IDTAP
Identity Theft Awareness and Prevention
Welcome to IDTAP: Your Internet identity theft awareness and prevention resource.
IDTAP provides advice for individuals wanting to protect their personal information from identity theives as well as resources for victims of identity theft.
IDTAP is one of the largest repositories of identity theft news on the Internet.
Our Perspective:
Identity Theft is a rampant crime spreading throughout the infrastructure of public and private systems made possible by the pervasive availability of personal identity information on the Internet. The financial systems of banks and retail corporations are inundated by fraudulent transactions perpetrated by organized groups of sophisticated criminals. Government benefits and tax systems are also under attack as evidenced by the tens and even hundreds of billions of dollars of fraudulent transactions executed against Medicare and IRS Electronic Tax Filing system. As government organizations continue to publish public records on the Internet and personal vanity motivates individuals to publish personal details on social media sites the incidents of identity fraud increase resulting in escalating financial losses to government, industry, and victims.
"I'm making the social networking scary, and making people realize they're putting too much info online. Everything is public and everything is online, I'm just going to exploit it." Hunter Moore
"The privacy you're concerned about is largely an illusion. All you have to give up is your illusions, not any of your privacy." Larry Ellison
"You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it." Scott McNealy
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Recent News
March 20, 2013
Facebook users risk identity theft, says famous ex-conman
"If you tell me your date of birth and where you're born [on Facebook] I'm 98% [of the way] to stealing your identity," he said. "Never state your date of birth and where you were born [on personal profiles], otherwise you are saying 'come and steal my identity'".
March 11, 2013
A growing number of bigs in entertainment and politics — including Jay-Z and Beyoncé, Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton — were hacked and had their financial details or sensitive material published online.
February 25, 2013
Incidence of Identity Theft Hits 3-Year High
Identity theft in the United States rose to a three-year high in 2012, with more than 5 percent of the adult population, or 12.6 million people, falling victim to such crimes, says a new survey. That's up from 4.9 percent in 2011 and 4.35 percent in 2010.
February 21, 2013
According to the affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, from about February through June 2012, a check casher in Perrine, Florida (J&S Taxes) cashed thousands of fraudulently obtained U.S. income tax refund checks worth over $12 million. The defendant allegedly provided the vast majority of these fraudulently obtained checks to the check casher for cashing. Proceeds from this fraud were then used by the defendant to purchase two separate homes—one for the defendant and one for the defendant’s mother (each valued at approximately $250,000). In addition, the defendant used the proceeds from the fraud to purchase a 2012 BMW 530i, a Porsche Cayenne, a 2012 Porsche Panamera, a 212 Cadillac CTS, a 2012 Jaguar XF, a 2013 BMW X6, a 2012 Jaguar XJ, and a 2013 Bentley GT Coupe. According to state of Florida employment records, the defendant has been unemployed since 2003.