Not Even Celebrities are Insulated Against Identity Theft

It has been revealed that Sean Combs, otherwise known as P. Diddy, was recently victimized by an identity thief who posted his American Express Black Card information, social security number, passport details, internet passwords, and private phone numbers online. The person responsible and how he or she was able to obtain that information remains unclear.

A source close to the 41-year-old rapper, singer, actor, and entrepreneur stated, “It’s a big mess,” according to reports.

In a damage control effort, Combs has instructed everyone to disregard any text messages, tweets, emails, and even voicemails that appear to originate from him. The same source said that Combs was especially troubled because "voice is so easily mimicked".

Additionally, private photos of the star were made public on the Internet.

He is not the only famous person to have personal information commandeered by a stranger in recent days. Film and television actresses Mila Kunis and Christina Aguilera, as well as the singer Christina Aguilera all were victims of the same identity hacker, Jacksonville, Florida resident Christopher Chaney.

Chaney, 35, has admitted to hacking into the email accounts of over 50 celebrities and plans to plead guilty in a Los Angeles court, where he is scheduled to face charges of unauthorized access to a protected computer, wiretapping, and 26 counts of identity theft.

Authorities claim that Chaney hacked into various Apple, Yahoo, and Google email accounts belonging to famous individuals between November 2010 and February 2011. He cracked their passwords by scrutinizing tabloids, magazines, and social networking sites for minute details of the stars’ personal lives. He then rigged a forwarding feature within their email accounts that sent a copy of every email they received to his own email account.

Experts urge everyone to reset all passwords every few months and to make them challenging by choosing an obscure character combination. They should also incorporate numbers and symbols. It is wisest to avoid using information than can be found easily, such as birthdays, addresses, or your pets’ or children’s names. Ideally, a different password should be used for every account.

Lauren Palmer

Lauren Palmer is a freelance writer who is a regular contributor to a variety of online and print publications. Although she has much to say about many subjects, she specializes in topics pertaining to personal finance. She holds a bachelor’s degree from NYU in journalism.