Posts tagged fraud
CU to host workshop on student identity theft Oct. 10
Oct 4th
The University of Colorado Boulder will hold a student workshop with help from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation on the prevention of identity theft in the college-age population on Oct. 10.
The workshop, hosted by CU Money Sense, is open to all CU-Boulder students and will be held in University Memorial Center room 245 from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Students planning to attend should email CUmoneysense@colorado.edu.
Colorado consistently ranks in the top 15 states for identity theft and fraud, with several Colorado cities ranking in the top 10 cities in the nation, according to Erin Foster, communication specialist with CU Money Sense, CU-Boulder’s financial education program for students.
“Our guest speaker from CBI will talk about the real-life impact that identity theft can have on students’ lives,” said Foster. “We want to heighten student awareness about this issue.”
Hazel Heckers of CBI will discuss why students are particularly appealing to identity thieves and what they can do to protect themselves.
Other upcoming CU Money Sense events include:
- “Check Your Credit Report – Drop-in Help from CU Money Sense,” Wednesday, Oct. 17, noon. Email to make an appointment at CUmoneysense@colorado.edu.
- “Living Off-Campus – Everything First-timers Need to Know,” Jan. 24 (time and location to be determined).
- “How to Apply for Financial Aid” (time, date and location to be determined).
For more information about CU Money Sense visit http://bursar.colorado.edu/cumoneysense/.
Boulder police investigating check fraud scam
May 20th
Detectives with the Boulder Police Department are looking for a suspect in connection with several cases of recent check fraud (see attached photo). There are three victims, and all are students at the University of Colorado.
In each case, the suspect approached the victim and asked for assistance in cashing a check. He claimed that he’s from Jamaica, spoke with an accent which may be fake, and said he was in town to promote a reggae concert. He said he didn’t have access to a local bank account and in return for the victim’s help, he promised to give them VIP tickets to a concert. The case numbers are 11-5243, 44-4908 and 11-4291.
The students have cashed the suspect’s checks against their own accounts, giving the suspect hundreds of dollars, which he promises will be reimbursed. None of the students has received money back. Checks have been cashed at Elevations Credit Union, First National Bank and US Bank.
The suspect drives a black 4-door sedan, and the license plate may resemble 087 WUU or a combination of these letters and numbers. He may be using multiple plates. It’s not known what state the license plate(s) is from.
The suspect is described as:
- Dark-skinned black male
- 5 feet, 10 inches tall
- 25 to 29 years old
- Dark dreadlocks
- Goes by the name “DJ Danny”
The suspect was last seen on May 17 around 2:00 p.m. at 29th Street and Arapahoe Avenue. He may be traveling with a companion who is described only as a light-skinned black male.
Anyone who has information about these crimes is asked to contact Detective Jeff Kithcart at 303-441-3376. Those who have information but wish to remain anonymous may contact the Northern Colorado Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477) or 1-800-444-3776. Tips can also be submitted via the Crime Stoppers website at www.crimeshurt.com. Those submitting tips through Crime Stoppers that lead to the arrest and filing of charges on a suspect(s) may be eligible for a cash reward of up to $1,000 from Crime Stoppers.
interweb cops: National Internet Web ID proposed by white house: 1984 Boulder #boulder
Jan 11th
from Read Write Web
Obama’s Internet Plan Sounds an Awful Lot Like a National Internet ID
Obama’s Internet Plan Sounds an Awful Lot Like a National Internet ID
White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt announced to the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research on Friday that President Obama intended to turn over development of a national Internet ID to the Commerce Department.
Pursuant to the Orwellian-sounding National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, which the administration is currently writing, Commerce will create a program to provide and administer an allegedly voluntary interoperable verified online IDs.
An early draft makes the case for such an ID.
“(A) secure cyberspace is critical to the health of our economy and to the security of our Nation. In particular, the Federal Government must address the recent and alarming rise in online fraud, identity theft, and misuse of information online. One key step in reducing online fraud and identity theft is to increase the level of trust associated with identities in cyberspace. While this Strategy recognizes the value of anonymity for many online transactions (e.g., blog postings), for other types of transactions (e.g., online banking or accessing electronic health records) it is important that the parties to that transaction have a high degree of trust that they are interacting with known entities.”
According to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, as reported by CNET:
“We are not talking about a national ID card. We are not talking about a government-controlled system. What we are talking about is enhancing online security and privacy, and reducing and perhaps even eliminating the need to memorize a dozen passwords, through creation and use of more trusted digital identities.”
We are talking about a government-controlled system. That is exactly what we are talking about. In fact, the presentation of what few facts exist is vague enough as to be good for nothing but worry.
Here are the few facts on the program that are available.
- The government will enable the creation of verified identities
- The government will create an “Identity Ecosystem”
- Getting a verified identity will be elective
- Verizon, Google, PayPal, Symantec and AT&T support the program
- A user would be able to use one login to sign in to all of their sites
So, a user would have one, “verified” ID, which would be known by the government, and a set of large corporations. Given the periodic outbreak of governmental and corporate shenanigans, we fail to see the benefit of such a system.
Further, the “Identity Ecosystem” sounds strangely like the national intranet the Chinese government has been working on, as an alternative to the Internet as a whole, and more controllable.
“The Identity Ecosystem is the embodiment of the vision. It is an online environment where individuals, organizations, services, and devices can trust each other because authoritative sources establish and authenticate their digital identities.”
We write frequently here about Facebook’s efforts to become the source of a universal verified online ID system, but a campaign by the US government to do something similar is another matter. It would be niave to assume that either party is motivated by nothing more than convenience on the part of users.
