Like typical teens, Nicole and Kristyn Bucci loved downloading and sharing music off the web."I'd see them in there, listening and doing their homework and that was it, I didn't think anything of it," says Kathy Bucci, Nicole and Kristyn's mother.
What parents Kathy and Tony didn't know, is that same file-sharing software used by their kids can also be used by thieves, to enter their family computer and steal their identities.
Bob Boback, CEO of Tiversa says,"On the hard-drive might be your bank account records, your online shopping, your tax returns. All of that information is now shared with the world without your knowledge."
The Bucci's always saved a copy of their tax returns."When you're doing it, you don't think, geez if i save this on here, somebody's gonna get it," says Tony Bucci.
It was simple to search and get the Bucci's tax returns. By entering a simple search on a file-sharing network, experts found the Bucci's return and more than 150,000 others just in New York state.
Boback says, "we can pull up these individuals and see their social security numbers, their children's social security numbers, everything they paid for on their taxes instantly."
It was a shocking revelation for the Bucci's, who said their tax return was actually stolen last year by an identity thief and fraudulently submitted to the IRS.
"The person took our refund, through their computer they had it wired to another account elsewhere," says Bucci.
A refund of $2,000, needed for their kids' college educations, now all gone.
If your computer has one of these file-sharing programs, your personal documents could be out there too.
In a search,over 25,000 student loan applications were found and more than 600,000 credit reports. All easily accessible by anyone on these networks.
As for the Bucci's tax return, experts found it already downloaded on computers in four different countries, including Poland and Nigeria, both havens for identity thieves.
"That's the scary part really, is that they know who you are, they know where you live, where you work," says Bucci.
They've now put fraud alerts on their credit accounts something consumers can do for free and their kids' music sharing program has been deleted. A good idea, say experts, if you want to protect your files from prying eyes.
