Favorite Tricks of ID Theives

A favorite trick of ID thieves is going through people’s trash. They hope to strike it lucky and find an unshredded bank statement or a deposit slip or unheeded credit card application. All too often we don’t get out mail reassigned on a later date - and that means we won’t be getting those late notices and other clues that our bills have been hijacked.

If you have a name that has interchangeable first and last names - like George Michael, or Donovan Mitchell - you are at increased risk for identity theft as well. Someone could hijack your info, switch the names and use a defunct address as a mailing address. They can even buffalo credit card companies and other financial contacts by claiming that they are the real you, and any changes attempted to be made to your accounts should be ignored.

Once they have a few pieces of mail, they an put in for a mail redirect to a PO Box or mail drop and divert all of your mail. Eventually a bank statement, check or other personal information could come along, and then they are in possession of even more information.

The best way to avoid becoming a victim of ID theft during a move is to be vigilant when following up on the small stuff. If you are supposed to be receiving a final utility bill and it doesn’t show, call to be sure they didn’t send it to the wrong address. Likewise any other mail that seems to have gone astray.

Mail Fraud

If you are attempting to sell a house, check on it frequently in your absence to ensure it is not being used for fraudulent activity. You are still the owner of record, so you could land in a sticky situation if someone is using the house as a mail drop.

Identity thieves have caught on to using empty houses as temporary mailing addresses, so be alert. You might want to check your old address for mail if it is left vacant for a while - activity from an old address you once lived at can result in a lot of trouble if it gets tied to your name.

As always, watch for unexplained activity on credit reports, cards or bank statements!

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Ms. Rankin was forced to appear in court when “her” home on Highland Avenue became entangled in foreclosure and legal issues. It was the first she’d ever heard of the property; in fact, she’d never even seen the house.

So what happened? According to Ms. Rankin’s attorney, mortgage defrauders used Rankin’s stolen identity to obtain a loan for the property on Highland Avenue–and then took off with the money. Left in the middle was Rankin, who according to the deed is responsible for a property that she never wanted and now has fallen into disrepair.

Mortgage Fraud v. Predatory Mortgage Practices

According to identity theft experts, mortgage fraud encompasses an umbrella of criminal activities including the addition or omission of information, investor schemes and, yes, identity theft.

Unlike predatory mortgage practices, which involve a lender misleading a potential borrower, mortgage fraud is initiated by the “borrowers” themselves. Like Portia Rankin’s situation, many of these illegal practices involve using the good credit of an unknowing victim for a fraudulent purchase. Other times, identity criminals take out multiple loans on one property by posing as A-credit borrowers.

How They Get Away With It

How can a person be out $100,000, $200,000 or more and not know it? According to anti-ID theft researchers, though free credit reports can be obtained easily, most individuals don’t look at their credit reports more than once a year (and many check out their credit less often than that). This leaves plenty of time for a scammer to steal the victim’s ID, approach a bank and make the fraudulent purchase or loan.

Don’t Let the Next Victim Be You

A few steps will help prevent your identity from being stolen and used by mortgage defrauders:

• Buy a good quality shredder. Experts recommend a cross-shredder, which cuts the paper two ways to make the pieces as indecipherable as possible.

• Keep your social security card at home, preferably in a fire-safe box. Keeping your card in your wallet means that if your wallet is stolen, this crucial key to your identity is there for the taking.

• Request a copy of your credit report annually and look it over carefully for any unusual activity.

• Invest in a high-quality credit monitoring service. It will alert you to requests for loans in your name, and may include various trackers, including others using your full name or other identity on the internet.

• If you suspect any activity at all in your name, report it to the appropriate authorities IMMEDIATELY.

• Report lost or stolen credit cards as soon as you notice they’re gone. Have them canceled so that anyone using them as identification for beginning the loan or purchase process will be red-flagged as potential defrauders.

Most important of all, keep a close eye on your bank transactions and credit card bills. Some mortgage thieves will “test the waters” by making a smaller purchase initially; if they receive no repercussions, they’ll continue on to their larger scheme, which could ruin your credit and result in legal fees.

Be smart, be alert…and make sure the next mortgage fraud victim isn’t you.

Homeless People Used as Pawns

When Naval Petty Officer and former US Naval payroll clerk Cora Dixon decided that the men and women she worked with were easy pickings for ID theft, she didn’t take into account the government’s fury at someone who would take advantage of the nation’s military.

The Texas woman and five others, including her boyfriend Seneca Wills, rounded up over 70 homeless people, cleaned them up and manufactured false IDs for them, then paid them with drugs to cash check she had forged using the identification she had lifted from records at the Joint Reserve Base in Ft Worth.

Partying Thieves

The ring had spent over a million dollars when one of them was arrested for refusing to move his car from a fire lane. Inside the car, police found various forms of identification. The trail led them to the rest of the gang, which by that time included a former Bank of America teller, one Angel Mitchell, who had been accepting bribes of $100 a pop for accessing accounts for the ring.

RICO Charges?!

This was one of the largest rings ever apprehended in North Texas, and the charges kept pace - instead of the usual allegations of unlawful access and regular ID theft, the charges against Wills and Dixon actually include Organized Crime - which just goes to show you shouldn’t mess with Uncle Sam’s troops.

In all, the identities of over 8,000 servicemen were compromised. Of those, police say over 100 were actually used to cash counterfeit checks and fund the purchase of high-priced cars, bikes and trips; all of the 8,000 have been informed that their information had been compromised so they can take steps to safeguard their identity and credit.

Steps to take once there has been a breach include checking your credit reports, watching for unusual account behavior, and even putting a freeze on your SSN to stop any unlawful activity.

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Perhaps most insultingly of all, the victim may not even know he’s been had until the police come knocking at his door. And to top it all off, his account may have been depleted and his credit ruined.

Surprise!–You’re a Criminal

The St. Paul (MN) Press reported on Oct. 29, 2008 that Beth Ellidge gave police her sister Nicole Beerman’s identity when Beth was arrested on suspicion of auto theft. How did innocent victim Nicole find out? When one of Nicole’s co-workers showed the shocked woman an article about “her” arrest.

Nicole got lucky. According to reports, some individuals are so far as cuffed and brought into custody before they’re able to convince authorities of their innocence. To make matters worse, removing “their” criminal activities from their permanent records can take time and may involve legal fees.

Criminal Mischief

Like Beth Ellidge, some ID criminals know their victims, making the fraud all the easier to pull off. Others are professional identity thieves who obtain their victims’ personal information by a variety of means including ATM “skimming” (reading PIN numbers by use of a tiny electronic device) or “phishing” (via fraudulent e-mails).

Once an ID criminal has your name, PIN number, social security number or any other identification, your identity can be picked like a virtual lock, giving the thief access to everything from your bank account to your public school and employment records.

Protecting Yourself

Because identity theft can occur without you knowing about it until the damage is done, your best line of defense is to keep an eye on your bank account and other information.

Most ID thieves will immediately make approximately a $200-400 purchase on obtaining your information, experts say. These initial robberies are smaller specifically so they’ll be harder to detect, giving the thief a longer period of time to hold onto (and misuse) your identity.

Anti-theft experts advise that you look over your checking and savings accounts about every two weeks. Any suspicious activity at all–even a $20 withdrawal you can’t quite seem to remember–should be reported IMMEDIATELY.

Banking at the same ATM each time will also give you a heads up to possible thievery. Most bank transaction reports show the city and state where the withdrawal was made. A regular combing-over of your expenditures will reveal the new, unknown location and alert you to call your bank to report the activity.

Anti-ID Theft Programs

ID criminals also frequently initiate small to medium-size loans using your information. A credit report will show this. However, the average person only obtains and looks over his or her credit report about once a year, and some view this information even less frequently.

An anti-identity theft program can alert you when a credit report is requested in your name or when a loan is attempted. It can also let you know when unusual situations occur against your bank account or other financial holdings. Consider investing in a good anti-ID theft program to waylay criminals before they can wreak havoc with your reputation and your money.

Combining the above efforts, your chances are better than ever before of protecting yourself now and in the future, experts say.

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A Full Tank…and an Empty Bank Account?

ATM card users have long been advised to shield the key pad any time they input a PIN number to obtain services. Though this method is an important one and can deflect a thief standing just over the user’s shoulder, ID criminals have other ways of stealing your identity.

Using a method known as “skimming,” a criminal can obtain dozens, a hundred or even more PIN numbers in just one day. And perhaps the most frightening part is that the thief doesn’t even have to be in the vicinity to do it. This minimizes some risks to him…and increases the attractiveness of this underhanded method to ID thieves all across the country.

The Sneaky Art of Skimming

Skimming itself isn’t new; it’s been used on ATM bank machines for years. In order to “skim” a machine, the thief attaches a piece made to look like an extension of the insert slot. This magnetic device, also known as a card cleaner, collects the information from the cards. At the end of the day, it’s a simple matter of removing the card cleaner to be read at the thief’s leisure.

What’s new about skimming is the latest innovation in card cleaners: they’re smaller now, making them less detectable (and more sensitive) than ever. Once the information is obtained, a phony card is created for the thief’s use.

Protecting Your ID at the Pump

According to reports, once a relatively isolated issue, skimming at the pump is now moving across the country and poses a significant threat to unsuspecting consumers. But it’s not all bad news. There are steps you can take to minimize the chances of becoming a victim of skimming.

One recommendation is to use the Credit rather than Debit feature when filling your tank. The reason? Thieves are more comfortable using illegally copied cards for debit than credit card purchases. Debits allow immediate access to cash and don’t require a signature, two other reasons they are more attractive to criminals.

If you do want to use a debit card at the gas station, go inside and make the purchase there. Card cleaners are typically attached in an unobtrusive way–an easy task to accomplish outside at the pump, but virtually impossible inside the store without a break-in…something this type of criminal wishes to avoid.

And before inserting your card, gently sweep the insertion area with your pinky. You may be able to feel the presence of a card cleaner (which is typically about the size of a matchbox).

Along with other standard credit and debit card precautions, such as keeping a close eye on your credit reports and shredding documents before recycling them, these ideas can help you stay safe and thwart a thief whose own eye is on your accounts.

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Unfortunately, not all of the licenses from before have expired, and a serious security breach that occurred during the elections in Charlottesville, Virginia could have serious ramifications. Two laptops with personal information such as the names, addresses, birth years and DMV numbers of every registered voter in the city were stolen after the polls closed on election night. This was bad enough, but when the fact that seven out of ten Virginia voters still have their SSN listed as their driver’s license number is considered, the potential for fraud is huge.

Public’s Right To Know?

Charlottesville’s city spokesperson, Ric Barrick, said police told the city to keep matters quiet, stating that it was an ongoing investigation. The city also claimed that no social security numbers were in the records, which are public record. DMV records such as drivers license numbers, however, are NOT public records, and the city’s claim that a scan of the database by the vendor providing the polling equipment reveled no SSNs on the laptops has been viewed with skepticism.

Citizens are outraged by the apparent lack of concern, and the city’s claims are being questioned. The claim that out of 25,000 registered voters, not one still had drivers license with an SSN would be wholly out of line with the stats of the state of Virginia as a whole, and is skeptical at best.

City and Electoral Board Profess Unconcern

The Electoral Board stated that the question was moot, as three levels of passwords would have to be gotten past to access any information off of the records, and that in any case, the data was inaccessible except on Election Day itself; or so they claim the system was set up.

Rick Sincere of the Electoral Board stated that “The most likely scenario is that whoever stole these computers tried to turn them on and realized they were useless and they dumped them somewhere,” which may well be the case but does not excuse the breach of security at whatever level.

Check Your Number!

More cases of ID theft occur in states where SSNs can be lifted easily, and drivers license numbers are often used for all types of records. Don’t have your DL number printed on checks, and guard it as vigilantly as you would your SSN! Most importantly, if you live in a state that formerly used SSNs as drivers license numbers, request yours to be changed if it hasn’t been done already.

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“To Whom it May Concern…”

This was made glaringly apparent in a Letter to Judge Rosenthal from PublicResource.org, which stated that over 1,718 instances of personal identifying information had been discovered in records which had been released for inclusion in Google’s public domain. The 50 years’ worth of Courts of Appeals files from the Department of Immigration and Naturalization contained many instances of ‘Alien Numbers’ (Green Card identifying numbers) being commonly used as docket numbers, especially on older cases and particularly in the Ninth Circuit. In some cases even Social Security Numbers had been used, both in published opinions and appellant briefs.

Sometimes Even the Government Makes Mistakes

The information had not been properly redacted, and had been made available through Google on the internet. The situation was revealed when an individual contacted PublicResource.org stating that their Alien Number had been published on the internet. Further investigation revealed the problem, and steps were taken immediately to scramble the identifiers to prevent ID theft and fraud.

This case simply highlights the fact that anywhere your information is submitted or put on record may not be safe. The courts are required to redact all information that could be used as identification from their records before releasing them and investigations as to why this was not done have been recommended.

Check on Your Own Information Regularly

Be alert! Pay attention to credit reports, your mail and phone calls requesting information. Never give out your information unless it is a mandatory requirement, and make sure you know what a true mandatory requirement is. Don’t simply expect your information to be safe because a government agency requests it - stay vigilant for any activity that seems suspicious.

Google yourself once in a while, and see what comes up. Yeah, I just told you to Google yourself. Welcome to the brave new world!

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E-commerce in Germany is equivalent to that in the UK, which puts paid to Paypal’s suggestion that ID theft “tends to occur in countries where a higher percentage of e-commerce is concentrated”. Why then do the Germans have such a low incidence of ID theft?

Paranoia Reigns

There is no denying that the German government and news media is much more involved in making the public aware of security risks. The new internet browser ‘Chrome’, presented by Google, was banned in Germany due to potential user security issues, and you cannot disable ‘SafeSearch’ in Germany either. The German government is heavily involved in fighting cyber crime, which affects only 3% of German users.

In addition, German internet users don’t share their info as readily, even with spouses or family members. Americans have a tendency to share their password information even with friends. Many Americans and Brits also use too easily hacked passwords, such as DOB, names of pets, or even ‘password’ as their password - even for financial and banking information.

In contrast, Germans are extremely reticent about sharing information, and suspicious of any internet activity that they have not seen certified as safe. They look to their government to regulate much of the allowable internet options, which has led to more internet sites and tools being banned in Germany than any other major European country.

Germany Has a Point

English speakers could learn something from Germany; you don’t have to stop using Chrome or give up buying online, but a few simple steps can help keep your identity safer!

When using social sites, refrain from putting too much personal information out there. When setting passwords, come up with something unique that only you would know - a random combination of letters and numbers is best, and you can even make up a story to help you remember.

This can be absurdly simple, such as 3pgs1wlf (three pigs and one wolf) and can be easy to remember while almost impossible for a hacker to break. Change it often, and monitor all of your accounts to be sure there is no unauthorized activity! We don’t have to be as paranoid as some, but we can take simple steps to protect our identities and our pocketbooks from fraud.

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Find out why the military is the latest target for identity related crimes, and what’s being done about this growing problem.

Targeting the Military

With most professional and medical records now kept on computers and with the preponderance of file-swapping for legitimate purposes, ID fraud is easier than ever for criminals. Networked files in particular are at risk.

But it’s not just the internet that allows criminals to access a military service person’s private information. Since 1969, social security numbers have been used as identification on military records, duffel bags, dog tags and in some cases, even clothing. And once a criminal has your social security number, he’s off and running on a spending spree, taking out fraudulent loans…and ruining your credit.

How it Happens

Officials note that a prime target for identity theft is the currently deployed soldier. Savvy ID thieves know such individuals may not view their own credit reports for a year or even more and take advantage of this lag time, say U.S. Army spokespeople.

In addition, a percentage of military personnel receive an influx of credit card offers which can easily be intercepted and used to the ID thief’s advantage.

Other criminal methods include computer hacking long-distance, and estranged family members who have information on when the victim will be deployed, giving them a window during which to strike.

A Thief’s Way In

Even military personnel who have already been taking steps to protect themselves were in for a shock when, in May 2006, a Veterans Affairs employee in Maryland admitted to routinely taking home his laptop, holding the encrypted data of more than 26 million people. The admission came after his house was burglarized, including the computer.

Veterans Affairs announced a month later that the personal information of more than 50,000 individuals on active duty were included in the stolen information. Though the laptop computer was eventually found, this was far from the first such instance, according to Washington, DC-based EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center).

Fighting Back

There is help to combat ID theft in the military, experts say. In 2004, the U.S. Department of Defense began truncating ID numbers of its personnel by dropping the last five digits, according to a report from www.army.mil.  And eventually every soldier will be issued a new number under the Defense Integrated Military Human Resources System, the report added.

Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that an individual who will be deployed from his or her usual station can place an “active duty alert” as a key ID fraud preventive measure. Placed on the individual’s credit report, the active duty alert requires certain verification steps before credit can be issued.

And USA Today reported last year that ID security company Lifelock can provide free services to military personnel in Iraq or Afghanistan during the time they are deployed there.

FTC Recommendations for Keeping Your ID Safe

Other steps include such commonsense measures as shredding identifying documents when they’re no longer needed, never loaning out credit cards and avoiding passwords that may easily be uncovered (such as one’s maiden name, street name or other identifying information).

Taking a few simple steps can go a long way toward protecting one’s information–and teaching criminals that the old saying is true: You really don’t mess with the U.S. military.

For anti-ID theft information, see www.ftc.gov, as well as this page dedicated to issuing an active duty alert and other recommendations.

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Although 73% of the survey’s respondents said they use the internet for various transactions that include banking and stock trading, almost 60% said their behaviors online have changed due to fear of ID theft. (See this link for more information, including the surveyors’ methodology.)

A few of the findings of the study included:

• 22% of those surveyed reported their identity had been used for such criminal purposes as credit card theft or unauthorized loans.

• 20% said they have limited or halted online purchasing.

• 40% said they will only visit websites they already know.

• 51% rated having $5000 stolen from a credit card or bank account as worse than having $5000 stolen from their homes.

Dangers Still Exist

Despite safety measures such as those reported in the study, Americans may still be in danger of identity theft both online and in realtime, experts say. That’s because although certain precautions are being taken by increasingly savvy consumers, they’re still leaving holes an experienced criminal can reach through to grab a hold of their identity…and their hard-earned cash.

The NCSA survey would seem to bear this out, with 53% of respondents stating they use the same password for multiple online accounts–a no-no when trying to keep one’s identity safe, according to anti-ID theft researchers.

Another potential danger lies in the seemingly innocent practice of storing pictures (which may inadvertently include identifying characteristics such as one’s license plate number, house number and pictures of one’s family). According to the survey, 68% of individuals store more than one-quarter of their pictures this way.

The Old-Fashioned Way

The NCSA survey may have also revealed another hidden danger: some Americans are more afraid of (and more preventative against) online thievery than, for example, home break-ins. (Only thirty-seven percent of those surveyed said $5000 procured by a home break-in would be worse than the same amount of money stolen from a bank account or credit card; 12% were unsure.)

However, despite an alarming increase in recent years in online theft as a whole, many criminals remain old-fashioned, preferring such methods as home break-ins or hold-ups.

Nor does theft (including ID theft) need to be violent or even involve the knowledge of the victim at all. For instance, a credit card application offer hastily thrown away in the trash is fodder for a thief posing as an innocent jogger. And a dropped receipt at the gas station can spell trouble for the in-a-hurry buyer who has just filled up and is late for work.

Staying Aware; Staying Safe

When it comes to protecting your assets, staying aware can make all the difference. A consumer’s best line of defense is to educate him- or herself on the latest inventions among the criminal community and how to outsmart them.

Look over your own online behavior and see whether or not it matches recommendations from today’s security experts. And don’t forget personal space safety (including your home and car). With the most up-to-date information, you just might thwart a thief who has his eye on your savings–and have him thinking twice about trying it the next time.

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