In the next few days IDTPUK will be releasing some very big news about a project we have been working on keep alert on the site.

It had to happen at some point, Having been prolific in the United States, It looks Like Identity Fraudsters are using text messages to try to get people to hand over their personal information.

Whats been happening is that people have been getting a text message on their phone saying that their bank account has been put on hold for reasons related to ID Theft. The message includes a phone number to call, when the ID theft victim calls the number they are greeted by a automated system which asks for details including account number, password and date of birth.

I am of the understanding that some people have been victims of this fraud in the last couple of weeks. If you do every get any text messages purporting to be from your bank give them a call on the number on either your bank statement or the back of your debit or credit card. Also contact the police so they can investigate the source of the text message.

so remember, Do not call any number provided to you by anyone purporting to be from your bank. Always call the customer service number printed on your statement.

Why is it that banks are still doing this, you ring your bank to get a balance check for instance and what do they ask you:

Account Name -the ID thief will already have this if they have targeted you

Account Number & Sort Code – Again the ID thief will already have this, look how many places it is listed, on your cards, on your cheque, on your online banking, if your a business it is more than likely on your invoices too.

Date Of Birth – This is why ID thiefs love social networking sites so much,  remember that time you signed upto facebook well no doubt you gave them the correct DOB and they kindly post it on your page for you.

And then Your secret password, oh wait no they don’t ask that do they, what they ask for is your mothers maiden name. Because your the only person that knows that are you not? Well no anyone can get your mothers maiden name quite easily,the ID thief will log on to http://www.ancestry.co.uk  do a search on your name and DOB find you then find your mothers name, from their they just search either for her birth info or marriage info. Hey Presto the Identity thief now has all the information they need find your balance, change your address, order a new card and pin.

So what can you do to protect yourself against these threats, well think about the information  you put on your social network profile maybe change your DOB and make sure it is private so only people you accept as friends are able to see your information.

The most important thing I would recommend to do would be get on the phone to your bank now and say HEY I want my mothers maiden name changed to something different, then it don’t matter what they call it mothers maiden name or super furry secret password. The information is no longer in the public domain. You have just taken a big step to stopping the identity thiefs getting access to your bank accounts.

Hope that has helped some people out, if you have any suggestions feel free to leave a comment and I will reply to you.

Kurtis Brown  Feb2010

IStealer is a Trojan that when on your computer looks through all your saved passwords from all these programs

* Firefox (All versions)
* Internet Explorer 7-8
* MSN Messenger (All versions)
* Live Messenger 8-9
* Google Talk
* Trillian (Msn, Aim, Yahoo)
* Pidgin / Gaim
* Paltalk Scene
* Steam
* No-Ip
* DynDNS
* FileZilla
* FlashFXP

once the Trojan has got all of these passwords it then uploads them to a server that a ID thief or Hacker runs where they can view all your passwords, this includes things like paypal, ebay, email, and online banking.

Obviously you can see the issues that this can create for you, so how do you protect against it. Okay the first and for most is do not run any attachements that you get sent by email or even things like msn messenger. DO NOT save your passwords in your browser, yes it makes it easier but it is not secure at all. Change your passwords once a month this way you are always limiting your losses. If you do find someone has been onto one of your accounts change all your passwords immediately.

Here is a screen shot of the program when a ID thief is setting it up.

And this is what a ID thief will see when he logs into the server where all the passwords get sent.

Hey all the id theft prevention UK blog has moved home. The lack of features needed for the blog were not available on blog spot so I have moved the blog to a new domain and I am now using Wordpress. I will be posting new articles all the time on UK Identity Theft and other Fraud related problems