address.
5. Once a year, or more often, read through a credit card report from Equifax, Experian, and/or TransUnion.

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If you believe that the corporate credit card has been used in a way that can’t be explained by the authorized users, then:

1. Contact the credit card company immediately (this limits liability).
2. Contact the fraud departments of Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.
3. Contact the creditors.
4. File a report with the local police department.

Although Lionheart Assurance Solutions cannot protect, avoid, or prevent identity theft or any other crime, they can alert their customers on ways to improve their information security. Lionheart Assurance Solutions released the Lionheart Assurance Solutions Scam Prevention Toolkit in 2009 in order to enhance awareness of scams perpetrated by identity thieves.

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. 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.

It is always advisable 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, keep 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 at the Lionheart Assurance Solutions.

Getting to know how criminals operate is a good way on how to avoid identity theft fraud at your business. Although the most publicized cases of corporate identity thefts being reported are about crooks stealing customer information from the database of large companies, hacking is not the only threat to your business. In fact, cheating and getting access from inside your system is also a big headache. Some online scam artists will try to rip off your customers by pretending to be representatives of your company or even phish information or identities of your present employees to get to you. There are things that criminals can do to twist the arms of your employees, even your most trusted ones, just to squeeze the information they want regarding you, your customers and your business.

So, what can you do on how to avoid identity theft fraud at your business? Make sure that you invest in good software that will prevent viruses, malwares and spywares from entering your company’s computer database. You need such security measures to ensure that you are protected from outside hackers and ripoffs. In order to protect yourself from the inside, you need to be more careful with the people you hire. Also, take the time to inform your employees about the growing threat of identity theft fraud and tell them how they can detect criminals trying to phish information from them. In addition, it is important that you do not allow personal emails, external messaging applications and other personal activities on your company’s computer network. Perhaps if your employees understand how these things are threatening, they won’t feel as if you are attempting to stifle them personally.

Financial liability is one of the biggest impacts of being a victim of corporate identity theft. To protect yourself from financial repercussions and scams, you should find an assurance agency that will help cover loses and other related expenses in case problems regarding hacking and identity theft arise.

To know more about how to avoid identity theft ripoffs at your business, visit Lionheart Assurance Solutions at http://www.LionheartAssuranceSolutions.com today.

This article is part of an on-going series of articles included within the Lionheart Assurance Scam Prevention Toolkit™. In other scam prevention articles, Lionheart Assurance Solutions Says ID Theft Complaints are on the rise. Lionheart Assurance Solutions is committed to providing strategies on how to avoid a scam or rip off before they happen,