Page 2 - March ARB Beacon 11-13-15

2 November 13, 2015
BEACON
Volume 80, Number 45
THE
452 AMW Public Affairs
14560 2nd Street, Bldg. 2640
March ARB, CA 92518-1852
DPZSDZRUNÀRZ#XVDIPLO
fax: 951-655-7070
phone: 951-655-4138
COMMANDER
Col. Russell Muncy
PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER
Capt. Perry Covington
EDITOR
Ms. Linda Welz
452 AMW EDITORIAL STAFF
Senior Master Sgt. David Smith
Master Sgt. Megan Crusher
Staff Sgt. Tiffany Lindemann
Staff Sgt. Heather Cozad Staley
Senior Airman Russell McMillan
Senior Airman Joseph Dangidang
Senior Airman Kevin Mitterholzer
Senior Airman Callie McNary
The Beacon is published by
Aerotech News and Review. Aero-
WHFKLVDSULYDWH¿UPLQQRZD\FRQ- all angles covered and there is no
nected with the U.S. Air Force, un-
der exclusive written contract with
the 452nd Air Mobility Wing. This
civilian enterprise Air Force news-
paper is an authorized publication
for employees and members of
U.S. military services, retirees and
family members. Contents are not
QHFHVVDULO\ WKH RI¿FLDO YLHZV RI The transaction was declined. I
or endorsed by, the U.S. Govern-
ment, the Department of Defense
or the Department of the Air Force.
The appearance of advertis-
ing in this newspaper, including
inserts or supplements, does not
constitute endorsement of the
products or services by the De-
partment of Defense, the Depart-
ment of the Air Force or Aerotech
News and Review, Inc.
Everything advertised in this
newspaper shall be made avail-
able for purchase, use or patron-
age without regard to race, color,
religion, sex, national origin, age,
marital status, physical handicap,
SROLWLFDO DI¿OLDWLRQ RU DQ\ RWKHU all my financial information. It could take
non-merit factor of the purchaser,
user or patron.
Editorial content is edited, pre-
pared and provided by the staff
of the 452nd Air Mobility Wing
3XEOLF$IIDLUV RI¿FH DW 0DUFK$LU the incident public release stated the fol-
Reserve Base. All photographs
in the Beacon are Air Force pho-
tos unless otherwise stated. For
advertising, contact Aerotech di-
rectly at 877-247-9288.
Aerotech News and Review
456 East Ave. K-4, Suite 8
Lancaster, CA 93535
www.aerotechnews.com
Identity theft, cybercrime and you
by Senior Master Sgt. David Smith
452 AMW public affairs
curity numbers of 21.5 million individuals,
Ten years as a fraud investigator for a
major financial institution, I can say I have
seen every way to scam or commit fraud
involving financial transactions.
What is fraud? Fraud is defined by dic-
tionary.reference.com as a deceit, trickery,
sharp practice, or breach of confidence,
perpetrated for profit or to gain some un-
fair or dishonest advantage.
According to the Bureau of Justice Sta-
tistics on their website, an estimated 17.6
million peeople, or about 7 percent of U.S.
residents age 16 or older, were victims of at
least one incident of identity theft in 2014. damage control and review of credit re-
These statistics were similar to
those in 2012.
The above stated fact deals with
all financial services for the U.S.
population. The statistics prove
that you will be a victim of iden-
tity theft at least once in your adult
life. You might think that you have
4. Identity theft insurance
way to become a victim of identity
theft. Think again.
I thought the same until the
day I was traveling, on orders, to
March Air Reserve Base. I used
my Government Travel Card and
attempted to buy gas for the trip.
phone calls, emails or any other means
contacted the bank’s travel card customer
service number, which is located on the
back of the card, only to be told that I was
a victim of identity theft.
The unknown suspect bought products
and services overseas the same day I was
traveling. It appears my card was skimmed
(an unauthorized device placed on a debit
or credit card reader to record the transac-
tion for later use by the suspect) sometime
during my travel and that was all that was
needed to start the fraud activity.
Although I was inconvenienced, had to
notify my chain of command and write a
statement of facts that I had not used the
card for any unauthorized transactions, I
was not at a loss. Imagine if the suspect had
YEARS to recover from the incident.
Other fraud is hard to prevent and is out
of your hands and does occur. For exam-
ple the Office of Personnel Management
(OPM) was a victim to a server breach and
lowing through opm.gov, “In June 2015,
OPM discovered that the background in-
vestigation records of current, former, and
prospective Federal employees and con-
tractors had been stolen. The OPM and the
interagency incident response team have
www.aerotechnews.com/marcharb
facebook.com/TeamMarch
COMMENTARY
concluded with high confidence, that sen-
sitive information, including the social se-
was stolen from the background investiga-
tion databases. This includes 19.7 million
individuals that applied for a background
investigation, and 1.8 million non-appli-
cants, primarily spouses or co-habitants
of applicants. Some records also include
findings from interviews conducted by
background investigators and approxi-
mately 5.6 million include fingerprints.
Usernames and passwords that background
investigation applicants used to fill out
their background investigation forms were
also stolen.”
In this situation, all that can be done is
ports. But you do have some control in this
situation. According to the OPM, the fol-
lowing actions were provided by the fed-
eral government to affected parties to limit
the damage of the breach:
1. Identity monitoring
2. Credit monitoring
3. Identity restoration services
You might still be thinking, ‘How
can I protect myself from fraud?’
You should follow these common prac-
tices for your financial identity:
1. Never respond to text messaging,
where an unknown person asks for your
personal and financial information. The
suspect will use varied techniques in-
cluding threats of arrest to obtain your
information. When in doubt, contact your
financial institution directly using the cus-
tomer service number on the back of your
debit or credit card or the number on your
financial statements, or go to your near-
est banking facility to verify the concern.
A financial institution will have ways to
verify the person you are speaking to as
9. Become aware of the varied types of
liable due to your implied consent if you
well as to verify you.
2. Never use your online banking ser-
vice from a profile on your computer that
you use to surf the Internet, download
freeware, visit websites that provide file-
sharing services or any other activity that
can expose your system to adware, vi-
ruses and malware. Use a separate profile
on your computer for banking, such as a
guest profile.
3. Be sure to close your web pages and
clear the cookies and history information
each time you log out of your banking insti-
tution’s website, to ensure no other person
can access your online banking service.
4. Ensure your system has updated vi-
rus protection and the most current
updates for your operating system.
5. Use additional security pro-
tection that was offered by your
financial institution including text,
and email notifications.
6. Ensure you check all of your
financial accounts on a regular
basis to ensure there has not been
any recent fraud activity. If fraud
activity is found, notify your fi-
nancial institution immediately.
Cooperate with the investigation
and provide all documents in a
timely manner.
fbi.gov 7. Don’t become an unknow-
ing participant in the fraud scheme
by giving your account information for an
online job, or an online “friend” you have
never met or any other type of activities
that another person would solicit your fi-
nancial institution.
8. Don’t accept unsolicited funds,
checks, money orders, or cashier’s checks
from friends or family, especially if there
seems to be no reason to receive those
funds. Remember all transactions pro-
cessed through your account makes YOU
liable. You could wind up owing the finan-
cial institution, such as when a check is
deposited, then funds are removed and the
check returned as fraud. Just remember, if
it seems too easy or too good to be true,
then chances are it is.
fraud activity and scams that occur.
10. Never let someone use your account,
debit or credit cards unless they are autho-
rized and a joint owner. If fraud occurs,
and they are not a joint owner, you will be
provided the information or instrument for
use by the other person.
The world of fraud does seem a chal-
lenge but can be managed and your risk
can be reduced if you are proactive in your
personal and financial identity.