Federal Trade Commission

March 6, 2016

Seagate Phish Exposes All Employee W-2’s

This post was originally published on this site Email scam artists last week tricked an employee at data storage giant Seagate Technology into giving away W-2 tax documents on all current and past employees, KrebsOnSecurity has learned. W-2 forms contain employee Social Security numbers, salaries and other personal data, and are highly prized by thieves involved in filing phony tax refund requests with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the states. Seagate headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. Image: Wikipedia According to Seagate, the scam struck on March 1, about a week after KrebsOnSecurity warned readers to be on the lookout for email […]
August 23, 2016

A Life or Death Case of Identity Theft?

This post was originally published on this siteIdentity thieves have perfected a scam in which they impersonate existing customers at retail mobile phone stores, pay a small cash deposit on pricey new phones, and then charge the rest to the victim’s account. In most cases, switching on the new phones causes the victim account owner’s phone(s) to go dead. This is the story of a Pennsylvania man who allegedly died of a heart attack because his wife’s phone was switched off by ID thieves and she was temporarily unable to call for help. On Feb. 20, 2016, James William Schwartz, 84, was […]
January 4, 2017

The FTC’s Internet of Things (IoT) Challenge

This post was originally published on this siteOne of the biggest cybersecurity stories of 2016 was the surge in online attacks caused by poorly-secured “Internet of Things” (IoT) devices such as Internet routers, security cameras, digital video recorders (DVRs) and smart appliances. Many readers here have commented with ideas about how to counter vulnerabilities caused by out-of-date software in IoT devices, so why not pitch your idea for money? Who knows, you could win up to $25,000 in a new contest put on by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Electronics giant LG said today at the Consumer Electronics Show […]
January 31, 2017

Shopping for W2s, Tax Data on the Dark Web

This post was originally published on this siteThe 2016 tax season is now in full swing in the United States, which means scammers are once again assembling vast dossiers of personal data and preparing to file fraudulent tax refund requests on behalf of millions of Americans. But for those lazy identity thieves who can’t be bothered to phish or steal the needed data, there is now another option: Buying stolen W-2 tax forms from other crooks who have phished the documents wholesale from corporations. A cybercriminal shop selling 2016 W-2 tax data. Pictured in the screenshot above is a cybercriminal shop […]