On May 30, District Attorney Hynes, Congressman Vito Fossella and the Bay Ridge Consumer Federation held an Identity Theft Consumer Forum at the Shore Hill Community Center.  Identity theft is a growing crime that affects millions of people, and the purpose of the forum was to inform consumers of ways that they can protect themselves from various forms of this kind of fraud. 

Prosecutors from the DA’s Office discussed several examples of identity-theft fraud, including advance-fee scams which usually come in the form of email, online shopping and auction fraud, stolen email addresses and ID fraud, which usually involves use of your credit card number.  In all of these scenarios, the scammer tries to get your personal information and to make purchases in your name. 

Tips for consumers to look out for include:    

- Beware of Internet shopping.  Don’t buy items from stores that you’ve never heard of. 

- If prices are too good to be true, then it’s probably a scam. 

- Beware of auctions and inappropriate websites. 

- Don’t open email attachments from people that you don’t know. 

- Don’t give out personal information over the phone and be careful of what information   
   you give out on the computer as well.

- Shred all of your mail.

- Take receipts from all of your credit card purchases.