By Greg Wright
MBA, CFE, CFP®, CLU, ChFC
Certified Fraud Examiner & National Speaker
It
appears that Bill O’Reilly has a new job selling internet security services. Is this service needed today? Maybe Bill needs the money.
"I saw this crime firsthand when a close friend had
his home's title stolen by online thieves. I was shocked how easy this crime is. The scammers
found the online title to his home, forged home sale documents, and refiled his
home under an alias…I encourage all homeowners to get Home Title Lock.” -- Bill O’Reilly
The
implied promise is that $14.99 per month paid to Home Title Lock, will protect
your home. We don’t know about Bill’s
cut. I’ve asked about his compensation; but, have not had a response.
This type of fraud has been around for a long
time. There was an FBI warning about it
as far back as 2008; but, experts in internet security I contacted haven't heard anything
recently to indicate that it's a current problem.
Everybody should realize that their personal
information has already been stolen. Monitor
your data, freezing all of your credit accounts, and adding multi-factor
authentication can reduce the risk considerably. These days, because almost
every data is being stored digitally and the amount of data being collected and
stored is growing exponentially, the risks of a data breach are greater than
ever. Until we demand better security and actually send people to prison when
they (or their company) allow our personal data to be stolen, internet frauds
will only continue.
If you have a credit
freezes in place and use a credit monitoring service, it makes it difficult for a fraudster to take out loans in a person’s name even with forged
documents. It seems to me that the a better use of your financial
resources would be to have the basic internet security toolbox and avoid risky
behavior including banking online.
The value of the “home title lock” service seems dubious to me. Here is their website. Talk it over with your internet advisor. See www.hometitlelock.com
