SAN FRANCISCO - At least 700 people had their identities stolen during a yearlong scam by con artists who had signed up as clients of data-broker ChoicePoint Inc., the Los Angeles task force in charge of the criminal investigation confirmed on Friday.

By PAUL NOWELL, AP Business Writer

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Bank of America Corp. has lost computer data tapes containing personal information on 1.2 million federal employees, including some members of the U.S. Senate.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - More than 100,000 customers of Wachovia Corp. and Bank of America Corp. have been notified that their financial records may have been stolen by bank employees and sold to collection agencies.

ATLANTA - ChoicePoint Inc.'s top two executives made a combined $16.6 million in profit from selling company shares in the months after the data warehouser learned that people's personal information may have been compromised and before the breach was made public, regulatory filings show.

SAN FRANCISCO - Like thousands of other merchants, Tammy Harrison thought she had struck gold when hordes visited her Web site by clicking on the small Internet ads she purchased from the world's most popular online search engines. It cost Harrison as much as $20 for each click, but the potential new business seemed to justify the expense. Harrison's delight dimmed, though, when she realized the people clicking on her ads weren't really interested in her products.

WASHINGTON - The latest threat to computer users doesn't destroy data or steal passwords - it locks up a person's electronic documents, effectively holding them hostage, and demands $200 over the Internet to get them back.

SAN FRANCISCO - A company that collects consumer data warned thousands of Californians that hackers penetrated the company's computer network and may have stolen credit reports, Social Security numbers and other sensitive information.

WASHINGTON - The number of complaints filed with the Federal Trade Commission over Internet auctions has nearly doubled over the last two years, the agency said Tuesday.

LONDON - Up to 10 times as many people as originally thought may have had their profiles stolen from a LexisNexis database in the United States, publisher and data broker Reed Elsevier Group PLC said Tuesday.

CHICO, Calif. - Hackers gained personal information of 59,000 people affiliated with a California university - the latest in a string of high-profile cases of identity theft.

Warren Lambert displays a letter notifying him that his identity may ... More...

SAN FRANCISCO - Warren Lambert thought it was just another piece of junk mail until he read the letter more closely and learned that con artists may have obtained his Social Security number, name and address _ just what they need to steal his identity and ruin his credit.

CHICAGO - First-quarter retail Internet sales rose 23.8 percent to $19.8 billion in the United States from $16 billion a year ago, according to preliminary numbers released Friday by the Department of Commerce.

SAN FRANCISCO - A thief recently walked into a University of California, Berkeley office and swiped a computer laptop containing personal information about nearly 100,000 alumni, graduate students and past applicants, highlighting a continued lack of security that has increased society's vulnerability to identity theft.

DENVER - Rebecca Tennille considered herself a savvy consumer, but when she got an e-mail that looked like it was from her bank, she followed its instructions to go to a Web site to verify some personal information.

By TED BRIDIS, AP Technology Writer
Tue May 31, 11:38 PM

WASHINGTON - Most American consumers don't realize Internet merchants and even traditional retailers sometimes charge different prices to different customers for the same products, according to a new survey.

By Joris Evers

Story last modified Wed Jun 01 22:45:00 PDT 2005

SAN JOSE, Calif.--Consumers, government and technology companies have to step up to the plate to thwart increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks, experts on a security panel said Wednesday.