The threat of identity theft never goes away — even on vacation. This year while taking time to relax, remember to follow these identity theft tips to avoid an unpleasant surprise when you get back home.

Tip #1 — Stop Your Mail

Thieves love your mail. Finding mailboxes stuffed while homeowners are away vacationing is like a dream come true for identity thieves. With the information found in your mailbox from everything from bills to credit card offers, thieves can piece together enough info about you to steal your identity.

Your first step to avoid identity theft while you’re on vacation is to have a neighbor pick up your mail or put a ‘stop’ on it at your post office.

Tip #2 — Beware of WiFi Hotspots

Most people take along a laptop while on vacation either to spend some leisurely time surfing the net or to keep in touch with family while they’re away from home.

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Welcome to the Monday Morning News Kick Off post on the ITAC blog. As always, we have compiled all the key identity theft, data breach and cyber security stories you need to kick start your week on the right foot. For this Monday, we have a number of different stories ranging from new data breach legislation to a piece about child identity theft.

Child-Identity Theft Increases
Imagine applying for that first job, that first exciting credit card, that freshman-year college loan. Now, don’t. For more young adults, plans and hopes are being dashed because they are unwitting victims of identity theft at the hands of someone they know, usually their parents. It often happens when victims are too young to do anything about it, so it’s a crime that can go undetected for years. Read the full AJC story here.

Conn. AG Wants Teachers Board to Explain Lost Data
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal says the state Teachers’ Retirement Board owes its members identity theft protection and an explanation after waiting six months to inform them of a lost flash drive containing retirement data. Blumenthal said Wednesday he is urging the board to give more than 58,000 members identity theft protection for two years and more details of how the drive vanished and exactly what information it contained. Read the full AP story here.

Bill Would Target Data Breaches
Two Senate lawmakers introduced a bill last Wednesday that would require financial institutions, retailers, federal agencies and others to do more to safeguard sensitive information and to investigate security breaches. The bill offered by Sens. Tom Carper, D-Del., and Robert Bennett, R-Utah also would require these entities to notify consumers when there is a “substantial” risk of identity theft or fraud becauase of a security breach involving their sensitive information. It would apply to retailers who take credit card information, data brokers who compile private information and government agencies that hold nonpublic personal information, according to a news release. Read the full National Journal article here.

AMR Breach Puts 79,000 Employees at Risk
In one of the largest data breaches in recent months, AMR, the parent company of American Airlines, said it’s in the process of notifying more than 79,000 current, former and retired employees that a hard drive containing their most sensitive personal information was stolen from its corporate headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. The Associated Press reported the breach earlier this month. AMR (NYSE: AMR) officials told the AP that the purloined drive contained images of microfilm files that stored data such as employees’ names, address, birth dates, Social Security numbers and what it described as “limited” bank account information. Read the full eSecurity Planet article here.

Happy Monday!

Identity theft is a serious crime. It may seem to be involving only monetary aspects of a person but the real essence of the crime instills damages that are very hard to deal with and cure. Reputation requires identity theft protection. A ruined named is very difficult to manage as chances of progress and trustworthiness do not come in just a snap of a finger. Anybody is subject to the threats of stealing identity. You can be the next victim and once you have realized that somebody else if taking advantage of your name, the next thing to do is follow the steps on reporting the crime.

Your credit reports are important aspects in detecting possibilities of theft. The credit reports will reveal all financial transactions which are done under your name. if you think some items are questionable and you have gathered enough proofs regarding the items, you can go straight to the police station and be able to relay the issue.

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As many of our reader know, we like to shine a light on those who are doing extraordinary things when it comes to fighting identity theft. We like to focus on members of law enforcement, consumer advocates, law makers and the like. But, every so often, we like to deviate a bit. And, this is exactly what we are doing by naming this week’s “Best Person” a Colorado grandmother who was wrongly jailed for being accused of running a massive identity theft ring.

Margot Sommerville (not her in the photo – that’s Estelle Getty from Golden Girls!) had her purse stolen in June 2006 in California. Five months later, while visiting family members in Wheat Ridge, she noticed that $20,000 was missing from her account. She reported the issue to police and, in an odd twist, became a suspect in a massive identity theft ring. In 2008,

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Think you’ve heard it all when it comes to stories about identity theft?  Think again. Check out these 10 shocking but true identity theft stories.

1. Get Your Identity Stolen…And Then Get Sued.
Imagine: You’re a single mom from the Bronx working hard to get by on just $2,000 a month. Suddenly one day, $38,000 disappears from your savings account and your bank slaps you with a lawsuit demanding $23,000! That’s exactly what happened to Gloria Carlo two years ago, the New York Post reports. Carlo says she lost more than $68,000 in total as a result of identity thieves stealing her information and making purchases on Jewelry Television, Shop NBC, QVC and the Home Shopping Network.

2. Lose Your Laptop and Personal Information…And You Do the Suing.
On the other end of the spectrum is Raelyn Campbell, whose laptop containing her personal information was lost during warranty service from Best Buy, according to an identity theft story on engadget. She in tur

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