Swiped: How to Protect Yourself in a World Full of Scammers, Phishers, and Identity Thieves - Hardcover

"The real value of Levin's book, though, lies not in its diagnosis, alarming as it is, but in its practical advice on how to protect yourself. No one can make themselves completely safe, but much like burglars who target the most vulnerable house on the street, hackers will seek out those with the weakest online defenses. Levin has a wealth of suggestions for making yourself less vulnerable." --The Sunday Times (UK) "In this alarming book, Levin, a consumer advocate and founder of the consulting agency Identity Theft 911, warns about the prominent dangers of identity fraud in the increasingly digital world... [SWIPED is] a primer on the potential dangers and what's at stake." --Publishers Weekly "A real eye-opener ... rock-solid evidence on the rise of identity theft and multiple steps we can take to counteract an attack." --Kirkus Reviews "If you have a credit card, or money, or a car, or a house, or anything of value--if you have a job or a family or a name--you need to read this book." --Marc Weber Tobias, Security.org and Forbes contributor "Identity theft is becoming a fact of life--data breaches are growing at an alarming rate. In Swiped, Adam Levin shows you how to proactively minimize the risk of identity theft and protect your identity, by design. Don't leave it to chance (or to the Internet of Things)--follow Adam's sage advice!" --Ann Cavoukian, executive director, Privacy and Big Data Institute, Ryerson University, and former Information and Privacy Commissioner, Ontario, Canada "Identity theft is about so much more than credit card heists or hacked bank accounts today. A lot has happened since I wrote Your Evil Twin a decade ago. Now, ID theft is about having your face stolen, your friends stolen, your company, even your personality. In the twenty-first century, you are the 1s and 0s that make up your identity in the world's computers--your digital twin--and nearly all of us now have an evil twin. Swiped is an important update to the literature on privacy and identity-based crimes. If you want to keep up with your evil twin and all the new ways your identity can be used against your will, you should read this book." --Bob Sullivan, bestselling author of Stop Getting Ripped Off

Identity fraud happens to everyone. So what do you do when it's your turn? Increasingly, identity theft is a fact of life. We might once have hoped to protect ourselves from hackers with airtight passwords and aggressive spam filters, and those are good ideas as far as they go. But with the breaches of huge organizations like Target, AshleyMadison.com, JPMorgan Chase, Sony, Anthem, and even the US Office of Personnel Management, more than a billion personal records have already been stolen, and chances are good that you're already in harm's way. This doesn't mean there's no hope. Your identity may get stolen, but it doesn't have to be a life-changing event. Adam Levin, a longtime consumer advocate and identity fraud expert, provides a method to help you keep hackers, phishers, and spammers from becoming your problem. Levin has seen every scam under the sun: fake companies selling "credit card insurance"; criminal, medical, and child identity theft; emails that promise untold riches for some personal information; catphishers, tax fraud, fake debt collectors who threaten you with legal action to confirm your account numbers; and much more. As Levin shows, these folks get a lot less scary if you see them coming. With a clearheaded, practical approach, Swiped is your guide to surviving the identity theft epidemic. Even if you've already become a victim, this strategic book will help you protect yourself, your identity, and your sanity.