Identity theft difficult to track here, officials say
Identity theft in Hawai'i is on the rise, state and local officials said yesterday, as consumers nationwide swamped fraud hotlines while investigators said thousands more might be victims of the largest identity fraud case in U.S. history.
• Never leave your credit card or your copies of credit-card receipts or carbons behind after a transaction. • Shred all credit-card receipts into small pieces and put into separate bags before disposing of them. • Be very wary of requests for you to disclose your Social Security number as part of a purchase transaction. • Never give your account numbers to people calling you on the phone regardless of their reason for requesting them. • Do not place any bill payments in your home's mailbox for pickup. Someone other than a postal employee may take them and then have valuable information about you. • Do not leave checks or credit cards or identification in your car or unattended in public. • Do not use your mother's maiden name as verification when dealing with companies. That information is easy to acquire. • When choosing a PIN number, do not use your birthday, last four digits of Social Security number or your current address. Never write your PIN anywhere. • Web sites that are useful: FTC identity theft site: www.consumer.gov/idtheft Privacy Rights Clearinghouse: www.privacyrights.org Identity Theft Resource Center: www.idtheftcenter.org Sources: National Fraud Center; Honolulu Police Department's Criminal Investigation Division.
Federal authorities in New York on Monday unveiled charges against three men in a massive case that may have caused losses of $2.7 million and compromised the personal information of 30,000 people whose records were stolen at a Long Island company. Yesterday, officials said that 10,000 more people could be victims.
What you can do to guard against identity theft
One identity fraud hotline reported a 33 percent increase in calls.
For Hawai'i, tracking the prevalence of identity theft has been difficult because, until this year, the state had no law specific to the crime. As a result, police in Honolulu have put identity theft cases in a variety of different crime classifications, including fraudulent use of credit cards or forgery.
But several state and local officials said yesterday they believe the crime is on the rise locally.
"Identity theft is a very quickly growing crime nationwide and Hawai'i is no exception," said Kurt Spohn, a deputy attorney general who helped draft Hawai'i's identity-theft legislation.
Between November 1999 and March 2001, Hawai'i had between 11 and 15 identity-theft complaints per 100,000 people, according to Federal Trade Commission information from the state's Office of Consumer Protection.
That puts it on a par with states like Idaho, New Mexico, Minnesota and Wisconsin, but well below states like California and Nevada, which reported more than 25 instances of identity theft per 100,000 people during the same period.
Identity theft occurs when someone makes a purchase using someone else's personal information, including a name and address, a credit-card number or a checking account number. The purchase could be anything from a meal at a restaurant to a car to an ocean cruise.
Given the complex web of electronic transactions supporting today's credit-dependent consumers, it could be years before a victim discovers what happened.
Honolulu police Lt. John Cheong tells the story of an O'ahu woman whose credit was ruined when another woman checked into a California hospital under the O'ahu woman's name and ran up a $27,000 bill for major surgery.
"It went to credit collection and showed up as a black mark on the O'ahu woman's credit rating," said Cheong, who is with the Honolulu Police Department's criminal investigation division. "We ascertained that this woman did not have surgery. All we can do is vouch for her and tell the hospital that this is not the woman who had your surgery. We'll go so far as to take her picture and send it off.
"This ruins people's lives. They can't buy homes or cars or get student loans for their children. It ruins their credit ratings and causes them not to be able to live the lives that they've made for themselves."
To help combat identity theft, this year the state Legislature passed — and the governor signed into law — a bill that raises the penalties for felonies committed in conjunction with identity theft.
Spohn said he knows of one person who has been charged under the new law.
"The reason identity theft should be a separate offense is that it's one thing to steal $300, but it's another thing if you steal a person's identity," he said. "Your credit rating is ruined. You'll have a hard time getting a mortgage. Sometimes it takes years for people to get their credit cleared up if someone has stolen their identity.
"So identity theft is a crime that does harm over and above the amount that's stolen from you. It does harm to your reputation and harm to your credit rating."
Steve Levins, acting executive director of the Office of Consumer Protection in the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, said consumers can protect themselves by reviewing their credit reports regularly and safeguarding their personal information, including all types of financial information and Social Security numbers.
"Unless you know who you're dealing with," he said, "don't give that information out to anyone."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
