Not exactly the right thread for this story, but...
contracostatimes.com
Published Sunday, January 27, 2002
Exposing identity fraud
Discarded scraps were all one San Ramon woman
needed to rack up thousands in trips, rent and cars,
police say
GUARDING AGAINST THEFT
Simple steps to avoid identity theft:
Pay attention to billing cycles and read your bills. Follow up promptly if they
don't arrive or contain charges you didn't make.
Only carry credit cards and identification you need. If a card is lost or
stolen, follow up promptly with both the creditor and with the credit bureaus so
a "fraud alert" can be placed in your file.
Order a copy of your credit report every year and make sure it's accurate.
Tear up or shred documents with personal information, such as your Social
Security number, if you no longer need them. Don't throw them away intact.
Give out your Social Security number only if absolutely necessary. Ask to
use other identifiers if possible.
If you suspect you're a victim of identity theft, call the Federal Trade
Commission Identity Theft Hotline at 877-438-4338 or the California Office of
Privacy Protection at 800-952-5210.
Source: Federal Trade Commission, California Department of Consumer
Affairs
By Karl Fischer
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Few people can find more uses for a discarded scrap of paper than an identity
thief. They know recycling secrets that would make Martha Stewart blush.
And, according to police and federal prosecutors, Generose Yambao was one
of the most prolific.
Police say the 22-year-old from San Ramon picked up a video store
membership application and turned it into a top-line sport utility vehicle. One
man's rumpled student loan statement mushroomed into a $38,928.48
shopping spree, police say, in her hands.
She stumbled across an old medical benefits record from a company where
she never worked. That bought her a $9,613.87 Caribbean cruise, detectives
say.
They're the wrinkled bits of paper commonly found in glove boxes, bottom
drawers and stuck to the rims of garbage cans. And they're all an identity thief
needs.
Authorities say Yambao used this to fleece creditors of nearly $400,000 last
year in one of Contra Costa's messiest identity theft cases.
A federal grand jury indicted Yambao last month on suspicion of possessing
and using "unauthorized access devices," or credit account numbers, identity
theft, fraudulently using a Social Security number and transporting a stolen
vehicle across state lines.
The indictment names 22 victims whose credit Yambao allegedly sullied
before her arrest in Dade County, Fla., on Dec. 11. But police say she may
have used the identities of more than 50 people to buy cars, take trips, pay
the rent and spend like the world was ending.
"She just applied everyone to every credit card company, kind of
shotgun-style," Contra Costa sheriff's Sgt. Steve Simpkins said. "She might
only be successful once or twice if she threw it out there 100 times, but once
was enough."
Yambao was arraigned Wednesday in Oakland federal court and has not
entered a plea. Family members and a public defender representing her
declined comment.
"She has essentially conducted over the course of a year a one-woman fraud
wave," assistant U.S. attorney Mark Zenitas said.
The investigation began on May 5, when a satellite anti-theft chip led San
Ramon police to a 2000 Cadillac Escalade reported stolen from a Dublin
dealership. The Cadillac contained 5.1 pounds of marijuana and three men,
who were arrested.
One man said the car belonged to his girlfriend. So did a plastic tub brimming
with an odd melange of paperwork, including 106 pieces of mail in 48 names
and enough credit cards and applications to arm a platoon of tourists, an
identity thief's toolbox, police say.
"The limit of the crime is the limit of your mind," said Arnold Cole, special
agent in charge of the Secret Service's San Francisco office. "Any unique
identifier ... should be guarded. All they have to do is think about what to do
with them, 24 hours a day."
In an era when home mortgages can be borrowed online, any document that
includes a name, Social Security number, date of birth or other identifying
information easily morphs into new credit cards, rent on an apartment, or
virtually anything that can be bought.
Yambao, for example, visited Hawaii several times and took cruises in the
Bahamas and Mexico, according to paper-trail evidence collected by local
police. And she racked up $28,000 on one card during a five-day binge last
January, according to a credit report, mostly from jewelers and department
stores.
"Your identity is a commodity," Cole said. "It has a price. Some identity
thieves buy and sell them."
Others gather them in mysterious ways, as Monterey resident Stephanie
Steele Zalin learned. Police found a worn paper in Yambao's stash listing her
account numbers and passwords.
"The documents that they found were something in my computer that I never
printed," Steele Zalin said. She had erased the hard drive and given that
computer to a college student in 1999. The computer had changed hands at
least once since then.
Yvon Pic knows the feeling. Police found a rental agreement between Pic and
a south San Ramon apartment complex in the stolen Cadillac. They also
found a $3,936.21 bill for apartment damage, attorney fees, back rent and
bounced checks.
That, along with an eviction notice, a letter from an attorney threatening suit
and a court summons.
"Totally irritated" is how Simpkins described Pic's reaction when the detective
broke the news. "He'd never even been to San Ramon."
The complex managers dropped the suit after a call from Simpkins. But Pic
still had problems. It seems his daughter, also named as a victim in the
indictment, acquired a department store charge card. She was 2 at the time.
The Pics were compromised by a crumpled benefits record belonging to his
employer.
"It would surprise people to learn that a lot of these companies are still putting
this kind of stuff in the trash. It's a continuous education process" to get
banks, department stores and other businesses to always shred those
documents, Cole said.
Identity theft doesn't take much skill, which may be one reason why it's
spreading. The Federal Trade Commission's identity theft hotline averaged 285
calls per week in January 2000. In January 2001, it averaged 2,330 calls per
week.
California led the nation with the number of reports last year, the FTC said.
The federal government recently stiffened sentencing guidelines and created
new criminal charges pertaining to the crime. California's Office of Privacy
Protection opened in November to help victims.
Mee Hang of San Jose wishes her video rental store shredded its documents.
She was dismayed to learn that someone walked into Pleasanton's
Department of Motor Vehicles office with her information last February and left
with a valid license.
"The supervisor said the person looked like me," Hang said.
Her Hollywood Video application was one of dozens found in the stolen
Cadillac, all from a store in Stockton.
"I'd be curious to see how she did that," Hollywood Video vice president Eric
English said.
The license in Hang's name came in handy a few weeks later, when Yambao
allegedly offered it as identification when passing a bad down payment check
for the stolen Escalade, according to a police report. The Cadillac is one of
seven new cars listed in the indictment against Yambao.
Identity theft victims are rarely left holding the bag, but it's far from a
victimless crime. It can take months for victims to find the problem and clear
their credit.
"I started getting phone calls from every different kind of credit card company
you can imagine," said Joe Harney, a former Walnut Creek resident who lives
in San Francisco. "Someone called and gave them my Social Security
number, and they wouldn't tell me who it was."
That information was confidential, credit bureaus told Harney.
"We've had cases where the thief has come back and reported fraud on the
victim's credit, just so he can use it again," said Dave Mooney, spokesman
for Equifax, one of the nation's largest credit reporting bureaus.
Sometimes bad things happen even when victims try to protect themselves.
Just ask Patricia Heitmeier, another victim named in the indictment.
The New Orleans resident visited San Francisco a couple of years back with
her husband to celebrate a birthday. They saw the sights. They rode the cable
cars. And, thanks to an enterprising thief, they will always remember their
visit.
"It's like we had big targets painted on us," Heitmeier said.
The couple walked around Fisherman's Wharf. They wanted to ride a cable
car back to their hotel, but it was crowded, so they caught a bus. Heitmeier
leaned forward and asked the driver, "Which stop should we get off at for the
Ritz Carlton Hotel?"
Big mistake, she said. After she and her husband got off the bus, she noticed
the zipper on her purse was open and her wallet gone. She phoned her bank
and credit companies from the hotel. Then she went out for a drink.
Six months later and 30 miles away, a worn photocopy of Heitmeier's license
appeared in the back seat of a stolen Cadillac. Police don't know how it got
there. But they say Yambao opened new credit cards with it and ran up a
$23,000 debt in her name.
"I'm a lot more careful now. When I go out, I don't carry credit cards that I
don't plan to use," Heitmeier said. "And I don't go on city buses anymore and
ask where the Ritz Carlton is."
Reach Karl Fischer at 925-945-4780 or kfischer@cctimes.com.
KJC |
