Identify theft: Recent local case
a reminder of continuing problem
August 14, 2015
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
Identity theft continues to be a problem that plagues victims who can find themselves with ruined credit and bills for items they never purchased.
A recent case of identity theft in Santa Paula started with a stolen wallet; although the owner reported the theft to their credit card companies several months later they received a bill for a new card that the victim had never applied for.
Identity thieves, those that actually use another person’s personal information to set up false accounts, are a unique breed that either establishes a new ID rapidly for a quick buying spree, or waits before they strike for more elaborate rip offs.
People have even bought homes using another person’s identity with the victim not being the wiser until the thief—who creates a new address using the stolen identification—stops paying the bills.
Of course people are always at risk of identity thieves that go online often phishing a legitimate bank or credit card company in the hopes that someone will actually forward detailed personal information—optimally their Social Security number—that will allow an existing account to be plundered or a new account created without the victim’s knowledge.
Santa Paula Police Chief Steve McLean said identity is “an emerging crime that is very complex…and one we usually see with the older population.”
The SPPD has been working consulting with the District Attorney’s Office: “They’ve been very good with help and guidance on identity theft as well as other cases of fraud.
Even beyond police experience McLean knows about identity theft.
Several years ago, “I was a victim of an ID theft,” that McLean said he only discovered when he checked his credit report and found a charge for a mobile phone service that had been sent to a collection agency.
“It was,” he noted, “an absolute nightmare…I couldn’t get help from the mobile phone company, they wouldn’t do anything,” and the ding on his credit report remained.
That is until the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office, where McLean was employed as a deputy, contacted the mobile phone carrier.
“They called and said ‘this is fraud and you’d better take it off his credit report.’ They did, but it took a year!”
There are numerous ways thieves obtain information that can be used for identity theft: they steal credit card payments and other outgoing mail from private, curbside mailboxes, dig through garbage cans in search of cancelled checks, credit card and bank statements as well as preapproved credit card offers. They hack into computers that contain personal records and steal the data or file a change of address form in the victim’s name to divert mail and gather personal and financial data.
To guard against identity theft, never give out your Social Security number…consider it confidential information.
Commit all passwords to memory…if you do write them down make sure anyone finding them could not use them, use your own code to identify which account a password belongs to and not the obvious one.
When using an ATM machine, make sure no one is hovering over you and can see you enter your password; while using your debit card at places such as gas stations tug on the card mechanism to make sure it’s not loose, a fake planted by someone recording all the numbers.
If you do lose your wallet don’t stop at calling the credit card companies and banks to cancel the accounts…arrange with the major credit bureaus—Equifax, Experian and Transunion—to lock down your credit so if anyone tries to apply for credit in your name they will be stopped. There is a charge for the service but it’s well worth it.
There are also companies that for a fee regularly monitor your credit and report any unusual activity.
Everyone is entitled to a free credit report each year from each of the bureaus; thereafter it’s not a bad idea and the fee is low to recheck your credit every quarter or so.
