It’s identity theft season
Did you know that identity theft is currently the fastest growing financial crime in the United States? With the holiday shopping season upon us, your risk of becoming a victim of identity theft will increase. The number of people who have become victims of identity theft is increasing by 30% each year; in 2002 the number of new victims was 900,000. Experts have estimated that in 2005 the number of new victims exceeded 1.5 million.
How does identity theft occur?
Identity theft occurs when someone has acquired your Social Security number, credit card number, bank account number, or other personally identifiable information. The people who obtain this information use it to commit fraud and other crimes. There are numerous ways to collect such sensitive information from an individual. Some ways to achieve this is by collecting your sensitive information through unsecured gateways that exist on the Internet.
Others obtain the information through public records, social engineering (tricking a person into providing the information), or stealing commercial information. There are some who use old school methods to collect the same sensitive information. They do this by examining mailboxes, stealing wallets and purses, and rummaging through trash. The average cost for an identity theft victim is investing 175 hours of their time over two years and out-of-pocket costs of between $800 and $1,700 to repair the damage. This does not consider the cost of losing the good name and the feeling of well-being.
the underground ring
I recently attended a security conference that had a speaker who specialized in identity theft cases. This real life scenario happened to a man in Canada: A man went to the liquor store to buy some bottles of wine for a dinner he and his wife were hosting that night. When the man went to the counter, he paid for the bottles of wine with his credit card. The cashier behind the counter pointed to a screen behind the man and said, “Did you see our wine that’s on sale?” As the man turned to look at the screen, the teller took the card from him and slid it into a small device the teller wore on his hip. This device captures credit card information and will retain information for up to 20 credit cards. The man signed for his purchase and went home without waiting a week later to discover that he was deeply in debt.
What happens next is incredible. The teller calls a contact in California and reads all the credit card numbers she managed to collect on her shift. The contact in California then forwards the information to a mafia group in Malaysia. The mafia then sells the information to another mafia group in Taiwan who create authentic duplicate credit cards; all of this is done within 24 hours of the credit card information being stolen.
The group then sends a man out with a cellophane pack of cigarettes, only the pack contains no cigarettes, it contains 25 replicated plastic credit cards. This man then travels to Sicily to sell the replicated credit cards to another group. The Sicilian group travels to London and buys merchandise at a very luxurious department store with the credit cards that were replicated. Once the items are purchased, another organized crime unit takes them in a truck and drives them to Red Square in Moscow and sells them at discounted prices. Now fraud can’t be traced and cash can’t be traced. This entire scenario was a real event that happened in the past and is probably still happening today. This process took a total of 72 hours from the moment the credit card number was stolen to the moment the goods were sold on Red Square. The goal of this story is to convey the level of organization within criminal gangs that victims of identity theft face and why it is important to take steps to prevent it from becoming a statistic.
Identity Theft Prevention
Below are precautions you should take to avoid becoming a victim of identity theft.
- Do not include your Social Security number, driver’s license number, or other unnecessary information on checks. Rather, include your home phone number in case a cashier is suspicious of a check so they can call you to verify the legitimacy of the check.
- Request a copy of your credit report from each of the three credit bureaus at least once a year.
- Sign up for a service from a reputable company that provides check monitoring/check order detection.
- Ask your financial institution if it participates in a program that combats document check fraud.
- Shred all documents that could be used to replicate your identity. Including those credit card applications you throw away without even opening them.
- Do not leave confidential mail in your mailbox.
- Remove credit card numbers from receipts submitted for rebate offers.
- Do not carry your Social Security card or birth certificate with you.
- Examine account statements for unauthorized charges.
- Pay attention to the billing cycles for missing invoices.
The following numbers may be helpful in obtaining your credit report or reporting fraud. If you report an identity theft case to one of the following credit reporting agencies, the other two will be notified automatically.
experience
Request a credit report:
1-800-685-1111
Report fraud:
1-800-525-6285
equifax
Request a credit report:
1-800-685-1111
Report fraud:
1-800-525-6285
federal transunion
Request a credit report:
1-800-916-8800
Report fraud:
1-800-680-7289
Federal Trade Commission
1-877-438-4338