January 31, 2012 - If you have never heard of the Death Master File (DMF), which is released by the Social Security Administration, then you don't know what ID thieves do. Current law requires that the DMF be released to just about anyone who wants it. But there have been big problems as a result of that law and Congress may be ready to change it.

January 27, 2012 - According to a report this morning on Fox News' Happening Now, criminal activity on Craigslist is on the rise. Most of the crimes involve scams and theft but there have also been at least twelve murders over the past year that are related to advertisements placed on the website. Just searching news articles on Google using the term Craigslist will give you an idea of the wide variety of crimes it is associated with. But there are things that you can do to protect yourself.

January 24, 2012 - Banks have made a wide variety of marketing mistakes over the past year. Just remember Bank of America's flirtation with debit card fees. The uproar caused the bank to lose customers and generated so much bad publicity that it had to reverse course within days. But that is so last year! Now that it's 2012, there is a green filed available for new bank marketing screw ups. And Citibank may just have made one that sets the bar for the duration of the year!

January 23, 2012 - In a case involving personal privacy and Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure, the Supreme Court has ruled that government agencies need to get a search warrant before they can install GPS devices on cars for tracking purposes. The ruling is a blow to the Justice Department, which had argued that no warrant was needed. But the case is far from a death-blow for government tracking of private citizens.

by Shawn Mosch of Scam Victims United

January 20, 2012 - Most of us use our computers on a daily basis, and the idea of a virus in our computer is something that no one wants to deal with.  So what if a computer technical support service called you and warned you that they had detected a virus on your computer, and they were able to help you to rid your computer of that virus BEFORE it corrupted all of your files and documents?

January 19, 2012 - Claiming that a debt collector continued to harass him after being asked to stop, Marcus Mims filed a federal law suit under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). That suit was thrown out by the 11^th Circuit Court of appeals on the grounds that Congress had not given consumers specific permission in the law to use the federal courts to settle claims. Now, the US Supreme Court has overturned that ruling.

January 17, 2012 - If you have ever purchased a pair of shoes online, there is good chance that you did it using Zappos.com. The online retailer is the largest online merchant for shoes. And if you have ever used Zappos.com, even if you are not a current customer, then there is an excellent chance that many of your personal details were handed over to hackers in their recent data breach. The breach affected 24 million current and past customers. In this case, you do need some information, but you probably don't need to panic. Here is what you need to know.

January 16, 2012 - Six years ago we told you about a school district in Northern California that had started tracking student movements by using RFID chips. The outcry from parents in that case was so loud that the school district was forced to abandon the practice. Now, some school districts are attempting to revise this type of student monitoring, but with a frightening twist. They are doing it under the guise of fighting obesity. But of course, they have not been talking to parents about the practice. It is an intrusive policy that could have long term impact on the students subjected to it, including limiting their ability to get medical insurance.