Articles

ID Theft Help – When to Call a Lawyer

Download our step-by-step guide for tackling ID theft Are you a Data Breach Victim? ID Theft Victim? Both??  -- When to Call the Cavalry. Happy Anniversary South Carolina Taxpayer! October 10, 2022 marked 10 years since the South Carolina Department of Revenue was hacked by cybercriminals, who made off with 3.6 million social security numbers and at least 387,000 credit and debit card numbers. There's a (REALLY) good chance that at least your social security number, at the very least, was taken, since 3.6 million was about 3/4's of South Carolina's population in 2012. Cong ...

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Venmo, Zelle, Crypto and other Wire Transfer Scams

The inventiveness of criminals never ceases to amaze me. I remember back in the good old days when I just used to get emails from the imprisoned sons of Nigerian oil ministers, sending me heartrending pleas for aid that (invariably) started with the words "Dear Friend." How quaint were the days when you could see scams coming from 4,000 miles away! Unfortunately, those days are gone. The crooks have upped their game. Substantially.  Although the variety of scams is endless, they all, at heart, rely on one thing -- a means of payment that is not only hard to trace but - once payment is sent ...

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What is a Security Freeze?

Download our step-by-step guide for tackling ID theft What's a security freeze? A security freeze, also known as a credit freeze, is when you instruct the credit reporting agencies not to release your credit report or score to anyone without your say so. This is the single most effective way to protect yourself from identity thieves. Why? because most identity theft - at least for anyone trying to open new credit in your name -- starts with the identity thief making a credit application in your name, using your personal information. In order to grant that credit, most banks ...

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