Letters from NYC

Personal Identity Theft

A recent Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report indicated there were 10 million cases of identity theft in 2004. In 1993 I became a victim and only discovered it in 1998 when the IRS began a multi year audit of my taxes. This audit lasted several years and only ended recently in my favor because of my meticulous accounting and record keeping. I was able to prove that in those years I lived, studied and worked only in New York and not in Florida at the same time. I was lucky, I’ve read of cases where victims have: lost job opportunities, been refused loans, been barred from educational institutions, rejected for housing, and have even been arrested for crimes they didn't commit.

Today it almost happened again. I was purchasing an item in a store with a credit card and the cashier, after swiping my card on the register began to walk away with my card from the register and was about to put it in her pocket. When I called her back and asked her to return my card or to at hold it while she was in front of me she made some lame excuse about needing to swipe it on a different machine instead because her register wasn’t working. Just then the authorization came through on my charge. Something as simple as a small credit card scanner could have been hidden in her pocket, which captures the personal info from the magnetic strip on my credit card. This can happen anywhere a credit card or debit card is accepted: restaurants, malls, gas stations, bookstores and your local convenience store. It’s not just the companies like Citibank and Wells Fargo losing your information.

Here’s some ways identity theft can happen?
• Purse snatching - A thief steals your wallet or purse containing your personal information, credit and bankcards.
• Mail theft - Thieves steal bank and credit card statements, pre-approved credit offers, telephone calling cards and tax information from your mailbox.
• Change of address - Thieves divert your mail to another location.
• Dumpster diving - Thieves rummage through residential or business trash, looking for personal information.
• Masquerading - Thieves fraudulently pose as your landlord or banker or someone else with a legitimate need for your personal information.
• Stealing work records - Thieves get your business or personnel records at work.
• Home theft - Thieves find personal information in your home. They can be either guest, workers, visitors or posing as sales people or lost individuals.
• Internet theft - Thieves obtain personal information from unsecured Web sites that you may have visited or through Phishing and Pharming techniques. More about these 2 tomorrow.
• Insider crime - People who have access to personal identifying information such as bank or financial institutions employees and steal id’s to sell or use it themselves.
• Pretexting - Thieves pretend to be you or a legitimate requestor and persuade business employees to provide them with your personal information.
• Corporate espionage - Thieves steal business secrets or data which encompasses employee and client information.

Because this is such a huge topic, and one which Congress and many states are dragging their feet on, I decided precipitated by today’s events, that I would make others aware of this potential danger by doing a sort of installment on this topic broken down in segments. My next post will deal exclusively with cyber identity theft, specifically Phishing and Pharming. I will also show, with the permission of a few of my kind family members as guinea pigs, how easy it is for a thief or a stalker to obtain a information on them without their knowledge or consent. I will also show everyone how to protect themselves from this type of crime and those who commit them. Sorry, no fun post, it was a weary day!