Identity theft is back in the news
By: Diana Bello Aristizábal
We live in a world in which the line between private and public life is increasingly blurred. Maybe for this reason, the so-called cyber hackers are more than ever hunting and stealing away people’s personal data, as confirmed last month.
In mid-August, it was revealed that a hacking group known as USDoD had extracted the social security numbers, addresses and names of close relatives of thousands of millions individuals in the United States from the National Public Data (NPD), a background check company.
This data leak was known after California resident, Christopher Hofmann, filed a lawsuit when he discovered his personal information had been leaked on the Dark Web. Criminals conducted this massive theft of personal data with the purpose of entering bank accounts or requesting loans on behalf of the victims.
This wasn’t the only case revealed in August. On a local level, thousands of Floridians received a letter from Florida Department of Health informing them of a data breach, dating back to June 26, that included their names, dates of birth, addresses, banking information, results of medical exams and Social Security numbers, among other information, that would be sold on the Dark Web, a parallel Internet hotbed for illegal businesses.
One of the victims of this cyberattack was journalist Harold Santana, who investigated the issue for a television report broadcast on August 27 on Telemundo 51, after receiving the letter. In his report, he said criminals had asked for money in order to not release the stolen personal data, which didn’t happen due to a state law that prohibits it.
“The Department of Health informed me that some of my personal information has been compromised and they are offering me a free credit monitoring service that the state of Florida has paid for a year, and this has happened to thousands of Floridians,” he said during the transmission.
To access the service, users must click the link https://enroll.krollmonitoring.com and then type the unique nine-character membership number provided in the sent letter. The deadline to do so is Nov. 14.
According to the website of The Motley Fool, a financial services company, it seems cases like these are on the rise, since 552,000 cases of identity theft were reported to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) through the first half of 2024. “At that rate, the number of identity theft cases for the full year will exceed the amount reported in 2023 (1,037,000),” it’s read on the website.
Given this scenario, Evelyn Linares, the spokesperson for the South Florida area director’s office at the Social Security Administration, sat down for an interview with Doral Family Journal to talk about how to protect ourselves from identity theft.
The social security card stays at home
“I was one of the people who received a letter in which they informed me that my social security number had been compromised,” the spokesperson begins saying. “The first thing I did before anything else (the key is to act quickly) was to contact the three credit bureaus – Equifax, Experian and TransUnion – to put an alert.”
When these organizations are alerted, they freeze the social security number, stopping anyone from using it. “If someone is trying to look up information or enter the social security number, they won’t be able to do anything. “They won’t be able to request a credit card, a loan or make any type of transaction.”
She says that the Social Security card should always remain home or in a safe place and that the number should not be given to anyone over the phone. In addition, she clarifies that the Social Security Administration never calls people to offer them a card nor requests their card numbers. In fact, the entity only communicates with users through a letter sent by mail, an arranged appointment or a call made by the users themselves.
Guarding your personal data it’s also important when applying for a job, because sometimes companies request the candidate’s social security number online in order to run a background check through a third-party organization. Given that in the recent case one of these organizations was infiltrated, it’s important to be completely certain that the company you’re applying for is real and responsible with their data as ghost websites are currently proliferating.
“People get desperate, they enter their information and then are hacked. So, I would tell them to verify they are applying to a real job, and, at the same time, I would call the credit bureaus to notify them I’m applying for a job with X company, so they are on alert. I would also contact a person from the company to confirm it’s safe to provide them my data,” she says.
On a different note, social security numbers can be stolen by someone without work authorization. To prevent this from harming you, contact the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) if you see earnings in your reports that don’t make sense to you. “When that happens, call the Social Security Administration, make an appointment and present your tax report so we can make the correction.”
Other recommendations
– Set complex access passwords, an equivalent of capitalized and lower-case letters, numbers and symbols.
– Have your security software up to date
– Do not reply to emails with your personal details