ID-theft reports nearly double
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The government received almost twice as many complaints about identity theft last year over 2001, with victims reporting hijacked credit cards, drained bank accounts and tarnished reputations.
Privacy advocates advise consumers to protect themselves from identity theft by: Checking their credit reports twice a year; Shredding personal documents before throwing them away; Cleansing wallets of old receipts and printed Social Security numbers. For more information on identity theft, visit www.consumer.gov/idtheft/ or call the ID Theft Clearinghouse toll-free at 1-877-ID-THEFT (1-877-438-4338) to report a theft.
"This is a crime that is almost solely on the shoulders of the victim to resolve," said Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a San Diego-based consumer group. "They're beleaguered, they're tired, they're angry and it takes them a good deal of time to recover."
Identity protection
The number of identity theft complaints rose from about 86,000 in 2001 to about 162,000 last year, the Federal Trade Commission said yesterday. The figures come from a government database of 380,000 fraud complaints collected by the FTC, the FBI and scores of law enforcement and consumer groups.
Hawai'i ranked 15th among the states and the District of Columbia with about 49 identity theft and consumer fraud crimes per 100,000 population.
The District of Columbia had the highest rate of identity theft with 123 victims for every 100,000 people. California and Arizona followed with 91 and 88 victims per 100,000 people, respectively.
Identity theft nationwide accounted for 43 percent of fraud complaints, topping the government's list of consumer frauds for a third consecutive year. Gripes about fraud in Internet auctions ranked No. 2 and accounted for 13 percent of complaints.
Up to 700,000 people in the United States may be victimized by identity bandits each year, the Justice Department says. It costs the average victim more than $1,000 to cope with the damage to their accounts and reputations, the FTC has said.
For 40-year-old Alexandra May of Cupertino, Calif., recovery has taken about five years.
The office equipment saleswoman said that in 1997 a woman who looked nothing like her obtained a duplicate of her driver's license from a local department of motor vehicles office. With the license, the woman stole $4,000 from May's bank account and sullied her records with an accident and the theft of a rental car.
"I went to rent a car a few months later and was almost arrested," May said. She said she expects to receive a new license this month that finally severs her record from the ID thief's actions.
Howard Beales, chief of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said complaints about identity theft have increased along with greater public awareness of the problem, prompted by the agency's efforts and recent high-profile identity theft cases.
In 2001, the FTC began promoting a dedicated Web site and toll-free phone number for victims.
"What we're seeing increasingly is identity theft because some insider steals information and sells it," Beales said at a news conference.
In November, federal authorities in New York broke up what they called the biggest identity theft case in U.S. history and charged three men with stealing credit information for 30,000 people. Prosecutors said the scheme began with passwords and records stolen from a software company.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said he has asked the FTC to issue and enforce security guidelines for businesses that collect sensitive financial information. The guidelines would include employee background checks and restricting access to customer information.
"We must now take companies to task when identity theft occurs under their watch and the company is at fault," Schumer said in a telephone interview. He said he would propose legislation to tighten corporate security if the FTC does not address the issue.
FTC spokeswoman Cathy MacFarlane said the agency has met with Schumer's staff and is considering the proposal.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. will soon introduce bills seeking greater protection for Social Security numbers and stiffer penalties for identity thieves, spokesman Howard Gantman said.
Last spring, Attorney General John Ashcroft ordered federal prosecutors to speed up investigations and trials of people accused of stealing identities.
