Safety and Security Blog

Recent Phishing Scheme - Your Microsoft Payment Method could not be authorized

2009-11-10T15:30:00Z

This solution article talks about an email that was sent out to MSN/hotmail customers stating that they need to update their payment information for their Windows Live Hotmail Plus service.

Please note that this email is not authentic. Customers are requested to report these emails as spam and do not click on the links or provide any information.

Copy of Email:

----- Original Message -----
From: Windows Live Billing.
To: User_name@msn.com
Sent: Sunday, November 08, 2009 8:53 AM
Subject: Your Microsoft Payment Method could not be authorized
Windows Live Hotmail Member Services
Billing and Account Management

Dear Windows Live Hotmail Plus member,

During our regularly scheduled account maintenance and verification procedures, our billing department was unable to authorize your current payment method information.

This might be due to either of the following reasons:

1. A recent change in your personal information (i.e. change of address, phone number, credit card)
2. Submitting invalid information during the initial Sign Up or upgrade process.
3. An inability to accurately verify your selected payment method information due to an internal error within our processors.

Please use the following link to update your payment method information :

http://billing.microsoft.com/login.srf

NOTE! If your account information is not updated within 48 hours then your ability to use your Windows Live Hotmail account will become restricted.

Thank you for using MSN !

Please do not reply to this e-mail, as this is an unmonitored alias.

2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Recent reports of Account hijacks

2009-04-29T11:03:00Z

This solution article provides information about the increase in reports that we have received about accounts been hijacked and spam mails been sent to customer's contact list without customer's knowledge.

Hotmail is seeing instances of accounts being "hijacked" by spammers who send emails out advertising an electronics website. The spam mails usually have subjects like "Good shopping good mood" and may go to your contact list in addition to a random list of emails. Indications that this is happening to you may include you being required to match the characters in the picture (to verify that you're a person and not an automated program) to send mails when you reach your limits.

Note that you will still be able to login, and are in fact, "sharing" your account with the spammer. Hotmail believes that this may be due to a virus on a computer that you have used to login to Hotmail at some point in the past.

If you login and see in your "sent items" folder mails that you haven't sent, or receive Non Delivery reports (NDRs) in your inbox, we recommend that you scan your computer for viruses and malware using a reliable Antivirus product (click here to go to Microsoft's anti-virus page). Once your computer has been cleaned, immediately change your current password to a "strong" password. Click here to know how to create a strong password.

The worm/virus sends various messages that entice users to click on a malicious link that leads to a Web site. Clicking on the said link downloads a copy of the worm onto message recipients' computers. Upon download, it then gathers e-mail addresses saved on the recipient's computer and sends itself out to all of those addresses.

There are a number of ways you can protect your computer against these viruses:

- Obtain the most recent virus definitions. You can visit your anti-virus company's website or call them to get more information.

- Be cautious about opening messages that contain links to websites.

- Be cautious when opening embedded links. Point your mouse cursor on the link and look at the underlying URL that displays in your browser status bar at the bottom and ensure that the URL makes sense for what the link states. Never login from one of these links. If a link directs you to login to a service that you use, instead go to that service by accessing the services website directly from your browser and not use the embedded link.

- Do not open attachments unless you are expecting them.

- Download the latest Microsoft updates frequently. To download the latest updates for Microsoft software, please visit the following links:

http://update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate/
http://office.microsoft.com/productupdates

If you feel that a virus has already infected your computer, you can get online support (or toll-free telephone support in the U.S. and Canada) for security-related issues such as viruses and security updates from the Microsoft Security Help and Support Team. Please click on the link below:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/gp/securityhome

For more information on how you can protect your computer, please click on the link below:

http://www.microsoft.com/security/default.mspx

In addition, to ensure the security of your Hotmail account, we highly recommend that you change your Hotmail password and Secret Question. To do this, please follow the steps below:

To change your Hotmail password, click here.

To change your Secret Question, click here.

Please ensure that you have updated your passport profile information as much complete as possible including your alternate email address. The more complete and more recent this information is, the better chance we have of assisting you in the event your account gets compromised.

We want to assure you that your security and protection online is our top priority and we are dedicated to help you obtain support for security-related issues such as viruses and security updates.

How to report Abuse or Spam in Windows Live Hotmail

2009-03-23T16:19:00Z

This solution article provides information on how to report abuse and SPAM in Windows Live Hotmail.

To report spam or unsolicited emails:

* Windows Live Hotmail customers should click the "Junk" button to report Spam.

* Non-Windows Live Hotmail customers should address an email to report_spam@hotmail.com, report_spam@msn.com or report_spam@live.com (Depending on the originating mail domain: hotmail or msn or live). Attach a copy of the spam email to this email and send it. If we do not receive a copy of the email as an attachment our ability to take action against the spamming account is severely impacted.

* We ask for a full copy of the email so that we have conclusive evidence showing from which Windows Live Hotmail account the SPAM was sent. It is possible that the email address was spoofed, and we don't want to mistakenly close a non-spamming account.

To report abuse:

Customers who wish to report abuse about harassment, impersonation, child exploitation, child pornography etc, received from a Windows Live Hotmail account should send their complaint to abuse@hotmail.com with all the pertaining information.

If you are being threatened please call your local law enforcement.

If you wish to report abuse against a non Windows Live Hotmail account, please send the complaint to abuse@domainname.com , where domainname.com is the text that appears after the "@" symbol in the sender's e-mail address. You can also use the site http://abuse.net to identify the correct abuse reporting address.

In addition to these ways of reporting Spam you can also click the "Report Spam," button in your email program. In fact, Hotmail has setup systems where we automatically receive these reports from the following ISPs and anti-spam providers:

Yahoo
Gmail
AOL
Comcast
RoadRunner
Outblaze
SpamCop
Signal-Spam
Verizon
Nortel

Several other ISPs have setup their "Report Spam" button to point directly to abuse@hotmail.com.

About restricted child accounts

2009-02-18T11:37:00Z

This solution article provides information about restricted child accounts and how to control access to the child account.

You can allow, deny, or restrict a child's (An account holder whose use of the Internet is restricted by Family Safety. Children can't view their own child safety settings.) access to Windows Live Hotmail by using Windows Live OneCare Family Safety. To manage a child's account, you must visit the Windows Live OneCare Family Safety home page, and then create accounts for yourself and your child. For more information, see Install and set up Windows Live OneCare Family Safety. After you've set up the appropriate accounts, you can decide how to manage a child's access to Windows Live Hotmail.

Full access

If you allow full access to Windows Live Hotmail, the child can use all the options and features that are available with a typical Windows Live Hotmail account.

No access

If you deny access to Windows Live Hotmail, the child can't sign in to their Windows Live Hotmail account. If a child tries to access their Windows Live Hotmail account, they receive a message that states that their parent or Family Safety administrator (Family Safety users with permissions to change Family Safety settings, and to add and remove child users. The primary administrator can also add and remove secondary administrators) has blocked the account.

Restricted access

If you allow restricted access to Windows Live Hotmail, the child can sign in to a Windows Live Hotmail account, but specific features and options are unavailable. For example, a child doesn't have an option to sign up for free newsletters.

Because many parents feel that junk e-mail (Unwanted, unsolicited, or illicit e-mail or other electronic messages, including spam) contains material inappropriate for children, the Junk mail folder is also unavailable. Therefore, a child won't be able to access any junk e-mail that would typically be routed to the Junk mail folder. Other features that are limited or unavailable include options that use other e-mail accounts or e-mail addresses in association with their Windows Live Hotmail account, and options that deal with managing or editing contacts.

On the Options page for a restricted Windows Live Hotmail account, all junk e-mail options are removed. In addition, the following options are removed:

Send and receive mail from other e-mail accounts

Forward mail to another e-mail account

Automatically sort e-mail into folders

Reply-to address

Import contacts

Although a child with restricted access can't add new contacts, they can request that a parent or Family Safety administrator add a new contact. For more information, see Kids: Request permission to add a contact.

Fake MSN Offer - Speed Up Your PC

2009-01-09T21:11:00Z

Hello All -

Here is a new mailing that has come to our attention. If you receive this mailing, do not respond or click on links. Here is an image of the mailing.

-s

Beginning of the tax year phishing mails - IRS email

2008-12-29T16:55:00Z

This article will provide information to users about the phishing emails that are been sent by phishers impersonating the Internal Revenue Service.

As we are winding down 2008, the miscreants are on time with this years phishing mails impersonating the Internal Revenue Service. Don't be fooled by this and don't respond to it. The IRS does not send out unsolicited emails to residents. You can find out current information from the Internal Revenue Service at http://www.irs.gov.

What should you do?

Remember, do not respond to this mailing. If you have already responded, you should contact your local law authorities to report the fraud.

Here is a copy of the mailing:

From: Internal Revenue Service U.S.A. [no-reply@irs.gov]
To:
CC:
Subject: Internal Revenue Service U.S.A. Tax Refund 2008-2009

Dear Applicant:

After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund under section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Tax refund value is $291.70.Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 3-6 days in order to IWP the data received.

-If you distribute funds to other organization, your records must show wether they are exempt under section 497 (c) (15). In cases where the recipient org. is not exempt under section 497 (c) (15), you must have evidence the funds will be used for section 497 (c) (15) purposes.

-If you distribute fund to individuals, you should keep case histories showing the recipient's name and address; the purpose of the award; the maner of section; and the realtionship of the recipient to any of your officers, directors, trustees, members, or major contributors.

If you are a customer of the :Mazuma C.U. ,Keystone Savings Bank, Tower F.C.U,Campus USA C.U you will automatically receive another 125 dollars, and will receive the money in less than 12 hours!

To access the form for your tax refund, please click here:

http://www.IRS.gov/treasurydep/taxrefund.html (Note: This is a forged URL. The link underneath goes to a phishing server that will collect any information entered.I've removed that part for safety and to not index on search engines. -s)

This notification has been sent by the Internal Revenue Service,a bureau of the Department of the Treasury.

______________________________________________________________________________

Note:

- If you received this message in your SPAM/BULK folder, that is because of the restrictions implemented by your ISP

- For security reasons, we will record your ip address, the date and time.

- Deliberate wrong inputs are criminally pursued and indicted.

Tax ID :

Learn how to recognize the 5 most common types of E-mail Scams

2008-10-26T02:55:00Z

In today's world, it is not uncommon for you to receive an e-mail from a person or entity that, although may seem legitimate on the surface, is an attempt to get your personal information.

For people like myself, It's easier to identify these mails since I deal with this daily, but, what can someone like yourself do? Emails like this have a few things in common, that if you remember, you’ll become a pro at spotting them.

The most important thing to remember is: If it sounds too good to be true; it probably is...

This is a pretty common statement throughout life and applies perfectly in these common e-mail scams outlined below.

Read through the 5 types of email scams below and learn how to recognize each kind, and help protect yourself!

Email Scam #1: Verify your account now to avoid it being closed!

I covered this one since it is a scam email circulating that several Hotmail users have received asking them to verify their Hotmail account. This is a scam designed to gain access to your Hotmail account so spammers can use it to send out spam.

How to tell it’s a scam?

· It asks for your personal information. No legitimate company, especially Microsoft, will ever ask you to provide you username, password, date of birth and/or country, credit card information, etc via email.

· The email is generally unprofessional or unpolished looking, including:

o Notice the branding (logo & background image) on the mail above is awkward. The header only goes half-way across.

o Random words are capitalized in the email, including: Email, Email User Accounts Owner, User, Accounts and others.

o In the second sentence, the first word of the sentence, “we” is not capitalized.

o There is poor grammar throughout, but especially in the final statement, “Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update…”

· There is an urgency of response time. This pressures you to feel like you need to make a decision more quickly and do not have time to research the legitimacy of it.

· Signature is incomplete, stating awkwardly: “The Windows Live Hotmail”, not “Windows Live Hotmail” or “The Windows Live Hotmail Team”.

Two other similar scam emails, which are highlighted on snopes.com, I’ve also seen come to my personal Hotmail account:

· Ebay account suspension notices that ask you to verify your account information.

· Paypal needs you to resubmit your credit card and bank account information.

Email Scam #2: A large sum of money is due to you if you just give us your personal information.

This is actual text from a scam e-mail received, promising me $7M if I provide them with my personal information.

“The outcome of the summit has prompted the Federal Government to empower only our Bank; First Bank of Nigeria PLC to Identify the owners of these funds and pay them outright with no delay. We have been asked to start the payment of US$7,000,000.00 (SEVEN MILLION US DOLLAR) as compensation to all affected Persons(Entities)i.e: Individuals Companies and organizations.

You are one of the Beneficiaries on our list submitted to us so please reply to our mail for confirmation so that we can begin forwarding all other necessary evidences, facts and needed information to you.

The Federal Government has earlier approved the release and payment of the accumulated funds in the Bank belonging to the Foreigners, but my boss Mr Jacobs Ajekigbe and the Former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) collaborated together and refused to notify and tell you the truth on how to claim your fund. My Boss and the Governor are using the accumulative-interest to enrich themselves without the knowledge of the owners including you.

Confirm to me your:

· Personal Information;

· Phone and Fax Number;

· Banking Information”

How to tell it’s a scam?

· Reference to “First Bank of Nigeria” (or any other international sounding bank name), which is a common trick in scam emails.

· Odd capitalizations throughout the email.

· How did this government employee find my email address?

· Why are they randomly giving people $7 M?

· Why are they airing the dirty laundry of a conspiracy to not tell me?

Email Scam #3: You won something!

Scammers commonly impersonate use large companies that it’s likely you do business with. This next example appears to be from Microsoft, but it’s not. Read through the email below, to see if you can spot all the ways to tell it’s a scam, and then read through my list of things that tipped me off.

Subject: ELECTRONIC MAIL WINNING NOTIFICATION

From: Microsoft Promotion Team. (Memmi82@netti.fi)

Sent: Fri 8/01/08 8:00 PM

Reply-to: mfudiciary.mark@gmail.com

To: result@microsoft.co.uk

Microsoft Award Team

20 Craven Park, Harlesden

London NW10,United Kingdom

Ref: BTD/968/08

Batch: 409978E.

Dear Internet User,

ELECTRONIC MAIL WINNING NOTIFICATION

The prestigious Microsoft and AOL has set out and successfully

organised a Sweepstakes marking the Annual anniversary we rolled

out over 500.000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand Great Britain Pounds)

for our annual year Anniversary Draws. Participants for the draws

were randomly selected and drawn from a wide range of web hosts

which we enjoy their patronage.

The selection was made through a computer draw system attaching

personalised email addresses to ticket numbers.Microsoft and AOL

are now the largest Internet companies and in an effort to make

sure that Internet Explorer remains the most widely used program,

Microsoft and AOL are running an e-mail beta test.

Your email address as indicated was drawn and attached to ticket
number 080775787555 with serial numbers BTD/0257903122/07 and
drew the lucky numbers 04-06-09-90-09-22(07) which subsequently
won you 500.000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand Great Britain Pounds)
as one of the jackpot winners in this draw. You have therefore won
the entire winning sum of 500.000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand Great
Britain Pounds)The draws registered as Draw number one was
conducted in Brockley, London United Kingdom on the 1st of
August 2008.

These Draws are commemorative and as such special. Please be
informed by this winning notification to Contact your fiduciary
agent Mr.Mark Anderson, with the information listed below.

Mr.Mark Anderson
Microsoft Promotion Award Team
Head Winning Claims Dept.
E-mail: mfudiciary.mark@gmail.com
mfudiciary.anderson@gmail.com

1. Full Names:
2. Home Address:
3. Age:
4. Sex:
5. Marital Status:
6. Occupation:
7. Phone numbers:
8. Country:

Our special thanks and gratitude to Bill Gates and his associates.
We wish you the best of luck.Thank you for being part of our
promotional award program and commemorative Anniversary Draws.

Sincerely,
Dr.George Henry.
Head Customer Care Service
Microsoft Promotion Team.

--
Saunalahti Ykkönen: Puhelut kaikkiin liittymiin 0,069 e/min ja nyt kaupan päälle Sisärengas-puhelut ja tekstarit viiteen valitsemaasi liittymään 0 e!

How to tell it’s a scam?

· The “friendly name” that the email is from is “Microsoft Promotion Team”, but if you look at the actual email address it came from (Memmi82@netti.fi), it’s not a Microsoft address, or a promotion management company.

· The reply-to address is a gmail address. Microsoft would not use a competitor’s email service as their reply-to address. Additionally, it’s different than the sender address.

· It is not addressed to an individual. Occasionally, there are legitimate sweepstakes that you’re notified via email, but they will be addressed to you as an individual.

· The email begins, “The prestigious Microsoft and AOL…” A corporation wouldn’t tout themselves like that. And more likely in a legitimate sweepstakes email winning notification, it would start out with something like, “Congratulations, you have just won…”

· It has a foreign language at the bottom of it that is different from the language it was sent in.

Email Scam #4: The sudden emergency!

You receive email that appears to be from one of your friends that says they are stranded and need only a few thousand dollars to help them out. Any person would help a true friend if they can, right? Sure they would, but before you respond or act, ask yourself about the likelihood of your friend being in that situation.

· Have they mentioned that they will be traveling?

· Do they regularly participate in the kind of activity described?

· Sanity check the information and if at the end you still aren't sure, then pick up the phone and call them.

Today's technologies make it easy to impersonate someone and hard to find out whom is really behind the act. We must all realize that each piece of information we read and act upon has the time needed to pass our logic checks before we respond. One false click, and it result in you needing to spend time recovering your email, blog, or other service; or it could be months regaining your identity.

Email Scam #5: If you don’t forward this email, something bad will happen.

We’ve all seen emails that promise great things if you forward the email to all your contacts, or threaten bad things if you don’t. Topics Hotmail customers and friends have asked about most frequently are listed below, and link directly to the snopes.com articles debunking them:

· A fee will be charged for Hotmail.

· Get cash from Microsoft, or other companies or get free items (gift certificates, phones, etc) for forwarding an email.

· Internet petition to keep Messenger a free service.

· Medical appeals usually involving injured or sick children.

What should you do if you receive a questionable email?

1. Investigate the information.
Take some time and check up on the information. Often sites like snopes.com can provide information on known chain letters and other scams and untruths. Do not click on links within the mail, but do goto that company’s website, and contact their customer service reps via phone or online to verify the validity of the email.

2. Report suspicious activities.

If you think someone has accessed your Hotmail account, that the Windows Live ID sign-in page looks fraudulent, or you receive an email that tries to confirm a password change you didn’t authorize, change your password immediately by going to: http://account.live.com. Next, help ensure your PC has not been infected with a virus or malware by running a free full-PC scan.

3. Help the Hotmail team identify new scams.

Click on the Junk button in Hotmail and select “Junk” or “Report phishing scam” to report it to the Hotmail team. Whatever you do, do not reply back to the sender.

Phishing Scam: Hotmail Warning (Verify Your Hotmail Account Now to Avoid it Closed)

2008-10-26T02:26:00Z

Hey Folks,

Please be aware that a new phish message is being sent stating that it is from the Hotmail team. This is not a legitimate mail and you should not respond.

Remember, we will never ask you to verify your account in this manner.

Here is an example:

-s

From: @hotmail.com
Subject: Hotmail Warning (Verify Your Hotmail Account now To Avoid It Closed)‏‏
Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 19:28:54 +0000

Dear Account User

This Email is from Hotmail Customer Care and we are sending it to every Hotmail Email User Accounts Owner for safety. we are having congestions due to the anonymous registration of Hotmail accounts so we are shutting down some Hotmail accounts and your account was among those to be deleted. We are sending you this email to so that you can verify and let us know if you still want to use this account. If you are still interested please confirm your account by filling the space below.Your User name, password, date of birth and your country information would be needed to verify your account.
Due to the congestion in all Hotmail users and removal of all unused Hotmail Accounts, Hotmail would be shutting down all unused Accounts, You will have to confirm your E-mail by filling out your Login Information below after clicking the reply button, or your account will be suspended within 24 hours for security reasons.

* Username: ..............................

* Password: ................................

* Date of Birth: ............................

* Country Or Territory: ................

After following the instructions in the sheet, your account will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. Thanks for your attention to this request. We apologize for any inconveniences.
Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his/her account after two weeks of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently.

Sincerely,
The Windows Live Hotmail

Protecting Your Identity: You can’t afford to take the back seat.

2008-10-24T21:48:00Z

Identity protection is one of the most important considerations in today’s society. At every corner, you are asked to give your email, mailing, web site address, or even more personal information. According to the Javelin Strategy and Research February 2007 Identity Fraud Report, 8.4 million people had their identity stolen in 2007. This is big business that the study shows costs each victim an average of $5,720.

Understand how phishing works by reading this example story of a phisher.

Phish – (MSN Encarta - commit fraud to get financial information: to trick somebody into providing bank or credit-card information by sending a fraudulent e-mail purporting to be from a bank, Internet provider, etc. asking for verification of an account number or password)

A day in the life of a Phisher

Evil Ed sits in his easy chair with his laptop, watching TV. He’s doing web searches on names that he found from various Internet forums and chat rooms. Ed has written a computer program to read these sites and gather names and email addresses. The program puts these names into a file on his computer.

Ed loves his house. Everything in it was bought and paid for by someone else. He grins as he begins the day’s work. First, he calls a contact that is looking for email addresses. Ed has just finished creating the list of new emails his program found that week. His database now has over 40 million unique addresses.

After agreeing on a price for the complete list, Ed hangs up the phone and begins his real money maker; stealing people’s identity. Ed has another computer program that takes all the names it found with the email addresses and sends them through all the search engines he can find. When the search returns numbers or words like “street”, “avenue”, or a city, it catalogs those to a smaller file.

It’s here that the work begins. First, Ed cross references the information he finds in Internet white pages with any public records that are available, such as deeds, death notices, or marriage licenses. When he finds connections, those people can expect to have their cell phone companies, Internet Service Providers, and any other discoverable business relationship phished.

Ed calls a dating site he found and presents himself as innocent@somedomain.com. “Here’s my address I used to sign up for an account. What are the last four digits of my credit card? Hmmm, well I know I used a few different ones during that time, I think it was a Visa®?” The agent, trying to be helpful answers yes, no, or provides a helpful hint, “No, it was a MasterCard®.” Ed hangs up the phone.

He immediately calls back and now phishes for the last four digits of the MasterCard®. This is called social engineering and you can see where this goes. How about the people that didn’t have any connections to accounts or other information? Well, Ed still has the email address and the web site it was found on, as well as the email provider (e.g. Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, etc). Ed now creates an email that looks exactly like it is from that provider. The email tells the user that their account is expiring, in violation, or needs more information. Click this link now to save this account! Each person that clicks that link, and enters that information, has now been caught in the phishing net.

Ed ends his day by heading out to the mailbox. It’s about 3:30 in the afternoon now. He hopes that the letter from his cousin Andy has arrived. Andy works in a refreshment booth at one of the many tourist attractions in his area. Every month, Andy mails Ed a list of credit card numbers and names that he has copied into his notebook. He gets these numbers from people paying for their food and drinks.

Ed chuckles to himself; just because the Internet Age is here, why ignore the original methods of identity theft?

You can protect yourself – here’s how:

Never post any personal information in an Internet forum, chat room, or blog. Doing this allows programs like the one described above to harvest and use it for other reasons. This can be anywhere from full blown identity theft to using your email address as the “From” address in their spam; most likely getting your account closed by your email provider in the process.

Search on yourself. Go out to search engines like Windows Live Search and enter your name in the search box. You may be surprised by the results. Something as innocent as being listed in the phone book can get you listed on the Internet. Each data provider has different methods that you must take to remove the information, if you choose to do so.

Enroll in an identity protection program. Today, every credit card, mortgage, or other lender offers some type of identity protection program. Do your homework and find the one that monitors all three major credit reporting agencies: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion, and which fits in your budget. A good service will send you a proactive report each quarter. The higher-end services offer real time alerts to your phone or email. You should only need one program for all of your accounts.

Change your account information. Changing your password is not enough. You must also change your secret questions and it is recommended that you also change other information. Maybe change your house phone to your cell phone or your house address to your mother’s address. Not every account warrants the same change, but your critical ones do. Put up as many barriers to social engineering phishes as possible.

Ensure you are running virus protection, malware protection, and a firewall. Ensure that they are all current with updates. Although this is now becoming a truth along the lines of you should look both ways before crossing a street, I cannot stress enough the importance of this item. In my days as an independent consultant, I worked with many clients and businesses that could have saved both time and money, in the case of my bill and their lost work, if they had only installed and turned on their security software. Microsoft offers products like Windows Defender and Windows Live OneCare that together offer a unified platform for users wanting to protect their personal information and computer systems.

Don’t let your ATM/credit card out of your sight. This one isn’t easy sometimes, especially in restaurants, but do you best to maintain visual contact with your ATM/credit card at all times. The news of the day is all the online identity theft. That is because the traditional method of manually stealing names and numbers through garbage sifting and unethical service employees is old hat. If your card leaves your sight, be diligent about reviewing your statement. Shred all personal documents, such as account statements, pill bottle labels, and even the pre-approved credit offers, when you discard them.

Own your information. Many people do not realize that they own their personal information. Even more people do not exercise that right. Each pre-approved credit offer is a check on your credit score. Each time you list in your local phonebook’s white pages, you also list in their online directories. The way to maintain and control this information is different in each case. Some are tedious, like removing yourself from all pre-approval lists after buying a new home, to others which are much simpler, like merely submitting a request to the company. At Microsoft, privacy is one of our top concerns and we have a very strict privacy policy. Every employee at Microsoft must complete a privacy training course annually.

In closing…

The scope and prevalence of this crime is that we must protect ourselves and our family. Law enforcement agencies the world over are understaffed and overworked in trying to shut down identity theft rings. Be safe and be sure. Be the one who is protecting your identity.

Until the next time…

-s

Resources

· Microsoft Security at Home – Ways to keep your family's online experience safe and enjoyable: http://www.microsoft.com/protect/default.mspx

· Federal Trade Commission – Latest regulatory information, studies, and legislation: http://www.ftc.gov

· Snopes.com – Debunking of urban legends: http://www.snopes.com

· Authentication and Online Trust Alliance – Consortium of email senders, providers, and support leaders committed to the Internet trust ecosystem: http://www.aotalliance.org

· Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group – Global organization focusing on preserving electronic messaging from online exploits and abuse with the goal of enhancing user trust and confidence, while ensuring the deliverability of legitimate messages: http://www.maawg.org/home/