An identity Theft Public Service Resource Page

We welcome additional information about how people can protect their identity and their email address from being stolen by crooks and email spammers. Please send your suggestions to Vernon Jacobs by email

Identity theft is one of the safest of crimes for serious criminals. The victim normally experiences a huge amount of frustration and inconvenience, but the use of credit cards by a thief usually results in losses for the businesses that accept the cards or by the credit card company. So the victim suffers a non financial loss in the form of getting a bad credit rating or sometimes having their name used by a criminal. 

A story in Medical Economics (2/19/01 - www.medmag.com) described how identity thieves will cruise a neighborhood looking for outgoing mail in a mailbox. They will steal your mail because it often includes a signed check in payment of a credit card account. Or they will steal your wallet or break into your home to search through your financial records. Some thieves will rummage through your trash -- which I'm told is not illegal. With little more than your name and address, they can file a change of address at your post office and then all of your mail is forwarded to their address. Or they can be more selective and just file a change of address notification with your credit card companies. 

An article in The January, 2002 issue of the ABA (American Bar Ass'n) Journal (page 66), stated that,

"For a quarter, Oklahoma City attorney Brian P. Zerbe can find a person's Social Security number, addresses for the past 20 years, date of birth and phone number. For $5.50 more he can learn the names of the person's relatives, neighbors and lease partners." 

Some of the more aggressive thieves will apply for a driver's license in your name (but with their picture) by claiming that the license was lost. With a drivers license and your social security number, they can then apply for new credit cards in your name. 

An extensive three part article on identity theft also appeared in the Nov/Dec, 2000 issue of The Bull & Bear (an investment newspaper). They point out that the theft of your identity is rarely discovered until someone has already ruined your credit or even committed a crime using your name. The credit bureaus will report adverse information to potential creditors without your knowledge, and you can be left wondering why you have been turned down for a loan request or even for a job. ( http://www.thebullandbear.com/ )

Rep. Ron Paul has introduced a bill to prevent a lot of the identity theft problems by prohibiting the government from using the Social Security number as a general purpose national I.D. number. For details on the proposal, see http://capwiz.com/liberty/issues/bills/?bill=29967 

However, a U.S. Supreme Court decision (TRW v. Andrews, No. 00-1045) was reported by the ABA Journal (Feb/2002 - pg 24) as making it more difficult for "... victims of identity theft to sue the major credit reporting bureaus for mistakes that allow imposters to steal their good credit." Apparently a lawsuit must be filed within two years of when the mistake was made, even if the victim didn't learn about the mistake before it was too late to sue.

On a more personal note, a close friend of mine has been struggling to get the three major credit reporting agencies to even talk to her about mistakes with her credit file. Her mother (now deceased) had very bad credit and my friend has a clean credit record. However, they lived together until the mother died and they have the same initials and the same last name. The credit agencies have included the bad credit information for her mother as part of her credit file. In checking my own credit and discovering a minor mistake in my address in the credit files, I was not able to get in touch with the credit agencies by phone or by email or via their web sites. Nor could my friend get in touch with them. If anyone knows how to get through their extensive barriers, I would welcome the information and will put it on this web site. 

For more information on this subject and how to protect yourself, visit these web sites. 

• http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/idtheft.htm 
• http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/ 
• http://www.fdic.gov/consumers/consumer/information/index.html 

However, my friend called the local office of the U.S. attorney general and was informed that there is no provision in the applicable law for the government to intervene in the case of mistakes -- except by filing a class action lawsuit. So if you can get any useful help from these government web sites, more power to you.

Problems like credit card theft become a lot more real when they affect you. My wife has a company credit card that she uses to purchase certain office supplies and some services. Recently, while she was on a few days of vacation, my wife's employer discovered that her company purchasing card had been used to purchase the use of a stretch limo, to gamble at a local casino, to purchase some hotel accommodations and an assortment of other travel type expenses. But -- her card does not permit this kind of purchase, which means the merchants did not attempt to get authorization when the card was used -- over the phone. When the company called to ask her if her card had been lost, she found it was still in her purse. The unauthorized use of her card had been accomplished without actually having possession of her card. We still don't know who did this or how, but it seems that it must have been the result of giving the credit card number to one of the companies with whom my wife's company does business on a regular basis. Her company is still investigating, but it's more than a little disconcerting to discover that such things really do happen.

If you are a credit card merchant, you might think about verifying phone-in orders before you provide the services or products. It seems likely that the merchants will bear this loss rather than the card company (AMEX) because it is a limited use card and the merchants obviously did not get advance approval for phone-in orders.  (GAP 2007)

I would welcome any suggestions from anyone about other online information sources on how to protect against credit identity theft.  Please let me know by sending an email

I will post any useful information I acquire on this subject on my web site at www.offshorepress.com/identity-theft.htm 

Feel free to reprint this or to forward it to anyone. 

Vern Jacobs, CPA
www.offshorepress.com/identity-theft.htm
www.vernonjacobs.com 
                       
Vernon Jacobs
President
Offshore Press, Inc.
P.O. Box 8194
Prairie Village, KS   66208 
Phone : 913-362-9667 
Fax : 913-362-9667