Are Mobile Payments Right for You? Stay Safe When Paying with Your Phone

August 12, 2019 | By: Heidi Daitch
Posted in: Personal Protection

Using Your Phone as Your Wallet – If you are a frequent Starbucks visitor, you may have been an early adopter of the Starbucks app and been quickly introduced to mobile payments, or the “pay with your phone in-store” concept, when it was launched in 2011. A report by eMarketer says you were not alone, …

Three Financial Scams Targeting Your Identity

July 29, 2019 | By: John Burcham
Posted in: Breach and Scam News

There’s more than money at stake when it comes to a financial scam; consumers’ identities are also under attack. Opportunities that offer a large amount of money for minimal participation or investment are typically red flags, and there’s likely a criminal working to steal your money or personal information. Fraudsters pulling off imposter scams — …

Building Barriers Against the Top Three Business Fraud Threats

July 22, 2019 | By: Eugene Bekker
Posted in: Business Protection

**Originally published July 7, 2015, updated July 22, 2019**Fraudsters are always in the market for a lucrative new target. So, what’s the most information-rich, security-poor victim they can exploit? A small business, of course.According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), an organization on average loses a whopping 5% of their revenue to fraud each year …

5 Tips on How to Talk About Identity Fraud With Your Current or Potential Employer

July 16, 2019 | By: Donna Parent
Posted in: Personal Protection

Identity Crime Can Impact Your Career – You may never be prepared for the moment you discover your personally identifiable information (PII) has been fraudulently used to steal your money, your tax refunds, or create an entirely new synthetic identity. Once discovered, identity fraud can take hundreds of hours and months of work to recover.

Risk of Identity Theft is a Costly Proposition for SMBs

June 18, 2019 | By: Heidi Daitch
Posted in: Business Protection

Much like individuals, businesses can be victims of identity theft. However, unlike personal identity theft, it is often unclear how a Small and Medium-Sized Business (SMB) can recover from the financial and reputational impact. Business identity theft occurs when criminals impersonate a company to target its funds, file fraudulent tax returns, take out loans, or …

Evernote Security Flaw Leaves 4.6 Million Users Vulnerable

June 13, 2019 | By: John Burcham
Posted in: Breach and Scam News

What Happened? – On Wednesday, June 12th, 2019, a flaw within Evernote’s Google Chrome extension code was reported, which created a security vulnerability impacting 4.6 million consumers and companies. The organizational software app’s extension defect, discovered by security company Guardio, opened the door to potential harvesting of user data by bad actors, including authentication data, …

Scam Alert! Don’t Let Your Summer Vacation Fall Victim to Fraudsters

June 13, 2019 | By: Heidi Daitch
Posted in: Personal Protection

Summer vacation season is here, and you may see in increase in travel ads and discounted trip while browsing social media or scrolling through your inbox. However, not all these offers are legitimate. Hotel scams alone cost American travelers more than $4 billion a year, according to the American Hotel and Booking Association.Scammers are ramping …

Quest Diagnostics Breach Leaks Personal Information for Nearly 12 Million Patients

June 4, 2019 | By: John Burcham
Posted in: Breach and Scam News

Updated 6/6/2019**Another healthcare company has come forward as being affected by the hack of AMCA’s online payments page. This time, 422,600 patients of Opko Health had their credit card and bank information, email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers, and balance information compromised. This latest announcement means 20 million consumers have been exposed, so far.Updated 6/4/2019*One …

Reward Risks: Hackers are Targeting Your Loyalty Points

May 29, 2019 | By: Steve Turner
Posted in: Breach and Scam News

Loyalty programs are big business for retailers and fraudsters alike. From airline miles to hotel stays to free coffee, consumers are extremely willing to share personal information with their favorite stores for rewards. Fraudsters are increasingly targeting these loyalty programs because consumers often don’t treat it like real money. The end result — $1 billion …