Identity Theft

Identity theft can be invasive and frustrating to say the least. On a spiritual level, the enemy of your soul wants to steal your identity and keep you from living an abundant and joyful life.

Galations 2:20 says: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.“ Similarly, 2 Corinthians 5:17 says: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

When a person asks Jesus into their life, their true identity is in Him. They can still be a mom, dad, teacher, businessman, musician, comedian, friend, sports fan, artist, etc. but a shift occurs. Many people struggle with a variety of hurts, habits, addictions, and other negative behaviors. Whether brought on by self, others, or spiritual attack, the enemy will consistently spout lies and deception at you to keep your focus off of Christ. The good news is that these negative behaviors and even good identity characteristics do not have to define who we are.

When your focus is on Jesus and keeping your heart fixed on Him, the other stuff will fall away to the side. If He is the center of who you are and what you build your life around, the enemy can’t steal your identity. As my pastor said on Sunday, "Sin is not your master." Next time you feel discouraged by negative self talk, the media, other people, or even a direct assault from the enemy, spend time with the lover of your soul and renew your identity in Him.

In pursuit of His best,

Andrew

Phishing

In this segment, we'll look at a topic related to online identity theft. From time to time you may receive legitimate emails from your bank. However, people called phishers sometimes send an email masquerading as if it were from a legitimate financial institution. The obvious homonym of fishing for phishing indicates the style of theft which occurs. Let's take a look at a couple of examples.



In this first example it appears to be a legitimate email from the security department at Bank of America. They request that you login to a specified site and provide information about your account. In the last line of the first paragraph, there is a misspelled word which reads "submin" when it should have been "submit." An official Bank of America communication would have at a minimum had a spell check completed. Another key sign if you note the address listed in the bottom left corner directs you to an address which is nothing like Bank of America's web address. This was found by hovering over the link instead of clicking on it. If a user goes to this site and provides the requested information, it is likely they would have wiped any money in the account.


In the second example, everything looks legitimate including the web address. However, if you note the other email addresses in the To: line, it looks very much like a bunch of auto generated email addresses. Phishers use software programs to automatically generate email addresses hoping that they send one to an actual address being used. They sometimes also use bots which browse the web and anytime an email address shows up online will capture it and use it when sending out this phishing spam.

Be very cautious anytime you receive an email from a financial institution and especially if they request your personally identifiable information. A legitimate institution will not ask for this information in the unsecure medium of email. When logging into a bank's website, always type the web address in yourself rather than following a link in an email. This helps ensure that you are at the actual bank's website and not a fraudulent site masquerading as a legitimate one.

Stealing Your Life: The Ultimate Identity Theft Prevention Plan

Stealing Your Life: The Ultimate Identity Theft Prevention Plan by Frank Abagnale

This book can help you to learn everything you want to know about protecting your personal information. Abagnale, a former counterfeiter and now consultant to the FBI and many large financial institutions around the world, gives an inside look at the various types of identity theft and how to reduce the likelihood of it.

He goes into technology oriented identity theft schemes such as pharming and phising as well as discussing more low tech methods such as dumpster diving. It's highly recommended that you shred any personally identifiable information prior to throwing it away. Looking through a person's garbage though it might seem disgusting but is an actual method some thieves use to steal a person's identity. Abagnale also advises mailing bills from an official Post Office box rather than raising your mailbox flag which also alerts a potential thief that there might be information worth stealing inside. Another tip is to always choose to opt out when a financial institution sends you a privacy policy. This helps prevent the spread of your personal information and the potential for it to be stolen.

Surprisingly, personal information such as social security numbers is still used on some driver's licenses or as employee ids. One should avoid this when possible due to the windows an SSN can open for a thief. Abagnale also recommends limiting your usage of checks due to the large number of hands and eyes that will handle it throughout the processing. A dishonest person along the way can grab this information and either sell it or use it himself.

Abagnale indicates that the most important thing one can do in guarding against identity theft is to pull your credit report from the three major credit reporting institutions. (Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax) This can be done for free at annualcreditreport.com.

To help insure against identity theft, one may consider an insurer such as Zander Insurance Group's identity theft insurance.

One minor downside of the book is the author's promoting of his own products or products he endorses throughout the book. While they may be good resources to help in fighting identity theft, it seemed at times to be a sales pitch rather than an informational resource.

Overall, I learned several tips and had reinforced the need to be conscious of giving out personal information and guarding it from prying eyes.