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The National Crime Prevention Council’s monthly newsletter, Catalyst, is now available to read online. This month’s issue discusses the latest Internet crime and youth gang statistics. You can read it at http://www.ncpc.org/publications/catalyst/latest_issue.php.

Neighborhood Watch Needs You

This publication discusses reasons to get involved in Neighborhood Watch, the kinds of activities Watch groups do, and how they can help a neighborhood strengthen hometown and homeland security activities. It also contains helpful resources and examples of successful Neighborhood Watches. This booklet serves as an ideal recruitment tool for Watch organizers. It can be downloaded at http://www.ncpc.org/publications/text/neighborhood_watch.php.

Seniors and Telemarketing Fraud 101

Seniors account for an ever-increasing share of the population. Thirty-five million Americans, about 13 percent of the population, are aged 65 or older. Unfortunately, seniors are often targets of telemarketing fraud. This publication describes tactics used by fraudulent marketers and provides tips on how to “stop criminals in their tracks.” The most basic technique is to just hang up. Readers are taught that “It isn’t rude, it’s shrewd!” Order or download it at http://www.ncpc.org/seniors/publications.php.

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Website Warns of Sex Offenders
The USA website http://www.familywatchdog.us allows users to enter an address, city or zip code and see a map of sex offenders that live in the area.

Website of Crime Prevention Resources
This web site lists links to all types of crime prevention sites, listed by topic. http://www.fbi.gov/becrimesmart.htm.

Choking Game
The "Choking Game," "Fainting Game," "Tingling Game," or the "Pass out Game". If you haven't heard of it, chances are that the children of your community have. This supposed game has been featured on the US talk shows Oprah Winfrey Show and Dr. Phil. It has also been the subject of the US news magazine show 20/20 and the CBS Early Morning News. It has had deadly consequences for kids playing it as young as 4th grade. Children use belts, ropes, or other children to strangle themselves. You can find out more information on this:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06041/653211.stm
http://www.oprah.com/tows/slide/200511/20051118/slide_20051118_284_110.jhtml
http://www.drphil.com/shows/show/585
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Health/story?id=987294&page=1

More Identities Lost in 2005:

Reporting of Identity Theft Continues To Grow

Washington, DC: Identity theft is the fastest growing nonviolent crime in America according to the Federal Trade Commission’s “Consumer Fraud and Identity Theft Complaint Data” report, which confirms that identity theft is on the rise in America. The FTC received 255,565 identity theft complaints between January and December 2005, up from 246,847 in 2004.

The National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) has been leading the way in the prevention of identity theft since the release of an identity theft public education media campaign in May. Identity theft through credit card fraud is the most common form of reported identity theft, followed by phone and utilities fraud. In addition, 55 percent of fraud reported happened through either emails or websites. The age group most vulnerable to victimization are 18- and 19-year-olds, young people who are using credit cards and paying bills for the first time and are unaware of the potential for identity theft in these transactions.

In most cases, identity theft is a preventable crime. Here are some tips to help you prevent thieves from getting hold of your identity:

Keep your credit card out of sight until the cashier needs to swipe it. When you’re in line to purchase goods or services, don’t leave your credit card on the counter; identity thieves could take a picture of it with a cell phone camera.
When shopping on the Internet, never give out any information about yourself unless you’re on a secure website. Secure sites can be identified by use of “https:” in their address or a padlock symbol displayed in your web browser.
Do not respond to emails asking for your bank account or Social Security numbers. Legitimate businesses will never ask you to “verify” your account or personal information unless you initiate the communication.
Make sure to shred bills and other financial documents before throwing them away. What you consider trash, thieves consider gold.
Use secure mail boxes. Criminals can steal your bill payments from your mailbox before the letter carrier picks them up.

Using common sense and these prevention strategies from NCPC, you can reduce your chances of becoming a victim of identity theft!

Possible "Honeywell" Burglars

Tempe Police recently received information that people are possibly "casing" residential neighborhoods, using "Honeywell" security as a disguise. The subjects are wearing dark blue Polo shirts with "Honeywell" embroidered on the front.

If residents of Tempe see anyone wearing "Honeywell" shirts they should contact the Tempe Police Department (350-8311) especially if the person is in a residential area.

The subject(s) knock on doors and then ask about the alarm system currently being used. One caller became suspicious because the subject did no have a business card and seemed unkempt.

Internet ScamBusters' Top 10 Scams for 2005:

10. New job postings threats. It used to be that the big dangers of posting your resume online were that your boss would see it, that your resume would get ignored, or that it would wind up in places you didn't want.

Not anymore. Although these concerns are still important, identity theft and stalking have become much bigger problems for job seekers over the past several years. After all, a lot of very personal information is included in resumes.

9. New, more 'creative' variants of the Nigerian scam. Widespread Nigerian scams that targeted clergy were the biggest innovation over the past year and a half. You can read about these email scams here.

8. Sale of vehicles on auction sites and elsewhere. The biggest question we got asked was: "I'm selling (or buying) a car, truck, or boat online, and I just got an international offer, but I'm not sure if it's legitimate."

The answer was simple: no, it was not legitimate. You can read about this scam here.

7. New threats to mobile devices. Many mobile devices such as cell phones have security holes.

In fact, smarter cell phones will have more problems. If your cell phone contains your contact info -- and especially your financial info (like bank account numbers, passwords, and credit card numbers) -- you will be especially at risk.

6. New lottery scams. Lottery scams, especially international lottery scams, were a huge problem. Here's an example of a lottery scam.

5. More personal and targeted attacks. In the past, viruses, trojans, worms, etc. were generally random and scattered.

4. New, more dangerous viruses, worms, and trojans. There is no doubt that viruses, worms, and trojans are spreading a lot faster now and virus writers are getting smarter.

For example, according to Symantec Corp., there was a 400% increase in new Internet worm variants the first six months of 2004 compared to the same period the year before. You can read about viruses and virus hoaxes here.

3. New spyware threats. Spyware, adware, help objects, and malware are now one of the biggest security threats. Visit our Internet ScamBusters Anti Spyware Resource Center.

2. More sophisticated phishing scams. The growth of phishing scams was one of the two big scam stories. If you're not familiar with phishing scams, click here.

E-mail phishing scams that make too-good-to-be-true offers will grow fast. For example, scammers will offer software at extremely low prices simply to get your credit card and delivery details -- they don't care what the price is since they don't intend to deliver any software anyway.

1. Bigger identity theft problems. Identity theft is the largest security issue and it will most likely grow even faster.

Spyware, viruses, trojans, worms, phishing, and other spaham are all used to commit identity theft. To learn about why identity theft is such a huge problem, visit these two pages on identity theft (ID theft).

For example, one growing problem is keystroke loggers, also called keyloggers. A keystroke logger is a hardware device or software program that monitors each keystroke a user types on the keyboard. This information can then easily be transmitted to a scammer, who then has access to user names, passwords, and other confidential information.

Keyloggers are installed on personal computers via hardware or software. Software keyloggers are installed via viruses, worms, trojans, and spyware. Hardware keyloggers can be installed in ATM machines, on gas pumps, etc. collecting credit card and bank info, as well as passwords and PIN numbers.

Beware of Imposter Burglars

One person usually lures residents - often an elderly person - away from their front door to "check the water" or "inspect something in the back yard." An accomplice then enters the house and steals valuables, including personal information that could make the person a victim of identity theft. Of course, phone scams where criminals ask for personal information are notorious for identity theft as well.

Many times the imposters will claim that they are from the "water department." It is important to know that employees of Tempe Water Services do not enter residences to check pipes, study water pressure or perform other tests.

Do not open your door until you are sure of the identity of the person on the other side. Ask for photo identification. Look for a utility or government uniform and vehicle. And, if you have any doubts, either in person or on the phone, look-up the company's phone number yourself and simply call to check identity, make payments or perform other tasks.