http://www.physorg.com/news67622520.html

It seems very likely that Indiana University law professor Fred H. Cate has never experienced identity theft. I have heard from and read of people who have had there identity stolen. Some have spent a thousand or more dollars trying to get their credit straightened out following credit cards and houses being bought by identity thieves.

Boo to Professor Cate.

CC, beware the snippets.

This is part of what I do for a living (work with computer systems that are used to detect fraud, including identity theft)

Note what Cate said:

"The real danger," according to Cate, "is that we become so focused on activities that don't pose a real risk to consumers, that we ignore those that do."

From what I know, these losses of data (computer files etc) that he was referring to, don't result in identity theft.

Virtually all the cases of Id theft I've seen were the result of INSIDERS or Dumpster Divers, with the latter being the MAIN source of info.

Watch what you throw away and where you throw it away.

A shredder for personal papers is worth the small investment.

Arthur

Mine was stolen.. what they did was beyond comprehension, they (a husband and wife) spent almost 40K in two weeks, including a trip to Vegas.. I bet you think I am kidding, I am not.. and it gets FAR worse.. when I found it what was going on I notified the police, there response was "we'll send somebody to take a report".. after the FOURTH day of me listening to them tell me "we'll send somebody, your case has be referred to defectives" (did I spell that right?, Dont worry Sacramento Sheriffs Office I wont mention any names) or how your office requested I not have the the cards locked so that your office could track the people using them.. I was tracking the charges and found there was a rather large order from Tiger Direct in transit with UPS and the order was going to a address in the Sacramento area.. once again I notified the police as to what was happening, at which point I was promptly told "let us handle it, and you stay out of it".

Well Sacramento Sheriffs office STILL never showed up, I called UPS and go the delivery time, and when the package showed up at the door.. so did I, a rather large fight ensued, and I was arrested for assault.. the arresting officers did not believe me about what had been going on, and called me a liar about no one responding for almost a week in regards to my complaints of my identity and credit being used.

While in transit to the jail a detective heard what I had claimed and met the arresting officer and me at the jail intake.. he told the arresting officer that what I had told him was true, and I was released. Meanwhile the guy who stole my identity was getting a few stitches as he was taken to local by the ambulance to the local hospital.. THEY NEVER WENT AND GOT HIM.. to this day, 4 years later, he has not been arrested, there is video of him and his wife together using my ID to shop till they dropped, UPS and Fed Ex making almost daily drops at their house in my name..

The ONLY satisfaction I walked away from this with was during the fight we destroyed most of their living room and kitchen.. other than that there is none to be found anywhere.. I still have charges made by those two, that is on my credit, it wont get removed without a attorney.. some were sent to collections, I had 2 people try to sue me over the money owed as they did not believe it was me, and the interesting thing the credit card company didn't believe me either about how the police requested to not have the cards locked, (no worries Chase I wont mention any names) until the police report was sent SEVERAL times to their attorneys, the police dept, was also not willing to call Chase and tell them that they had requested I not have the cards locked, and that the police also told me they would call Chase Bank, no surprise, they never did, and said they couldnt when I requested they do so..

It is my opinion that ID theft is not the problem.. the real problem, much like car theft, its not taken serious, you have credit companies who are for the most part unresponsive, police who are totally apathetic at best.. I wonder why identity theft is not a bigger problem.. why rob a 7-11 for 80 bucks, and spend 8 to 25 in prison, when you can rob someone else for 1000s and just walk away from it when that name had been used up..

Sad story but not even knowing Archer I know that his story rings true.

In the Check Fraud business one of the features we had to add was the ability for banks to share info on fraudsters. The banks had to lump their losses on the same individual to get the losses to the levels the police cared about. But, it turns out the police aren't totally the bad guys in the story as it would appear, actually it all starts with the DA. Ok, the police ARE apathetic, but that's mostly because the DA won't prosecute unless the amounts get really big (typically > $10,000), thus the cops have little incentive to even arrest someone the DA is going to let walk anyway. (not that its TOTALLY the DAs fault either, they have limited manpower, budgets and priorities as well)

The point is, if its JUST a monetary crime, you live in a CITY and the amount is < $10,000 you are pretty much on your own, regardless of what the police tell you.

What Archer didn't mention, but is also part of the story, is HE now has to prove HE IS INNOCENT.

Unlike an actual defendent in a trial, Archer has no piece of paper saying "it wasn't me who did those things"

Archer, how did they "steal" your identity? Do you know?

Arthur

Yep actually I do.. the husband and wife team that was using my ID and credit.. his mother worked for Lucent Technologies.. turns out they were doing some upgrades on various financial systems.. one of them mine.

Your call... I have made mine, mom is the ID finder, and the son and daughter in law are the end users,.. and btw, mom lived next door to the son, and was the one who tried very hard to have charges pressed for assault against me, and she is the same one who refused to answer any questions about her job, then lawyer-ed up when she was questioned about her activities within Lucent, I had heard from a friend she took a early retirement shortly there after.

Arthur you are right on target about me having to prove who I am now.. it's funny if the guy who was claiming to be me had to jump though the loops and provide the proof I do when I do something now.. he could have never pulled it off to the level he did, and you are also correct about the problem being at the D.A. level and not prosecuting those who do this.. you are forced to wonder if it was their ID and credit being destroyed in the process.. would they still have the same apathy they do with everyone else?

Archer, that is a terrible horrible story! I'm really sorry to hear about it.

Don't get mad, you can do something about this, even now.

While this is unrelated, the fact that you had the names and address of the criminals makes me think of something from years ago. I owned some real estate and one of the tenants gave me 2 bad checks in a row for rent. The accounts were closed and I racked up several bounced check charges in addition, before I filed for eviction.

I wrote a letter to the local DA's office, with copies of the 2 checks. Neither check was particularly large, but I felt this woman was not only defrauding me, but likely many others as well. She ended up moving before the eviction could proceed and I forgot about it.

Months later, I got a call from the DA's office telling me she had been arrested, and that if she paid in full for the bad checks, she'd be released with charges dropped. I drove over to her new residence, and she gave me cash to cover both checks and the bounced check charges. Apparently, at the DA's office, only my letter was prosecuted and after she paid me, her charges were dropped.

The point of this is, if you write a letter to your local DA's office directly, clearly laying out the facts of your situation, with supporting documentation and helpfully, the law the people broke (cite your state statutes). The easier you make their case, the more likely they will respond.

From what you are saying, and how it angers you, it's probable that the statues of limitation has not run out (typically 7 years).

While there may not be a specific 'identity theft' clause in the California state statues, there is certainly something there that relates to theft and misuse of credit cards.

This will take you maybe an hour... here is the site to do your own search for statutes relevant to your situation for the State of California: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/statute.html

When I typed in the 'search' terms: Identity Theft
I came up with 1050 statutes pertaining, but most are not relevant to identity theft of credit cards. I randomly clicked on 2 of the statutes, and here's one that relates to yours (you will have to scan the rest to find other relevant statutes, but no one says you have to read them all, just scan the top 2 paragraphs and if they don't, move on): http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate...action=retrieve

I'd also search under the terms 'Credit Card'.

What I would write in your letter to your DA is how much pain and suffering you suffered from this situation, how in helping you, they are showing their proactivity in pursuing cases such as this which are becoming more widespread by the day.

Then, send copies of the 1. initial police report detailing your complaint, but most importantly the timeline. All copies of your interactions with the local police dept. 2. all copies of credit card receipts thereafter that were fraudulent. 3. details about how you traced those to the perpetrators. 4. the California statues that are relevant to your particular case to assist in prosecution.

This won't cost you anything for attorney fees, and looking up statutes and detailing the chronology and evidence of the crimes are all the prosecutors do.

Your letter also serves as a deposition stating how violated you felt and how you have actually FOUND the guilty parties, how you know they are guilty, and who have probably already moved on to another victim. If you have done their homework for them, prosecution is much easier.

Then, I'd make sure they knew that you also sent copies of the packet to at least 5 local media stations. If they don't take action, then someone will write a story about how devastating this is to people and their lives... and how the DA in Sacramento ignores these issues, even with EVERYTHING required to prosecute handed to them.

The District Attorney is an elected position... if the $35,000/year assistant prosecutors ignore well publicized cases completely... guess who's getting fired? There's no assistant DA alive who wouldn't like to take on a well documented high profile case which would be a career booster. But ignoring a case like this, with a clear culprit and victim, especially if you got some press, would be career suicide.

The police have to send the documents to the DA's office. The high profile crimes such as murder, rape, arson, kidnapping definitely are going to get more attention that a low profile identity theft case. But in your case, you know who the thieves are. It's the perfect time for California to show that they're going to do something about this kind of thing, since it's more and more becoming a voter issue.

Don't let this go. There's no reason for you to be the one suffering while the thieves laugh. $40,000 could well ruin a struggling family, and the bad credit could prevent them from ever owning a home. Today it's you, who will these same people prey upon tomorrow?

The entire process, if you move quickly in an organized way would take you a day or 2. For the pain and suffering you've already endured, for helping someone who may be the next victim, to publicize what could be done about this issue that has been high profile in the US for some time now (the reporters will LOVE this, if the DA doesn't help, I'd be willing to bet that the LA Times would). At the least, try.

Professor Cate's kind of reckless reporting on identity theft is what provides the incentive for ID thieves to escalate their efforts, and encourage apathy in the American public over this issue. I would hardly consider almost 9 million victims and $56.6 billion lost in 2005, $6,383 per fraud victim, as representing an "overblown" reaction.

I believe George Orwell predicted the data breaches of 2005, as well as the iron fist control that now exists over our private lives. 1984 is about a totalitarian state where every aspect of public and private behavior is regulated. We certainly aren’t at that point, but the control over our names and personal data by business and government has set the stage for the next step. As Erich Fromm wrote in the book’s “Afterword,” Orwell warns us that, unless drastic changes are made, people will become “soulless automatons.” If you look closely at Orwell’s “Party” in 1984, as the representation of the all-powerful force that controls every aspect of the people of the fictional country of Oceania, it is easy to draw a comparison with the situation today, where our private information is under the exclusive control of government agencies and business.

There is only one way to protect the use of consumers’ names and personal data. Pass federal legislation to give the individual control over this private information, and, while we’re at it, pay them for its use. You can read about it in my blog, The Dunning Letter at: http://thedunningletter.blogspot.com/2006/...-your-name.html

Jack E. Dunning
Cave Creek, AZ

I've been a victim of identity theft myself, and it sure was a horror story, no quotes. This professor does not know what he is talking about, not a bit - "activities that don't pose a real risk to consumers"....how come?

--------------------------

Charlie - www.CharliesIdentityTheftBlog.com

It is a flaw in the system, you don't pay attention to the smallest things, and it is those things that can cause the greatest of harm.

Me personally i'm a pack-rat i make sure EVERYTHING is consolidated, checked (30 times or more), and updated regularly.
Now i'm not paranoid but it's how i was raised to be.

Archer,
I am amazed that i came across your story on this website. I am currently dealing with the exact same thing, involving the exact same creditors and agencies you mentioned. I was actually on line looking to see if any California law, allowed me as a victim to force prosecution of those responsible. Only in my case one of those responsible is an informant for the police, who happens to also be on parole, so in exchange for his snitching for them, he is allowed to steal from hard working people like myself.
Please contact me. I am trying to find an attorney and after we get those arrested that should be, not those of us that did what the police wouldn't do, (I too went after the people and was detained for "trespassing") after words i would;d like to find other like us who have had the displeasure of having to deal with Chase bank. Despite all paperwork supplied and both federal and state laws in place to protect victims of identity theft, have continued to report debt as charge off and sell or transfer to third party collections. They need to be liable and accountable for there actions.
This crime hits on so many levels and it just doesn't stop. The victim becomes the detective, the expert, and is left to seek his own justice since the system will not provide it. But its funny, if i "assault" the person that stole $35000 in my name and caused me to have two arrest warrants (rented/stole 4 vehicles in my name) the police will jump on prosecuting me. I don't have time for new legislation, and the law only works if you are rich enough to be able to afford an attorney to fight on your behalf. without that, we are left to deal. Right now, I'm willing to do the time for assault. Better than the thought of them being seen on tape and walking away

My daughter just had a run in with a company that is threatening to sue her. She was a victim of ID theft. She reported it to the 3 credit places and they put a block on her name and social, in case someone tries this again. The person who stole her ID lives in another state. My daughter was only 17 when the theft happened. She was in high school, and lived with me. This company is now threatening to sue her, because she didn't provide proof it was not her. She has spoke with them twice on the phone, she called them trying to resolve it. Any suggestions? is it to late to file a police report? and where do you file it, with your county or the other state? any feedback will help
Sereniti

Having your ID stolen is the worse non-physical crime/felony that can happen to you. Lives can be destroyed!!!!! Mine was thrown into chaos!

I do a lot of shopping, banking, bill paying, and gambling (maybe that's what I get, but I figure I lose enough money there, why should a thief have it???) online and you can't believe how easy it was for my information to get phished. It's pretty ridiculous!

I heard about Lifelock on my XM radio and signed up. It's a pretty easy way to prevent all that bullshit you've got to go through. Believe me! It's worth it!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For normal people, or companies. They even have schools. Besides, they've got million dollar guarantee www.lifelock.com/our-guarantee.aspx ... not that I'm worth that much.

I.D. theft is very real, and often very costly. I helped design early fingerprint-optical technology. That was in the mid-1980's. Assume one can not have a biometric reader at the merchant of your choice. Ask them why, there not that expensive now. Not even getting to that point remember when one uses the net we "all know who you are, if we care". Invest in a cheap shredder before you put that financial statement in the trash, or any thing that I.D.'s you. Destroy financial statements. Keep the ones you need ( for the IRS, etc) in a bank deposit box etc.

In this age of the Internet, dumpster diving remains a time proven technique of information retrieval. Lets assume you don't care about financial stuff, but a psychological profile? All though more time consuming, I can learn a great deal about some one by seeing what magazines or any thing else one buys or subscribes to. I am strongly opposed to any government -and-semi government group( hired guns) finding out what books you read/check out. There many who disagree with me. Don't answer phone surveys, or agree to an unsolicited purchase over the net/phone. ( Along with a few others the survey people may now hate me, take a number...)

I am not mentioning my companies name because I'm not trying to sell anything, at least not in this format.

They attacked me once. That was about the time it stopped.... Through Chase anyway...

Whenever you give your computer for repairs be VERY sure for no leakage of old details. Like Geeksquad has been caught red handed many times, the guys spend hours low level drive scanning for pictures, videos and personal information.

You also have identity theft through online.
My home computer network of 5 systems was hacked a year ago and some family and personal pictures were stolen. I was using a port snooper and keylogger (which is typically used by spyware) to see who was prying into my computers and that's how I realized, or the hardware firewall, software firewall, anti-spyware and anti-virus had absolutely no clue. My bank account details were also stolen at the time, my ISP data, and some recent transactional and financial databases I had saved.

Later on the same year I casually visited MySpace, Hi5, Bebo, Friendster and some forums finding more than 16 people using my DOB, my real name, surname, family photos and my own photos from youth to 2 years ago as their own. Even my house, my cars (I used to trade), my fiancée and my computer system setup pictures. Thankfully I had changed all my financial details in a scare within a week but one credit card had already lost $4160.

You know what the worst part of that was? The bank manager said "according to our records, you walked in yourself and took all the money out after arrangement". That was so stupidly fabricated, as I was 400 miles away which everyone who knew me could attest to. Every time I asked for a CCTV re-run to prove it was not me, they ignored it or said "they'll try" but it never happened until 9 months afterwards.

One of the guys using my identity we (the police) caught from Victoria, Australia posing as me was helping people on Yahoo Answers and the like. Many times he was elevated as Moderator of webforums. He was your usual sick twisted man behind the internet masquerade and spending hours on it daily; a predator of girls. He would be nice to them, give them advice on many forums, build relationships, slowly gather a good standing of trust and favoritism where-after he would slowly attract them into arranging a visit or gathering details and doing his scummy stuff through the many ways you can which all mean taking advantage of the weak and vulnerable. He was caught at Perth, AUS airport with a 14 year girl he enticed to run away with him to Thailand by making her develop a crush on him (using my pictures as himself), speaking filthy and basically controlling how she thinks using online psychology courses for his techniques, while she was suffering from an abusive house life so extremely vulnerable. When the girl saw me at the airport with the police, she was absolutely devastated that the old man she'd been lured by was not me but some sick pervert actor.

The biggest harm was done to my 6 year long relationship with the most dearest woman to me in the world. Something built on pure trust and love. Every time she'd hear or see my pictures and/or information here and there around online her family, friends and close ones would swear that it was me and to stay away from me, while it was someone else posing completely and this made us break apart at least 8 times in those months (the "supposed me" found on dating sites, gay sites, adult sites and on and on) because everyone else would convince her that "I'm taking her for a ride" while that was completely untrue. I had to go through weeks and weeks of proving my identity everywhere I went. Luckily, in the end (July 2007) it all went aright.

This is how they take advantage of technological loopholes. Technology has thousands of loopholes when you open it up to all good and bad alike. I help people in this day in day out since 1999 and it is a very real and emerging threat.

Archer: Oddly enough my incidence took place in good ol' Cali, Sacramento too. I ran away from it pretty soon after though.

even "kevin mitnick" worlds best hacker got owned recently meaning his website was defaced.

Now if im a clever guy (need to be clever to be a hacker) and lets say im in an identity fraud gang (im not). Then I would hang around science forums as this is where cleaver people hang out - cleaver people earn more money and get interlectual property that is worth lots or money. I would read patent publications which need to Ihave real names on. Even addresses!!!!!

Now if I was very cleaver and found say interlectual property worth millions I would kill the person I have just become so that I can sell there interlectual property.

or I might get a load of child porn bung it on your computer and blackmail you as I could make it look like you got it. Even if you are totally innocent of this child porn offence you would not even go to the police because would you really give someone the bennifit of the doubt when it comes to child porn. I dont think you would.

this is of couse just two examples.

Now if "kevin mitnick" got owned then there is no such thing as security.

sorry to scare you. Im not a hacker or in an identity fraud gang.

Hm. More info about Kevin Mitnick search in google.com

"The risk to consumers of most breaches is not as great as popular rhetoric suggests, and only a small percentage of breaches actually involve any harmful use of data," he said. "There is plenty of reason to be concerned about data security breaches and about identity theft, but the link between the two is often overblown by politicians and the press."

First question...Is our money considered data?

When these identity thieves took my money from three bank accounts, in a row, (consecutively) I finally left the bank.

Even though Washington Mutual gave nearly almost all of it back to me...after I complained and reversed the charges associated with overdrafts, and even though I closed each account and opened one with different pass-codes, the second and third account were breached.

How do they do it. I understand the first account being breached but then two more. I stopped inputting any bank cards numbers or codes into my computer...no more using paypal or e- bay purchases...no more buying over the net, and still....

When I was sure I was not going to be hacked again (never be very secure on this one) they just got into my myspace account and sent out advertising under my guise. (how did they get my bizarre password?)

anyone?
~*~