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| Identity theft can happen to anyone |
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| Dan Ehl |
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4/2/2009 - David Bentley, certified identity risk management specialist, says there are a number of major areas that thieves can disastrously affect when stealing your identity - Social Security, driver's license, medical, character and financial identities. And because these frauds are often separated in widely spread jurisdictions, these thieves most likely will never face prosecution.
Bentley is an independent associate for Pre-Paid Legal Services - a 35-year-old company traded on the New York stock Exchange. It is one of several agencies that serve clients worried about joining the millions of people every year who fall victim to identity theft.
Bentley, himself, says he has been victimized twice from the Internet - and once by using the well-known PayPal services. It was these brushes with the crime that led him toward goal of sharing this information with the public.
But it doesn't take being a person who is active in electronic financial systems to have their identity stolen and exploited. Even a member of the Amish community could fall prey to the numerous scams.
"All it takes is a name, Social Security number and/or birthdate to create credit cards in another person's name," said Bentley.
These thieves could then reap thousands of dollars in ill-gotten gains in less that an hour. Bentley added that it might take months before the victim becomes aware of the rip-off.
"To victims of identity theft and fraud, the task of correcting incorrect information about their financial or personal status, and trying to restore their good names and reputations, may seem as daunting as trying to solve a puzzle in which some of the pieces are missing and other pieces no longer fit as they once did," notes the U.S. Department of Justice's website on identity theft. "Unfortunately, the damage that criminals do in stealing another person's identity and using it to commit fraud often takes far longer to undo than it took the criminal to commit the crimes."
Pre-Paid Legal Services has a product aimed to being proactive toward identify theft, he said. It includes a free credit report, continuous monitoring of a client's credit file that will reveal activity to their credit report, even if initiated by the client, and restoration.
The identity restoration services his organization provides includes having attorneys and licensed investigators on retainer who will correct damage caused by identity thieves and restore the victim to where they were before the crime. They work with government and law enforcement agencies, as well as affected companies and agencies
Bentley asks you to imagine the FBI coming to your door one day with an arrest warrant for operating an illegal porno site because someone has stolen your identity. He says it has happened and gives an example of a teacher in Florida who after a background check, was found to have three false arrests for prostitution on her record. Because of this, she wasn't allowed to teach.
Normally, he said, this would take hundreds of person hours and thousands of dollars in attorney fees to clear up the crime.
Bentley said his company has had clients stopped for routine traffic stops, and because their identity had been stolen by someone with a bad-driving record, found themselves taken to jail.
State and federal agencies are trying to address some of these problems.
Iowa Senate Study Bill 1266 would create a "one-stop shop" for Iowans who have criminal traffic records created by criminals who have stolen their identities. Under the present system it is very difficult for victims to have their records cleared.
To settle even one false traffic ticket, an Iowa victim currently would have to hire an attorney and go before the courts in all 99 counties. Under the proposed bill, the Iowa Department of Transportation would investigate whether the fraud occurred, then issue a decision that would only have to be taken to one court to have the record cleared statewide.
Bentley said a growing problem is that of medical identity theft. According to federal officials, most of the time this is done by gangs that use crooked health providers to fraudulently bill insurers for services never performed. More rare is when individuals steal a medical identity for treatment they might otherwise not have been able to afford.
Beginning this spring, new federal safeguards will be required of health care providers to deal with identity theft. Federal regulators say that this will not only help control rising medical costs, but also protect against having false information added to medical records that could prove fatal.
The measures would include screening new patients and contacting victims to ensure their records are accurate.
A common identity theft involves illegal aliens using a legal resident's Social Security number so they can be employed. Bentley said that while some might think this only results in more money going into a real holder's Social Security account, it could also result in the Internal Revenue Service penalizing the victim for not filing the additional income on their returns.
Bentley told of an article in a local newspaper last year where a woman in California had her Social Security number used in 13 states by 87 different people. She did not discover her identity theft until the IRS sent her a bill for unpaid taxes and penalties.
A case now before the U.S. Supreme Court is challenging the Bush Administration's use of a law meant to normally punish criminals who use identity theft to steal from a bank account or credit cards.
After a raid last year on a packing plant, two-thirds of the illegal aliens were charged with aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory two-year prison term. The U.S. government uses the charges as a bargaining chip - they will be dropped if the illegal aliens plead guilty to a lesser charge and agree to be deported without a hearing.
The question before the Supreme Court is - can the law be used when the person using the Social Security number did not know if it belonged to a real person? Defense attorneys and privacy experts argue the federal statute only applies when the stolen information is used to steal from bank accounts and incur bills in other people's names - not for illegal aliens who use stolen identities to find work.
Criminals involved with identity theft can victimize someone in Iowa from any country in the world. He said his organization uses the services of Kroll Worldwide, a data security and breach recovery solution provider that employs licensed investigators around the world. He said that Kroll was asked by the Kuwaiti government to find Saddam Hussein's assets and did so before he was found.
Identity theft is becoming the fastest growing white-collar crime and is affecting more and more Americans every day, which make this 400-year, quote even more relevant:
"But he that filches from me my good name/Robs me of that which not enriches him/And makes me poor indeed." - Shakespeare, Othello, act iii. Sc. 3. |
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