President Obama and his top financial advisers in November were handed a blueprint for what kids at certain ages should be expected to know about money. The document is still a work in progress. But it’s far enough along to …
Identity Theft
Cybercrooks Targeted Subway Sandwich Shops
As many as 80,000 customers who used a credit or debit card to buy a Subway sandwich may have had their account information stolen by a ring of Eastern European crooks who tampered with the payment terminals in 150 different …
Hacker Is Selling Your Personal Data Online — Cheap!
Did you know there’s a virtual online marketplace where hackers gather to buy and sell the fruits of their criminal labors? Think of Amazon or eBay — except the items customers put into their virtual shopping carts are stolen credit card numbers rather than audiobooks or dusty collectibles. If this sounds infuriating, just wait until …
Financial Scams Target Boomers
Baby boomers are still looking out for their parents, even as they have fallen into the crosshairs of financial con artists themselves. It’s a bona fide boomer nightmare: they are becoming their mom or dad—at least as it …
Crooks Prey on Unsuspecting Credit Card Customers
Claims of lost or stolen credit cards go up by nearly 20% during the holiday season, according to PNC Bank. The reasons are twofold: We tend to use our cards more during this time of year, and thieves are smart enough to know that people tend to be rushed and distracted during this time of year. But some criminals don’t wait until the …
Are You Being Spied On While You Shop?
If you hit the mall on Black Friday, you could be under observation. Don’t look behind you, though; a signal emitted by your cell phone could be sending information to receivers that log your path from store to store. A pair of …
5 Ways to Recognize a Financial Scam
With a tough economy making timely retirement less likely for many folks, retirement-related financial scams may be on the upswing. Here are five ways to know if you are being played.
Wells Fargo Mails Statements to Wrong Customers
Some Wells Fargo customers who opened their accounts in Florida or South Carolina are getting an unpleasant surprise when they open the monthly statement they receive in the mail: At least some of the statement pages inside don’t …
Discover Brings Back Single-Use Account Numbers
After discontinuing a security feature that let cardholders generate a one-time use number for transactions last month, Discover Financial Services did an about-face and reinstated its Secure Online Account Numbers program.
Study: Your Card Info Is At Risk
Buried in back offices and data centers across the country, far from consumers’ eyes, is a network of transmission lines and storage facilities responsible for getting your card information from point A to point B every time you make a purchase. A few years ago, companies in the industry got together and implemented security rules for …
Oh, the Irony: Identity Theft Prosecutor Is Hacked
Credit card skimming, in which a crook installs a device in an ATM or payment terminal to steal account information, can happen to anybody. For proof, look to Seattle, where Jenny Durkan, the U.S. Attorney for the Western …
Discover Discontinues Random-Number Security Feature
Discover Financial Services is discontinuing a security tool that allowed cardholders to request a randomly generated, one-time-use card number they could utilize for online or card-not-present transactions for which they …