Phone can make you vulnerable to identity theft
Identity Theft Nearly 12 million Americans were victims of identity theft in 2011, an increase of 13 per cent over 2010, according to a report released on Wednesday by the research firm Javelin Strategy & Research. The rise in the use of smartphones and social media by incautious consumers fueled the increase in identity fraud, and 2011 was a year of several big data breaches too, Javelin said. With the rise in credit card monitoring and more sophisticated policing by credit card companies, identity thieves are increasingly targeting users of smartphones and social media, where consumers have a tendency to be less cautious, experts say. "The message is not that people should let their guard down," Javelin founder and President Jim Van Dyke said. "The challenge that we have is that criminals often change faster than everyday consumers or businesses." The number of people whose information was accessed in a data breach increased by 67 per cent ...