IDENTITY THEFT INFO

Backgrounders

Backgrounder #1: 
Top 5 Ways to Lose your Identity!

Identity theft expert Johnny May, CPP, in his new book The Guide to Identity Theft Prevention nails down the most common ways thieves can steal your identity:

Five of the Many Ways to Lose your Identity:

1. Mail Theft
A red flag on a mailbox is an open invitation to identity thieves. If a person leaves outgoing bills in the mailbox for the postal carrier to pick up, a thief can use the information to obtain credit in the victim's name. What's so alarming is that it takes only one stolen item &- an outgoing bill, an incoming bank account statement - and the identity thief has all the information he or she needs to cause havoc.

2. Fraudulent Changes of Address
The criminal fills out a change of address form at the post office so that your mail is redirected to the thief's address or mail drop. The thief then obtains your bank and credit card, or other mail containing the information necessary to take over your identity.

3. Dumpster Diving ("trash-napping")
Some identity thieves love trash - especially if it is from upscale neighborhoods or business establishments. After finding a secluded area to go through their "haul," thieves look for any item that may contain personal identifiers - like bank or credit card statements, or pre-approved credit card offers.

4. Shoulder Surfing
Anytime you use an ATM or calling card in a public place you put yourself at risk. Shoulder surfers are criminals who lurk around ATM machines and pay phones in high traffic areas, hoping to catch a glimpse of your pin number or calling card number.

5. Internet
People think that buying things on the Internet carries a big risk of identity theft, but that's not the key. The Internet helps identity thieves by providing an illicit marketplace to purchase personal information, so they can misuse it to obtain credit in the victim's name.

A common misconception is that only the wealthy or credit-
worthy are targeted by identity thieves. However, no one is immune. Anyone with a social security number is at risk. Identity theft is a crime of opportunity. Identity thieves will impersonate anyone whose information they can obtain - even if its from an obituary!  

The more common your name is, the more 
at risk you are.

Popular targets of identity thieves are people with common names, as well as mothers, daughters, juniors and seniors with the same names." Identity thieves exploit the inherit confusion over such names," said David Szwak, a Louisiana attorney who has filed more than 100 lawsuits on behalf of identity theft victims. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, here are some of the most common names in the United States:

Common Family Names:  Smith, Johnson, Williams, Jones, Brown, Davis, Miller, Wilson, Moore, Taylor

Common Male Names:  James, John, Robert, Michael, William, David, Richard, Charles, Joseph, Thomas

Common Female Names:  Mary, Patricia, Linda, Barbara, Elizabeth, Jennifer, Maria, Susan, Margaret, Dorothy

Backgrounder #2: 
Your Social Security Number is Not Secure!

Your good name is your most valuable asset. And some people want to steal it from you. With the boom in Internet communications and electronic commerce, we submit more and more information through new media, which makes identity theft a growing problem worldwide, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB).

Identity theft involves stealing someone's personal identifying information (such as name, address, date of birth, social security number, credit card numbers, driver's license numbers). Criminals who steal this personal information will use it to fraudulently obtain credit, money, goods, services and other property, including insurance policies.

Your social security number, a key identifier that should be carefully protected, is available to thieves, according to Johnny May, CPP, an expert on identity theft. All a thief needs is one look at it! Among the places your social security number may be found:

• Military ID cards

• Medicare cards

• College ID cards

• Banking and savings account statements

• College and alumni records

• Insurance records

• Tax returns

• Credit bureau header reports

The list goes on and on. The truth is, anyone can steal your identity and ruin your credit rating and reputation. All they need is your social security number. Then why is this number so readily available? The answer:  for convenience. Businesses know that phone numbers, addresses and names change, but social security numbers for the most part do not.

In the wrong hands, the social security number can wreak havoc. For example, a desk clerk at the university of Florida spent over $100,000 using credit cards he acquired using student social security numbers. By the time the clerk was caught, he had user the stolen identities to purchase stereos, computer printers, televisions, a riding lawnmower and a washing machine.

When confronted with the topic of identity theft, a common response is "It will never happen to me". But some experts say it's no longer a matter of whether you will become a victim of identity theft but when.

Backgrounder #3:
Why Identity Theft Is Attractive to Criminals

Criminals like the low risk and high rewards that identity theft provides. 
Low risk: The law treats identity theft as a crime against property, and in general the penalties for property crimes are less severe than for crimes against a person. Most career criminals know this. They also know that the majority of law enforcement attention goes to high profile crimes such as homicide, rape and robbery.

To make matters worse, police departments often lack the resources to properly investigate identity crimes. The thieves are very seldom apprehended. Even when brought to justice, they usually receive lenient sentences.

Identity thieves steal for various reasons. There are three 
main motives:

1. Financial gain: This is the most common reason. The goal of identity thieves is to drain all bank and credit card accounts and then move on to the next victim.

2. Revenge: Their main goal is to avenge perceived mistreatment, or to ruin the victim's credit history and reputation. This may be accomplished by creating a criminal record or derogatory credit history using the victim's name.

3. Fresh start: By assuming someone else's identity, the identity thief can cover up a criminal record or a poor credit or employment history and lead a "normal" life.

In fairness to the police, it should be noted that, until 1998, there were almost no statutes making identity theft a crime or specifying police response.

Also, there was little in the way of financial support for departments to deal effectively with this issue. However, that has changing-rapidly-and both laws and resources have been brought to bear in many states. Many police departments now have special task forces to deal with crimes of identity.

Backgrounder #4:
ID thieves collect billions with ease

According to Trans Union, a national credit bureau, identity thieves collect billions of dollars each year by illegally assuming their victim's identity. The crime is estimated to defraud more than 300,000 people per year. It takes surprisingly little to become a victim of identity theft. A Social Security number or other personal identification ending up in the wrong person's hands can make one's life a lot more than just unpleasant.

Identity theft puts golf star "in the rough."
Tiger Woods had to go to trial to protect his good name. Prosecutors charged Anthony Lemar Taylor of Sacramento, California, with using the golf superstar's real name-Eldrick T. Woods-and social security number to apply for credit cards and obtain a fake drivers license. The perpetrator ran up $17,000 in credit card charges before police identified Taylor as the suspect.

Does Grandma really need all the phones?
Seniors are often targeted. Creditors were shocked to learn that the purported owner of five Nextel phones was an infirm, 93-yeart-old woman who required around-the-clock care.

Moonlighting at the morgue.
Ten morgue workers in Philadelphia were charged with stealing cash, credit cards, weapons, and bank and personal information from dead people. Six accomplices were also charged, because they allegedly benefited from the thefts by processing the stolen credit cards and opening new accounts in the names of the deceased. The investigation was prompted when a woman discovered that someone had used her dead father's credit cards and opened new accounts in his name.

Identity theft murder.
In Detroit, a woman was actually murdered in a bizarre case of identity theft! The perpetrator, a woman with a troubled past, had been a co-worker of the victim. This identity thief hired her nephew and a friend to kill the victim-but changed the dead woman's identity to her own. When police found the victim's body, the perpetrator persuaded them that she was the victim's sister-i.e., her own sister! The scheme unraveled a couple days later when police brought the identity thief's relatives to the funeral home and they did not recognize the 
dead woman.

3 suspects charged in credit fraud: Brea detectives say ring targeted Nordstrom stores in interstate operation.  
The Orange County Register - 05/23/2002
A 15-month investigation into a $100,000 interstate credit-card fraud ring targeting Nordstrom stores ended with charges filed against three men, 
Brea detectives announced. At least nine Southern California stores, 
including Nordstroms in Brea, Costa Mesa, Mission Viejo and Santa Ana, 
were affected.

Charges were filed against: Nicholas Larry Navarro, 59, of Lakewood, a convicted credit-card forger who police said is suspected of being the ringleader. He has been charged with 36 counts of conspiracy, burglary, 
grand theft, receiving stolen property, counterfeiting and identity theft.

...Navarro is suspected of using fake credit cards and identification cards to buy gift cards or merchandise at one store, then recruiting Yates and Watts, a former Downey resident, to return the goods at other stores.

Brea Lt. Martin Needham said investigators expect the losses to go much higher as the tally comes in from stores outside California.

After losing wallet in Daytona in '87, man's life split in 2
Orlando Sentinel - 08/09/2001
Clay Monroe Henderson lost his wallet while vacationing in Daytona Beach in 1987, and he had to return to Southern California without it. A short time later, on the west coast of Florida, another Clay Monroe Henderson surfaced and a parallel life was born.

For 14 years, police said, Douglas Staas lived his life under that name: He bought and sold homes, opened bank accounts, obtained credit, married twice, changed his underage daughter's name to Henderson and was arrested at least three times. The real Henderson's credit was destroyed. He fought civil judgments, was denied a promotion and was turned down for an apartment lease. He even spent a week in a California jail on a warrant out of Seminole County - a place he had never even visited.

...For Henderson, it has been a long battle to clear his name &- one that's 
not over.

...Authorities said Staas has used at least six names in five states since 1982. He is also suspected of using a half-dozen others.

...In Florida, everyone knew him as Henderson. Moving between Seminole, Hernando and Pasco counties, he worked odd jobs. As Henderson, he was arrested in a case involving a fraudulent publishing scam and on DUI and domestic-violence charges, police said.

"He had pretty well absorbed this man's identity," Hernando sheriff's Lt. Joe Paez said. "Friends, co-workers and neighbors knew him by that."

Thousands of miles away, it took the real Henderson, 39, a while to realize what was happening. He first started noticing problems in the late 1980s, when some odd things showed up on his credit report.

But it wasn't until the mid-1990s, when he was arrested and thrown into a California jail on worthless-check charges out of Seminole that Henderson realized how serious things had become, police said.

He couldn't convince California authorities that they had the wrong man, and he was released only after Florida authorities decided the charge wasn't significant enough to pursue extradition.

The day he was released was the day Henderson began trying to prove that someone had stolen his identity. It took sending the Seminole State Attorney's Office a copy of his fingerprints to convince them that he wasn't the wanted man, who had been arrested but didn't show up for court.

...He was haunted by credit problems. And when Staas defaulted on loans, civil judgments were levied against Henderson's name. He suddenly found himself with a serious criminal record.

Henderson, who does computer work at the Vandenberg Air Force Base, about 70 miles north of Santa Barbara, was given only limited security clearance at the base, which prevented promotions. He was rejected for several apartment leases and credit lines.

The Kansas City Star - 03/02/2001 
...William A. Morris was charged with one count of unauthorized use of 20 Visa, MasterCard and American Express credit cards between September 
and November 2000 to obtain goods worth more than $1,000; one count 
of possessing 22 unauthorized credit card accounts; and one count of 
identity theft.

If convicted, Morris faces a maximum of 10 years in federal prison without parole on each count of using and possessing unauthorized credit cards and a maximum of 15 years for identity theft. The Lenexa Police Department and the U.S. Secret Service investigated the case.

Don't become another victim
South Florida Sun-Sentinel - 11/27/2002
It was pure coincidence that a Florida forum on identity theft took place on the same day federal prosecutors in New York charged three men with operating possibly the largest identity fraud ring in U.S. history. About 30,000 people were victimized.

It's no coincidence, though, that Florida has an especially acute problem with identity theft. The state ranks second in the nation in reported incidents, and first for fraudulent credit card transactions. About 28,000 Floridians have been victimized in the past two years. The state's large elderly population and a tourism industry that encourages credit card transactions make the state especially vulnerable.

Identity theft is a major economic problem. A Florida statewide grand jury report issued earlier this month said identity theft costs American consumers about $1 billion annually. The banking industry's losses were put at $5 billion last year. But as Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan said at Monday's forum, there's another reason to be concerned about identity fraud: homeland security. In an environment of terrorism, it simply won't do to have people running around stealing other people's identities.

Backgrounder #5:
Protect yourself from the fastest growing crime in America.

Protect yourself from the fastest growing crime in America. Go and pick up The Guide to Identity Theft Prevention by Johnny R. May, CPP. You will learn the impact of identity theft in America. The ins and outs of how the criminals do it and much, much more.

Top 10 things you can to do to avoid becoming a victim of 
identity theft

1. Be extremely cautious when handling and disclosing the following information: social security number, mother's maiden name, date of birth, past addresses, drivers license number, and of course, bank and credit account numbers.

2. Opt out of pre-approved credit card offers by calling (888) 5 OPTOUT or (888) 567-8688. Your request covers all three major credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax).

3. Scrutinize monthly billing statements. Open bills promptly and check your accounts monthly. Look for charges you don't recognize and report them immediately. Report late statements. Save receipts to compare with your billing statements.

4. Don't leave outgoing checks or paid bills in your residential mailbox. Take your mail to the post office or drop it in a U.S. Postal Service mailbox. Also, consider paying bills electronically; a lot of financial institutions now offer this option.

5. Invest in a personal shredder. This is your first line of defense. Shred bank and credit card statements, canceled checks, pre-approved credit card offers, etc. before disposal. A cross cut shredder offers added security because it makes it harder to reconstruct the document.

6. Keep a record of all your credit card account numbers, expiration dates, and the telephone number and address of each creditor. Store it in a secure place.

7. Order a copy of your credit report at least 1-2 times per year from each of the three major credit bureaus. (Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax). Look for address changes and fraudulent accounts. Check for accuracy. Do this on your birthday to help you remember to do it at least once 
   per year.

8. Limit the amount of information you place on your Internet homepage, and on websites detailing family genealogy.

9. Install a residential mailbox with a locking mechanism or purchase a door with a mail slot.

10. Don't voluntarily give out personal information such as social security numbers or credit card numbers over the phone, unless you initiated the phone call. Ask for a call back number and match it against the telephone book or directory assistance.

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