Decoding The Identity Theft Black Market

PRLog (Press Release) - May 05, 2009 -
In the dark allies of the Internet, identity thieves run rampant, buying and selling people’s personal information for as little as a $1. Interested buyers are able to purchase thousands of credit card numbers, Social Security numbers and even PINs with just a click of the button.  
   “These fraudsters are located across the world – the United Kingdom, Russia, China. All they need is a laptop and Internet connection, and they are in business,” said Bill Morrow, CEO of identity theft protection company CSIdentity.
   CSIdentity (www.CSIdentity.com) has found more than 2.5 million credit cards being sold online as its CyberAgentSM technology scours the Internet 24 hours a day, seven days a week, monitoring for misuse of its subscribers’ information. It is this form of identity theft that, according to Morrow, consumers need to be extra cautious about.
   “When people think of identity theft, many automatically think credit monitoring is the solution, but identity theft through online channels is above credit monitoring,” Morrow said. “Someone purchasing your Social Security number isn’t going to appear on a credit report. Someone using that Social Security number to obtain a job isn’t going to show up in an alert. There is a lot people can do to help protect themselves from identity theft, but scouring thousands of illegal sites 24/7 is a form of monitoring you can’t expect to do on you own.”
   Consumers can have their identities monitored online by subscribing for CSIdentity’s personal protection product, CSIdentity ProtectorSM. In adition to monitoring the Internet, CSIdentity ProtectorSM accesses credit reports, court and criminal records, public records change of address notifications and non-credit loans to provide subscribers with reports, alerts and ongoing monitoring of fraudulent activity associated with their name, address, Social Security number and date of birth. For even more peace of mind, CSIdentity backs each CSIdentity ProtectorSM account holder with up to $25,000 of identity theft insurance.

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