Bad credit rating? Identity thieves don't care...they have other uses for your identity!

A 27 year old Illinois man laughed off repeated attempts made to steal his identity, claiming his credit rating was so bad -he didn't care.  

He claimed he had delinquent student loans, a foreclosure and credit card judgments so the thought of an identity thief wanting to steal his credit, was laughable to Jake Brown. And he's not alone, many people have that same misconception.

Jake learned why it wasn't so laughable. He found out his identity was being used for criminal activity -and that criminal activity didn't depend on or need -Jake's credit!

Criminals registered an an illegal Dutch gay porn website under his name, and soon Jake leaned learned of a subpoena from RIAA claiming he illegally uploaded "No fewer than 425,000 copyrighted songs from his Dominican Republic based server from 2003-2005. Not so laughable anymore...Read story here

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In the news:

recently reported data losses;

Laptops With Cable Company Workers' Data Stolen
 

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- The personal information of thousands of current and former Charter Communications employees are in the wrong hands after several laptop computers were stolen last month, the company said.

A letter sent to the affected workers said that the computers were stolen from the company's Greenville offices and contained records of more than 9,000 Charter employees nationwide.

The information included Social Security numbers, dates of birth and driver's license numbers. MORE

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Records loss may violate U.S. law

'Total files' of patients, many with HIV and AIDS, missing

A low-level Harris County Hospital District administrator probably violated federal law when she downloaded medical and financial records for 1,200 patients with HIV, AIDS and other medical conditions onto a flash drive that later was lost or stolen, legal experts said Thursday.

District officials have refused to release any information about the employee who saved the information to the now-missing device. But a memo from the district's chief financial officer obtained by the Houston Chronicle identifies the employee as an associate administrator.

The administrator did not return an e-mail seeking comment or a telephone message left with a man who identified himself as her brother at a number listed under her name.

Fines possible

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, requires health-care providers to safeguard patient records containing individually identifiable health information. The law calls for a $100 fine per violation but sets a $25,000 cap for each calendar year. The most serious violations, such as stealing information to sell it, could result in criminal prosecutions.

The federal Department of Health and Human Services fined Seattle-based Providence Health & Services $100,000 last month for allowing backup tapes, optical disks, and laptops containing unencrypted electronic protected health information to be lost or stolen in 2005 and 2006. The devices contained information about more than 386,000 patients. MORE

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Personal data of 380,000 welfare recipients stolen

The Ireland Department Social and Family Affairs is contacting 380,000 social welfare recipients after it emerged their personal details were stored on a laptop computer which was stolen more than a year ago.

About 100,000 of the records contained bank account details of welfare recipients.

Information relating to these welfare recipients was stored on a computer used by the Comptroller and Auditor General at a Department of Social and Family Affairs office on Dublin's Pearse Street in April 2007. MORE