Keeping your identity
Identity theft pays well. And it’s easy when people don’t protect themselves. Thieves can get their hands on thousands of dollars within minutes of stealing a person’s mail, purse, wallet, checks, credit cards or all of the above. Crooks, often pursuing their next drug fix, will pick through the trash to find sales receipts and discarded credit card offers; fill out change of address forms at a post office and reroute mail to their address or a post office box; or solicit personal information via telephone or Internet.
If a Social Security card or a driver’s license are stolen, the result for a victim can be a poor credit score, not getting hired for a job or the temporary destruction of the dream of buying a home.
“It’s best to be on the offense when it comes to identity theft, than to have to deal with it when you become a victim,” Spokane Valley resident Shelly Renz said.
The 48-year-old owns a private investigation firm, Verus Research, which mainly does background checks for employment and potential renters, and includes verifying Social Security numbers. She knows all too well how common identity theft is and how it can hurt a person’s reputation.
“Over half the people we check for a temp service in Little Rock, Ark., don’t have their own Social Security number,” Renz said. “They’ve purchased the number, which was easy to get. The people who are selling the Social Security numbers are using the numbers of young kids. They are intelligent, and are taking advantage of foreigners and making a lot of money.”
Renz’s son was recently a victim of identity theft. The 20-year-old’s name and Social Security number, along with several others’, were stolen from a personnel file at American Eagle, where he worked.
The mother of five said she checks the numbers of all her kids, and herself, for activity, which is an advantage she has over most people because of her business. However, that edge doesn’t make her any less cautious in her everyday life.
“I pull the three credit bureau reports each year,” Renz said. Federal law requires that each credit bureau provide one free credit report annually.
In addition to any unusual credit items, “the main thing I look for are addresses that aren’t familiar to me,” she said. “Also, look at the bottom of it where it lists who has pulled the credit report and make sure you are familiar with all of them.”
Renz also pays as many bills online as she can, saying, “it’s more secure than mail.”
She cross-shreds every piece of mail with her information on it, then calls each company that sends credit card offers or anything associated with her name and address to tell them to not to send anything else. She keeps a file that notes the date and the name of the person she talked to.
Many people make the mistake of carrying too much identification and too many credit cards in their purse or wallet, police say.
“Have as little identity with you as possible. That’s best. There isn’t any reason why you need to go to the grocery store with 10 credit cards,” Renz said. “At the grocery store, if you use a credit card, dull the numbers so they aren’t shiny and hide them as much as possible. When you enter your PIN number, be very secretive.”
Identity theft affects approximately 10 million Americans each year, according to the Federal Trade Commission. It occurs when a thief obtains, and illegally uses, a person’s identifying information such as a Social Security card, a credit card or checking account number to obtain money, to open a new account or apply for credit in the person’s name.
With a justice system overwhelmed by the number of identity theft cases, the best defense is to “educate yourself with the preventative measures you can take,” Spokane Valley police Sgt. Dave Martin said.
Many identity theft complaints don’t go any further than a police report because detectives are flooded with cases, Martin said. The chances of solving the case, the amount of money stolen and whether or not a case can result in a successful prosecution are filters police use to determine whether to investigate an identity theft case.
But police don’t want people to stop reporting identity theft, because sometimes the same thief is responsible for several thefts and the reports help law enforcement build a solid case.
In mid-July, City of Spokane police served three search warrants at homes throughout the county in connection with a check fraud and identity theft ring. Sgt. Steve Barbieri, who leads the property crimes task force, said the victim list is up to about 60 people, and police will probably find more.
“It’s hard to steal a dozen cars in one night,” said Carlin Jude, supervisor for the property crime and fraud unit of the Spokane County prosecutor’s office. “But it’s easy to steal a dozen identifications in one night.”
Jude said she gets referrals for identity theft cases in her office every day.
“A great deal of the identity theft committed is tied to methamphetamines,” Jude said. “And there are a lot of repeat offenders. It’s no different than any property crime offender. They serve their time, get out and often resume the same behavior. It’s very difficult to keep them in jail for a variety of reasons,”
The precautions the Spokane Valley woman recommends are mostly what law enforcement, credit reporting agencies and financial institutions suggest. They include: Not giving out a Social Security number unless it’s absolutely necessary, photocopying credit and insurance cards, so if they are stolen the information can quickly and accurately be reported, contacting the U.S. Postal Service if the mail doesn’t show up for a few days and making it hard for burglars to find purses and wallets at night or when you are gone for an extended period of time.
And one of the best preventative actions a person can take, police say, is removing all personal items from the car.
“Our workload would dip significantly if we could convince people to secure their purses, wallets and checkbooks inside their homes at night,” Barbieri said. “I’d say about 50 percent of the identity theft cases we work are from vehicle prowling,” including vehicles broken into while parked in a garage.