The last week has seen some major stories about identity theft and fraud. Since so many major things happened, I would like to point out a few of the major stories and give you some links so you can read more about them.

Perhaps the biggest news story was about Albert Gonzalez. On Monday, Gonzalez was charged with conspiracy, theft and fraud for allegedly stealing the personal data of 130 million people. Gonzalez could face five years in jail on conspiracy charges and another thirty years in jail for fraud. And top all that off with a fine of either $1.25 million or twice the amount of money he stole.

Sometimes in my zeal to cover online frauds, I forget about some of the particularly dastardly crimes that people commit offline. On Wednesday, Edmonton police announced that two men posing as bank security officers defrauded two older women of thousands of dollars. Both women were contacted by a man who knew about their lives in great deal - he knew their full names, banking and credit card details. He asked them to participate in an investigation into a corrupt banker. When they agreed, he had them withdraw thousands of dollars and give it to an accomplice, who promised to return the funds. The funds were never returned and at least two seniors are out a very significant amount of money. Stealing from seniors? I wonder where they went to cool school...

Also on Wednesday, . Trend Micro identified "Stream", "Posts", "Your Photos", "Birthday Invitations", "Inbox(1)" and "Inbox(2)" as the offending applications.

Finally, I have written a few articles on some of the other major news stories that have broken this week. I encourage you to keep reading the blog and let me know what you think!