DMV targeting identity thieves:
Steps take longer but worth it,
chief says
By Matthew Barrows
Bee Staff Writer
(Published Jan. 6, 2001)
(Excerpts: He said the only way to eradicate fraud is to establish a biometric identification system such as fingerprinting, retinal scans or facial recognition.
The California DMV is working on a pilot program with the state Department of Justice to bolster its fingerprint system to guard against fraud. Other states are experimenting with facial recognition devices.)
For years, the California Department of Motor
Vehicles has been the first stop for anyone looking
for a fake identity.
Armed with little more than another person's
name and address, criminals stood in line at the
DMV, fed employees a story of how their driver's
license was misplaced, handed over $12 and
received a new lease on life: a driver's license with
their picture on it, but someone else's name.
"The problem was that the DMV was not verifying
the identity on a consistent basis," said Linda
Foley, director of the nonprofit Identity Theft
Resource Center in San Diego. "And that made it
very easy to steal someone's identity."
Stung by criticism of slack procedures, the DMV is
tightening its defenses.
Employees are receiving extensive training in
fraud detection. Undercover agency investigators
are staking out DMV branches. Fraud cases --
which once took up to two weeks to reach an
investigator -- will be referred to one within four
days.
And in October, the agency began verifying
driver's license information with the Social
Security Administration in Washington, D.C.
According to DMV spokesman Bill Branch, a
person who shows up at a DMV branch for a new
driver's license now must supply a full name,
Social Security number, gender and date of birth,
and that information must match what is on
record at the Social Security Administration.
If any of the criteria do not match, instead of a
driver's license, a letter is automatically sent to
the applicant informing them of the discrepancy
and denying them the license.
But, while the new measures are welcome news to
authorities struggling to keep up with a surge of
identity theft, some innocent people are being
snagged along the way.
Branch said the new verification system
sometimes becomes confused if a middle name
does not exactly match -- John H. Doe vs. John
Henry Doe, for example -- and some women have
become tangled in the system because their
married name does not match Social Security
Administration records.
In such cases, letters have have been sent denying
the legitimate applicants their new licenses.
Branch said the DMV is still working out the kinks
in the new system, but added that the number of
cases in which innocent people are denied a license
is very small. He also said that customers with a
discrepancy between DMV and Social Security
records will not be targeted for prosecution, but
may be referred to the DMV's new Problem
Resolution Unit.
DMV officials warn that there might be other
inconveniences.
Waiting times at DMV branches have increased by
four minutes due to the new measures, employees
are more stringent about what types of
identification they will accept, and fingerprints
are taken more carefully.
And the DMV's photo retrieval system -- once set
aside in order to keep lines moving -- has been
installed in all DMV offices and will be used more
frequently. The system retrieves photos on record
to verify the applicant's identity.
DMV Director Steven Gourley said slight delays
are a small price to pay for preventing identity
theft.
"It's like the metal detector for the airport,"
Gourley said. "People now accept that wait. People
are used to it. I'm hoping people will think of this
as the metal detector of the DMV."
The Identity Theft Resource Center estimates
there were more than 700,000 victims of identity
theft nationwide last year, and the Sacramento
County Sheriff's Department says it's become a
huge problem in the area, with the bulk of cases
involving fake documents such as driver's licenses
and identification cards. The DMV investigated
27,481 fraud cases last year.
Sheriff's spokesman Jamie Lewis said those in the
market for fraudulent IDs range from teenagers
trying to buy alcohol to hardened criminals
looking for new identities. But most, he said, use
them for credit card shopping sprees or to empty
other people's bank accounts.
Lewis said credit card applications that people
toss in the trash can easily be pieced together with
other discarded documents that contain birth
dates and Social Security numbers.
"They put two and two together, and can change
your address and obtain an account in your name,"
Lewis said.
The result is often unexpected purchases on a
credit card bill, bad credit, soaring insurance rates
or worse.
Foley said there are cases in which drivers with
fraudulent licenses have been pulled over for
infractions such as driving under the influence.
When they fail to show up for court, a warrant
goes out for their arrest. But it's the real owner of
the driver's license who often gets the blame.
The issue was spotlighted in Sacramento last
month when golfer Tiger Woods appeared in court
for a case involving a man charged with stealing
Woods' identity. Using a fraudulent California
driver's license, the man financed $17,000 in
purchases, including televisions, stereos and a
used Lexus.
In March 1999, Anthony Lemar Taylor took a
counterfeit birth certificate and bogus Social
Security numbers to a DMV office and obtained a
California driver's license under the name Eldrick
Terrale Woods, said the DMV's Branch. Tiger
Woods is listed as Eldrick Tiger Woods on his
Florida license.
Taylor was convicted Thursday on eight counts of
felony theft and perjury.
In a similar case in October, New Jersey police
began searching for a man who used former
University of Florida quarterback Danny
Wuerffel's name and other personal information
to apply for -- and receive -- $16,000 in store credit
at a Home Depot in South Plainfield. The man used
a photo identification card issued by the New
Jersey Division of Motor Vehicles to obtain the
credit.
In California, a more vigilant DMV is beginning to
have an effect on identity theft.
In November, undercover investigators arrested
23 people over two days on suspicion of using
fraudulent documents at a busy DMV branch in
Arleta, near Los Angeles.
But DMV chief Gourley said that as long as the
DMV relies on documents to establish a person's
identification, it will be impossible to make the
process foolproof. Because California is an "open
access" state when it comes to public records,
Gourley said, it is easy for criminals to obtain birth
certificates and other records.
He said the only way to eradicate fraud is to
establish a biometric identification system such as
fingerprinting, retinal scans or facial recognition.
The California DMV is working on a pilot program
with the state Department of Justice to bolster its
fingerprint system to guard against fraud. Other
states are experimenting with facial recognition
devices.
"My understanding is that the technology exists,"
Gourley said. "What we need now is for the
policy-makers to tell us which direction to go.
Those decisions are beyond us."
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