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Sprint, AT&T, BofA Faves of Identity Thieves

Posted Feb 29, 08 5:41 PM CST in US,  Business,  Crime & Courts,  Technology 

(Newser) – Bank of America led as a target for identity thieves in a 2006 sample of FTC complaints, followed closely by AT&T and Sprint. The survey by Berkeley researchers found that half of all complaints involved 25 organizations, mainly banks and telecom companies, reports PC World. There were 88,000 offenses voluntarily reported over three months’ time.

8% of all new account fraud involved phone companies, a figure the lead researcher found “really astounding”; the process usually involves starting accounts with real social security numbers and phony names—and then building a credit history to exploit. And you thought those pre-approved credit card applications were merely annoying: Banks that send you mail are prime targets for identity theft.

Source PC World

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A man walks past a Sprint store in Santa Monica, Calif.,Thursday, Feb. 28, 2008. Sprint Nextel Corp. swung to a fourth-quarter loss of $29.5 billion Thursday as it wrote down most of the remaining value...   (Associated Press)
The AT&T logo is seen on it's headquarters in San Antonio, Monday, April 23, 2007. Telecommunications heavyweight AT&T Inc. said Tuesday, April 24, 2007 its profit doubled to $2.8 billion in the first...   (Associated Press)
Bank of America ATMs   ((c) The Consumerist)
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