Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast Episode: Responding to Direct and Indirect Identity Theft Disputes Under the FCRA: What Are The Differences?
Torres Talks Trade Podcast Episode 9 on U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Global Business Identifier program
Phishing: Cybersecurity’s Biggest Threat
Digging Deeper, Episode 1: The Con Queen of Hollywood
Preserving Black History in Bucks County, PA, with Recorder of Deeds Robin Robinson: On Record PR
What is Consumer Fraud and What Deceptions are Employed?
What Companies Should Do to Prepare for Implementation of Cybersecurity Executive Order
On December 16, 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) initiated a rulemaking to address government and business impersonation fraud, which involves “[i]mpersonators us[ing] all methods of communication to trick their...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a press release announcing it is holding an Identity Theft Awareness Week between February 1-5, 2021. The week will be comprised of a series of events providing consumers with helpful...more
Tax identity theft continues to be a significant problem for taxpayers. Tax identity theft occurs when criminals use the personal information of individuals and file fraudulent tax returns before the taxpayer does, requesting...more
Three million fraud cases were reported to the FTC in 2018, and 444,602 of them involved identity theft. These reported cases (just think of how high the statistic would be if all cases were reported) amounts to the third...more
The Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of Inspector General (VA OIG) recently completed an audit of the VA’s Milwaukee Regional Office after it was tipped off by a whistleblower about the exposure of sensitive information...more
The Security Summit, consisting of the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), state tax agencies, and private-sector tax industry officials, is encouraging tax professionals during the 2019 summer season to take some time to...more
Equifax has agreed to pay $575 million to settle consumer as well as state and federal regulatory claims for its 2017 data breach. This is the largest data breach settlement to date. ...more
Part of the 2018 Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (which amended the Fair Credit Reporting Act) included a provision requiring credit reporting agencies (CRAs) to provide free electronic credit...more
Because cybercriminals don’t take holidays, December is an appropriate time for all employers to take steps to protect tax data and identities (both their own and their employees’) in advance of the 2019 tax-filing season....more
The Federal Trade Commission has announced that, beginning today, consumers concerned about identity theft or data breaches can place credit freezes and one year fraud alerts with the three nationwide credit bureaus for free....more
Over the past few years, there has been a surge in class actions challenging companies’ privacy and data security practices. But, while the number of class actions continues to grow, the suits face several significant...more
Identity Theft in the Digital and Physical Worlds - Common sense is the best defense against identity theft – creating strong passwords for online accounts and monitoring personal credit reports and credit card statements...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has designated this week as National Consumer Protection Week, and has issued a report on the top frauds reported during 2017. Highlights from the report are as follows... ...more
The FTC has released its annual report summarizing its activity during 2017 relating to privacy and data security issues. In its self-declared role as “the nation’s primary privacy and data security enforcer,” the FTC...more
Now is the Busy Season for Cyber Criminals Posing as Executives to Obtain W-2s - It’s the start of tax season, and many employers are sending W-2 forms to employees so they can get ready to file their tax returns. As was...more
As we near the end of a year that has seen more than its share of massive data breaches, two bills have been introduced (one re-introduced) in the U.S. Senate....more
This week, a high profile plaintiffs’ firm (Edelson) stated that “if done right,” the data breach class actions against Equifax should yield more than $1 billion in cash going directly to more than 143 million consumers...more
On May 24, 2017, the FTC will hold a daylong conference on identity theft in Washington, D.C. The conference, “Planning for the Future,” will include panel discussions about how identity thieves acquire and use consumer...more
In Case You Missed It: Court certifies class in suit against Apple. On July 15, 2016, U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar certified a class of users of the mobile app Path, who allege that Apple facilitated the app’s access...more
In an environment where even the largest and most powerful corporations have fallen victim to data breaches, it can be challenging to fathom how to protect against the sophisticated and ever-evolving threat of cyber attacks....more
We’ve all gotten them–the dreaded letter that informs us that our data has been compromised, including our Social Security number. Some have received so many of these “notifications” that they are de-sensitized, throw their...more
This month’s edition of the Advanced Cyber Security Center’s newletter includes my discussion of lessons to be learned from the Wyndham decision: Historically, security was an issue reserved in a back room for the IT...more
In Johansson-Dohrmann v. CBR Systems, Inc. et al, No. 3:12-cv-01115 (S.D. Cal., filed May 7, 2012), the latest data privacy class action to reach settlement, Judge Michael M. Anello on February 5, 2013 granted preliminary...more