A 33-year-old Columbia Falls woman has been sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay more than $18,700 in restitution for her role in an identity theft case. Andrea Mackowiak, who earlier pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft, was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula. Prosecutors say Mackowiak took […]
The Internal Revenue Service reminds consumers to avoid identity theft scams that use the IRS name, logo or Web site in an attempt to convince taxpayers that the scam is a genuine communication from the IRS. Scammers may use other federal agency names, such as the U.S. Department of the Treasury. In an identity theft […]
Submitted by Lauri Fox I live in Las Vegas NV, and I’m a victim of identity thief. My doctors employee had stole my personal information from my medical file, including my debit card and drivers license they made copy’s of and drained my bank account, and ran up cell phones in my name, also was […]
Here’s a message that aspiring Twitterati shouldn’t miss. Read those 140-character “tweets” carefully; they may be the work of an imposter. Celebrities, athletes, politicians and media personalities alike have been flocking to the hugely popular social networking site in droves, with actor Ashton Kutcher leading the way and media magnate Oprah Winfrey recently joining the […]
Social media has been the hottest trend on the internet. With new social networking websites coming along at every turn, it’s hard to keep up with the latest networking trend. Some really hot websites that we hear about often are: Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. Employees of MySpace have recently been included in the most recent […]
A Florida man was arrested last week and charged with identity theft after being spotted acting suspiciously at the Huntsville Wal-Mart. Fernando Martinez, 32, a Cuban national with a current address in Florida, caught the eye of Wal-Mart loss prevention officers on April 16 at approximately 4:15 p.m. while he attempted to use several credit […]
One Beloit, Wisconsin woman thought she was taking the necessary steps to protect herself against identity theft but was surprised to find out that it wasn’t enough. According to AARP, identity theft in 2008 increased 12 percent for Wisconsin residents. Judy Joslin-Crary said she shredded documents, refused preapproved credit applications and refused to talk to […]
I’m sure you are tired of hearing that hard economic times cause crime and scam rates to go up. This seems to make sense and identity theft is no exception to the rule. I don’t know what causes people to take advantage of people during hard times, but it’s even worse when people take advantage […]
If there’s anything worse than having your personal information leaked online, it’s finding your personal information along with your medical records leaked online. Unfortunately, the latter is more common than you might think. Over the course of a two-week study by Dartmouth College, researchers found a wide range of sensitive documents, from a spreadsheet of […]
Eighty-six-year-old Arlene Hald says she never called a phone sex line. And certainly didn’t make $1,000 worth of sex calls. The Washington state widow recently received a credit card bill addressed to her husband, Sylvester. He died nearly 20 years ago. Her family suspects it’s a case of identity theft. The billing company, Preferred Platinum […]