As the holiday season quickly approaches and many people begin their holiday shopping, it may be a great time to start considering how you’ll protect yourself against identity theft.  I wanted to share the attached story with you.  You may find it useful to forward to any of your clients that “collect” personal information from their customers or tenants.   Property Managers, Community Associations and Apartment Owners often have “Personal Information” exposures that go unaddressed by their insurance policies.   Please check out www.newempiregroup.com or call one of our Underwriters to discuss adding Cyber Liability coverage to your policy.    

A recent Wall Street Journal article’s headline read, ’86 Arrested in ID Theft’.  This article explained how 111 members of five credit-card forgery rings operating out of Queens have been arrested and charged in a multi-million dollar identity-theft case according to the authorities.  Combined, these five groups stole more than $13 million dollars over a 16 month period by cloning credit cards with information that had very subtly been taken from their unsuspecting victims.  These cloned cards were then passed on to teams of “shopping crews” who were scattered across the country, instructed to purchase designer handbags, gaming consoles, cellphones as well as computers (mainly Apple products).

                Identity theft such as the incident described above occurs more frequently than you would expect.  It is a frightening experience if it does happen to you and you may not even realize it until months or even years later!  This is why you should take preventative measures to avoid such fraud.

Here are a few preventative measures you can take:

• Be aware that “Dumpster Diving” still occurs – Shred all important papers, especially pre-approved credit applications and credit card receipts.
• Be careful when using ATM’s – people can easily see you enter your pin number and gain access to your account.
• Cancel credit cards that you do not use – open credit accounts are easily targeted.
• Do not enter your credit card information on the internet unless the website you are using is encrypted on a secured site.
• Try to check your credit report at least twice a year to review and make sure there isn’t any fraudulent activity listed. (Visit Equifax, Experian & Transunion for these reports.)
• Try to take your name off of promotional lists and opt out of any pre-approved offers.
• Monitor all bank statements and keep an eye out for any credit activity that you do not recognize.

 With all of the advances in new technology happening around us, identity theft is becoming more common.  These are just a few very important tips to help you prevent identity theft, they are worth taking the time to review and implement. 

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