Adeniyi Adeyemi, a computer technician at the Bank of New York Mellon, was indicted on 149 counts of grand larceny, ID theft, money laundering, scheme to defraud, computer tampering and unlawful possession of personal identification information.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office accused 27-year-old Adeyemi of committing ID theft against more than 150 of his coworkers at the bank and using their identities to steal more than $1.1 million from charities and non-profit organizations over a period of more than seven years.

The ID theft took place from November 2001 to April 2009. Adeyemi allegedly opened more than 30 accounts with banks and brokerage firms in the names of his co-workers, and deposited stolen funds, according to the DA’s office. He

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If you think the American consumer is hurting from the effects of identity theft, think for a second about what it’s doing to the other victims: American businesses. Javelin Research estimates that online retailers lost $21 billion in potential sales because identity theft victims are now afraid to shop online.

If you’re looking to keep your personal information safe, there are other things to do to protect yourself besides quitting your online shopping altogether. Here are just a few:
• Only shop at reputable, secure sites. Look for the lock icon in the navigation bar and an https in the site address when you get to the online order form.
• Never send credit card information over email. It is not a secure way to submit this information, especially if you’re using a non-corporate address.
• Read reviews of online businesses before you patronize them. Check and s

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Shopping for the kids on your list is definitely more fun, but you can’t put it off any longer: it’s time to figure out what to buy for all those hard-to-buy-for people on your holiday shopping list. Well, lucky you, I have some tips on what to buy—and perhaps more importantly—what not to buy.

I know that it’s tempting to give up and resort to gag gifts after several years of buying bad gifts despite your good intentions. Resist. Let’s start there with the list of what not to buy for hard-to-buy-for people:

Do not buy

• Wind-up boxing nuns,
• Racing grandma and grandpa,
• Reindeer that poop candy, or
• Singing bass plaque.
• Do not buy gift certificates for elderly relatives; they don’t need anything from the mall, don’t want to go shopping, don’t have anyplace to put it and really shouldn’t be driving anyhow.

The list of what to buy for hard-to-buy-for people is shorter.

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Unemployment topped 10% in October, and the holiday season is upon us. Combine the two and you have a lot of people trying to looking for jobs. Sad to say, there’s also a whole lot of ID theft going on.

Most ID theft scams targeting job seekers fall are either phishing attacks or bogus job listings on legitimate job search websites.

The phishing attempts are emails describing job opportunities with more details or an application available if the recipient will only click on the included link. NEVER CLICK ON THE LINK! Clicking on the link enables the senders to install malware that can steal financial or personal information. In some cases, the linked site looks so legitimate; job seekers will complete an application, thereby voluntarily providing the scammers with all the information they need to commit ID theft.

The second scam sneaks up on job seekers using online employment listings. I

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It’s time to start your online holiday shopping, and what could be more convenient than sitting in your favorite Wi-Fi coffee shop while you work your way through your gift list? But if you aren’t careful you could end up an online identity theft victim instead of everyone’s favorite Santa.

Fortunately, you can protect yourself from online identity theft with these four simple steps:

• Secure your Internet connection: Be sure your software firewall is on, and your file sharing is off.
• Shop on only secure sites: You can determine whether a site is secure by looking for the padlock icon in the bottom right corner of your browser page. Look for the https (instead of http) in the site’s URL; the “s” stands for secure.
• Watch for shoulder surfers: Coffee shops are often jam-packed during the holiday season, making it easy for shoulder surfers to go undetected. Stay aware of you

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