Scroll down to the highlighted paragraph if you don't want to read the whole article. This is a good story and has some recommendations for protecting yourselves against identity theft.
Stolen Identity Poses Rising
Crime Threat
Identity-Theft Victims Struggle
Against Rising Tide of Abuse
Carrie Kirby, Chronicle Staff Writer
Sunday, February 11, 2001
Over a prison-style phone line running
from the front desk to the lobby at the
Park Police Station on the edge of Golden
Gate Park, Kimo Crossman was being told,
once again, to wait.
Crossman, a 36-year-old programming
consultant, is a victim of one of the
fastest-growing crimes in America:
identity theft. Someone found out enough
information about him -- including his
Social Security and driver's license
numbers -- to run up $10,000 in charges in
his name during the past four months.
Some charges were on his existing credit
cards; others were on accounts opened by
the thief.
Reports of identity theft have increased by
40 percent in each of the past two years,
according to Trans Union, one of the three
major credit-reporting agencies.
At 9 a.m. Wednesday morning, Crossman
waited in the quiet police station as
Patrolman David Rio filed a report on the
other side of a safety-glass barrier.
But Rio told Crossman that if he wanted
to discuss his case further, he would have
to visit the fraud detail at the Southern
Police Station on Bryant Street.
In two days.
Feeling exhausted and ill -- he had been to
the emergency room the night before for a
chronic medical problem -- Crossman left
the station, clutching his report number.
He knew he was in for more hours of
work and waiting. The average identity
theft victim spends 175 hours over two
years just trying to get his life back to
normal, according to a study by San
Diego's Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and
the California Public Interest Research
Group.
Since he discovered in December he was a
victim, Crossman has already spent about
50 hours waiting in line and on the phone
to cancel various accounts and report
fraud to all three credit reporting
agencies: Trans Union, Equifax and
Experian. He is determined to press on.
"I want to kill it and have it done with," he
said.
As the problem gains prominence in
California -- the Federal Trade Commission
ranks the state fourth in reported ID theft
cases per capita (after the District of
Columbia, Nevada and Arizona) -- more
help for victims is becoming available.
Simply filing a report with the local police
as Crossman did Wednesday is a new right
for ID theft victims, guaranteed in a state
law that went into effect Jan. 1.
In the past, police sometimes refused to
file a report because it is difficult to track
down the perpetrators and, as a result,
the cases are unlikely to lead to arrest.
Sometimes police tell victims to file their
reports wherever the fraudulent
purchases took place. In Crossman's case,
some purchases on his accounts were
linked to a Washington, D.C., address.
Under the new law, the victim's local
police are required to at least take a
report, even if they end up referring the
case to another district.
The new law, sponsored last year by Rep.
Susan Davis, D-San Diego, when she was a
state assemblywoman, also requires the
courts to help victims clear their credit
histories of fraudulent charges. A related
law, going into effect in September, sets
up a statewide database where credit
issuers or other authorized parties could
verify that an individual was the victim of
a convicted identity thief. This will help
victims prove they are ID theft victims if
more fraudulent charges pop up in the
future.
But those new laws won't help most
victims, who never get to court.
"Most of our ID theft cases don't get out of
the file. Pending additional cases or more
information, it's not likely to get assigned
for investigation," said Inspector Earl
Wismer of the San Francisco Police
Department's Fraud Detail.
The police just don't have the manpower
to follow up on every identity theft case,
he said.
"We have 12 investigators in the fraud
detail. That's for all of San Francisco,"
Wismer said.
If this had happened to Crossman a year
from now, his chances of getting the police
involved might have been better. Gov.
Gray Davis has asked for $3.3 million in
additional funding to train officers and
develop programs to fight identity theft.
Crossman, who e-mailed The Chronicle
about his plight because he wanted to
warn other potential victims, is living
proof that identity theft can happen to
anyone -- even a self-described privacy
freak like himself. He works in the
security-conscious world of bank Web site
construction. For years he has shredded
his mail and checked his credit report
regularly for suspicious activity.
The crime happened, he believes, when he
was looking for a San Francisco apartment
eight months ago. He got a standard rental
application from a listing agency, filled in
all his vital information including his
Social Security and driver's license
numbers, and distributed it widely to
landlords and individuals looking for
roommates.
Either one of those people misused or sold
his information -- or they simply discarded
his application and someone retrieved it
from the trash.
There is more help for California victims
in the pipeline, but most will come too late
to help Crossman. Here are some obstacles
that Crossman faces, followed by
proposed changes that would help him
overcome them:
-- PROBLEM NO. 1: Without hiring a
lawyer, it can be difficult for consumers to
get help from credit card companies and
other organizations.
While all credit card companies guarantee
that customers won't pay a cent for
fraudulent charges, their policies differ
when it comes to helping ID theft victims
get information and determining what
qualifies as fraud.
Crossman first realized that someone was
using his name when he received a letter
from credit card issuer Chase Manhattan,
asking him to confirm that he had applied
for a card with an address different from
his home. He called Chase to tell them the
request was fraudulent and asked for the
address the thief had provided. Chase
refused to give him the information.
Crossman did manage to get the thief's
mailing address from Dell Computer,
where someone tried to lease a $2,000
computer in Crossman's name. The
address was in Washington, D.C.
Crossman also had trouble getting one
credit card issuer to classify all his
fraudulent charges as such. The thief had
run up $2,300 in charges on his existing
Bank of America credit card. BofA
removed all the charges -- except four San
Francisco parking tickets. Because he had
used the card to pay for parking tickets
before, BofA said he had a prior
relationship with the Department of
Parking and Traffic. That prior
relationship prompted the bank to
question whether the charges were truly
fraudulent. They classified the charges as
disputed and told him to go to Department
of Parking and Traffic himself to get
evidence that the tickets were not for his
car. But the DPT told him they couldn't
look that information up.
Crossman finally persuaded BofA to
remove the charges for the parking tickets
by threatening to get his lawyer involved.
Barry Smith, senior vice president for
fraud policy in BofA's credit card division,
said he was disappointed that Crossman
had to go to the DPT himself.
"We probably should have been able to do
that for him," Smith said.
-- SOLUTION -- A NEW
"CONSUMER ADVOCATE":
Starting July 1, California's Department of
Consumer Affairs will open the nation's
first Office of Privacy Protection, in
Sacramento. One of the office's main tasks
will be assisting identity theft victims and
intervening on their behalf, said Kathleen
Hamilton, California Consumer Affairs
director.
"Whoever the complaints are directed
against, that business will receive
communication from the Department of
Consumer Affairs saying, 'We've received
this complaint and we'd like to know how
you plan to resolve it,' " Hamilton said.
In addition, the Identity Theft Resource
Center in San Diego is forming a Bay Area
support group run by people who have
been victims.
-- SOLUTION -- PROPOSED
LEGISLATION:
A law expected to be introduced by state
Sen. Debra Bowen, D-Redondo Beach,
would require credit issuers like Chase to
provide victims with a copy of all
fraudulent credit applications filed in
their name.
-- PROBLEM NO. 2: Identity thieves are
sometimes able to capitalize on
government bureaucracy.
ID thieves sometimes use stolen
information such as the Social Security
number to obtain a new copy of the
victim's driver's license, with a new home
address and photo. In the past, critics have
complained that the Department of Motor
Vehicles made this process too easy by
failing to verify Social Security numbers,
compare applicants' appearance to
previous photographs, or notify license
holders that a request for a duplicate has
been made.
Obtaining that license opens doors to
opening still more credit accounts -- or
even committing crimes in the victim's
name.
The DMV started verifying Social Security
numbers last October. Still, thieves are
sometimes able to obtain a duplicate of the
victim's license in a single visit to the DMV.
But an identity theft victim trying to get a
fresh license number faces much higher
barriers.
Crossman found this out firsthand. He
learned from Dell Computer that an order
made in his name not only had his Social
Security number, but also his driver's
license number. Realizing he would have
to get a new license, Crossman visited
California's DMV Web site to find out how.
He found no information on the subject, so
he went to the DMV in person.
There he was told he couldn't get a new
license number because he didn't have the
appropriate paperwork. The DMV gave
him a form to fill out and a list of other
information to gather. He would need a
letter from a company stating that his
driver's license had been used in a
fraudulent manner. He wasn't sure if he
could persuade Dell to provide him with
that.
Once he gathered all the evidence, he
would have to mail it to the Record
Security Identification Unit in Sacramento
and wait patiently for a response. If his
request was approved, he would have to
go to the DMV all over again.
Crossman felt frustrated that he couldn't
find out that information in advance.
"I took off half a day of work, I made an
appointment, and I couldn't even get the
license," he said with disgust.
-- SOLUTION -- CHANGES AT THE
DMV:
The DMV has already tested a fingerprint
verification system that would make it
impossible for anyone but the true license
holder to get a duplicate copy. Davis'
proposed budget includes $13.3 million to
help the DMV combat ID theft; $7.7 million
of that is earmarked for a biometric
identification system like fingerprinting.
The DMV has also created a Fraud
Analysis Unit to streamline investigations
and has announced plans to check every
applicant for a duplicate license against a
photo database.
An antifraud task force is advising the
DMV on further changes. The group is still
working on its formal recommendations,
but task force member Linda Foley,
director of the Identity Theft Resource
Center, has already made one suggestion
that would have been a great help to
Crossman: The DMV should set up a
toll-free hot line as a single point of
contact for victims to report fraud and get
instructions.
-- PROBLEM NO. 3: It's too easy for thieves
to get hold of Social Security numbers and
other sensitive information.
Identity thieves get information in a
variety of ways. They steal wallets, file
fraudulent change-of-address forms and
take bills and checks right out of
mailboxes. But Dumpster diving --
especially in the trash cans outside
businesses -- is one of the top ways thieves
get the information they use, said Helen
Foster, an attorney with the FTC's identity
theft program.
Crossman realized his information was
stolen off rental applications when he
found out that the thief was using his
driver's license.
"The rental applications were the only
place I had written down my new
California driver's license number,"
Crossman said.
The application was probably discarded by
one of the potential landlords, then
retrieved from the trash. However,
Crossman also hasn't ruled out the idea
that one of the people he gave the
application to, including some individuals
looking for roommates, might have used
his information improperly or sold it.
-- SOLUTION -- A NEW STATE
LAW:
A California law that went into effect Jan.
1 requires all businesses to shred
paperwork containing customer
information before throwing it out.
Crossman has already done many of the
things recommended for ID theft victims
by the FTC and other experts. He notified
all the right people, including all three
credit agencies. He is keeping a close
watch on his credit record; in fact, he paid
$80 for a service that notifies him
immediately of each new request for
credit. He even upgraded to an
industrial-strength paper shredder. In the
future, he will be sure to write "Please
shred before disposing of" on any forms he
fills out with sensitive information. For
most people, this would be enough. But
Crossman is still trying to get more
information about the person who is using
his name. Actually, it looks like more than
one person is using it: One in San
Francisco, and one in Washington,
D.C.
He plans to report the crime to the U.S.
Postal Inspection Service, and will ask a
credit card company to refer it to the
Secret Service, which investigates
financial fraud.
"I'm going to try to catch the person,"
Crossman said. "The person who stole my
identity chose the wrong guy."
Online Resources
-- Identity Theft Resource Center,
www.privacyrights.org/itrc.htm.
-- Federal Trade Commission,
www.consumer.gov; ID theft page
includes a national database of complaints.
-- Privacy Journal,
www.townonline.com/specials/privacy,
for tips on privacy protection.
-- California Department of Justice,
www.caag.state.ca.us/identity.htm.Source:
Chronicle research
If You're a Victim of ID TheftCredit Cards
Review recent charges and close accounts
if necessary.
Bank Accounts
Review transactions, stop payment on
fraudulent checks. Close accounts and
open new ones if necessary. Ask the bank
to issue a secret password that must be
used for every transaction.
Report the Incident
-- Credit reporting companies. Notify all
three agencies: Equifax, (800) 525-6285;
Experian (formerly TRW), (888) 397-3742;
and Trans Union, (800) 680- 7289.
-- Police. In San Francisco, Police
Department Fraud Detail, 850 Bryant St.
(415) 553-1521.
-- Federal Trade Commission. File
complaint online at www.consumer.
gov/idtheft/ or call (877) 438-4338.
-- U.S. Postal Inspection Service. If
information is stolen from your mailbox
or if the thief uses the mail in the crime,
file online at www.usps.
gov/postalinspectors/, call (415) 778-5900
or stop by any post office. Postal
inspectors expect to spend 100,000 hours
investigating ID theft nationwide this
year.
-- Department of Motor Vehicles. If your
driver's license number is stolen, DMV can
put a fraud alert on your license.
-- Social Security Administration. If you
think your Social Security number is being
misused, call (800) 269-0271 or report
online at www.ssa. gov/oig/Hotline.htm.
Be Vigilant
Get regular credit reports to watch for
fraudulent activity, or subscribe to a paid
service that notifies you of any new
applications for credit. Some such services
are Intersections
(www.intersections.com) and ID Guard
(www. privista.com)..Sources: Identity
Theft Resource Center, Chronicle research
E-mail Carrie Kirby at
ckirby@sfchronicle.com.
sfgate.com:80/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/02/11/BU183774.DTL
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