The stereotypical image of a hacker is a guy who spends all his time holed up in his bedroom or den, fingers flying over the keyboard while red, bleary eyes, kept open only by continuous doses of Jolt cola, search the monitor for opportunities to ply his trade.

Not so anymore, hackers are getting out and about these days and practicing a more outdoorsy kind of hobby: drive-by hacking.

Wi-Fi makes it possible for drive-by hackers to park near wi-fi hotspots and steal data from unsuspecting computer and laptop users. According to a story at Consumer Affairs, the huge data loss suffered by TJ Maxx has been identified as being the work of drive-by hackers.

TJ Maxx was using an old protocol for its network that was notoriously simple to hack. Add to that the fact that TJ Maxx didn’t use encryption when sending data from transactions to banks and the theft was almost too easy. Using stolen credit card and debit card numbers, the hackers were able to counterfeit credit cards and purchase Wal-Mart gift cards. They redeemed the gift cards for thousands of dollars in merchandise.

419 scams have been going on for years, emails from deposed heads of state and African princes looking for help to move large sums of money out of the country and into your bank account. Of course, there are no vast sums of money to be transferred, unless you count the billions of dollars these con artists have bilked from gullible recipients.

The newest 419 scam adds a little twist. It purports to be from an American soldier in Iraq who is hiding millions of Saddam Hussein’s money and trying to smuggle it out of the country before the next troop surge causes him and his co-conspirators to be discovered.

As always, the advice is NEVER to give out any personal information or bank account information. Do not advance money for fees and expenses in arranging the money transfer. The only money that changes hands will be from you to the scammer.

Read the story at Consumer Affairs:

419 Scammer Claims to Be US Soldier

The subject of this article was delivered to my email inbox just today. The email advertises free tax preparation and includes a huge picture of an H&R Block logo. In smaller print, underneath this ad photo is the information that the company offering this service is not affiliated with H&R Block in any way.

But I decided to look this gift horse in the mouth - well, in the small print anyway.

Of course, it is as I guessed. Click on the link and it takes you to a website where you can fill in your personal information to participate in their “program”. Only participants in the program will get the free gift. In even smaller print, is the information that the program entails signing up for at least 2 Silver, 2 Gold and 2 Platinum offers.

Still, it sounds good - you can sign up for offers without actually taking the credit card right? No, because in the Terms & Conditions it says:

“To claim your reward you must perform all of the following: (i) provide and submit Your correct name, email address and current mailing address; and (ii) sign-up and, where applicable, get approved for, activate and/or any other conditions that may be stated in the offer”

Better still, you aren’t guaranteed the exact gift that they advertised because also in the Terms & Conditions they reserve the right to substitute any reward with another reward at their discretion.

I have seen this same advertisement using DVD players, iPods and nearly every imaginable gadget and product. As always, it is only in the small print that you find out that they have no affiliation with the company that makes the product or provides the service. All they do is recruit applicants for credit card offers that are probably pretty poor deals.

You received an email that appears to come from a legitimate business offering to supply a free credit report to help you monitor and prevent identity theft. Don’t be fooled.

The email could very well be one of many scam emails circulating over the last two years. The recipient is directed to a site to fill out an application form.

The application form contains all the basic information you might expect to provide in order to request a credit report. The problem is that these sites are run by scammers.

The scammers now have everything they want. Instead of protecting yourself against identity theft you have just provided the scammers with all the information they need to make you a victim of it. They can now open accounts, get credit cards in your name and ruin your credit.

Everyone is entitled to one free credit report per year. According to the FTC, the only website authorized for this purpose is www.annualcreditreport.com.