Identity Theft: How to Protect Your Name, Your Credit and Your Vital Information, and What to Do When Someone Hijacks Any of These

269 Pages·2004·0.84 MB·English

by  The Silver Lake

Identity
Theft
How to Protect
Your Name,
Your Credit and
Your Vital Information
…and What to Do
When Someone Hijacks
Any of These
SILVER LAKE PUBLISHING
(cid:1)
LOS ANGELES, CA ABERDEEN, WA
Identity Theft
How to Protect Your Name, Your Credit
and Your Vital Information…and What to
Do When Someone Hijacks Any of These
First edition, 2004
Copyright © 2004 by Silver Lake
Publishing
Silver Lake Publishing
111 East Wishkah Street
Aberdeen, WA 98520
For a list of other publications or for more
information from Silver Lake Publishing,
please call 1.888.638.3091. Outside the
United States and in Alaska and Hawaii,
please call 1.323.663.3082. Find our
Web site at www.silverlakepub.com.
All rights reserved. No part of this book
may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transcribed in any form or by
any means (electronic, mechanical, pho-
tocopy, recording or otherwise) without
the prior written permission of Silver Lake
Publishing.
The Silver Lake Editors
Identity Theft
Includes index.
Pages: 264
ISBN: 1-56343-777-5
Printed in the United States of America.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The Silver Lake Editors who have contributed to
this book are Kristin Loberg, Steven Son, Megan
Thorpe and James Walsh.
This is the 12th title in Silver Lake Publishing’s se-
ries of books dealing with risk and insurance issues.
Throughout this book, we refer to insurance policy
forms and legal decisions from the United States—
but the discussion about risk and insurance can apply
beyond the jurisdiction of the courts cited.
Most importantly: Identity theft is a phenomenon that’s
still developing. The legal precedents and insurance
forms involved are in relatively early stages. Expect
both to change as ID theft becomes a more familiar
topic to judges and actuaries.
This book is designed to give consumers a basic
understanding of ID theft and its legal and financial
effects. However, if you’ve been the victim of ID
theft, consult with law enforcement agencies or an
attorney in your area before taking any legal action.
The Silver Lake Editors welcome any feedback. Please
call us at 1.888.663.3091 during regular business
hours, Pacific time. Or, if you prefer, you can fax us
at 1.323.663.3084. Finally, you can e-mail us at
[email protected].
James Walsh, Publisher
Los Angeles, California
INDEX
CHAPTER 1
1
R
E
T
P
A
H
C WHY ID THEFT HAS
BECOME SUCH A
PROBLEM
Imagine getting a knock at your door one evening
while you’re having dinner with your family. When
you open the door, two federal agents and a local
cop stand on your doorstep ready to arrest you.
The problem? You’re accused of cocaine possession,
distribution and money laundering. The Miranda be-
gins.
The police have the wrong person. You’ve never even
seen cocaine in your life. But it’s going to take
hours…maybe days…to straighten everything out. In
the meantime, the Feds have banking records with
your name and Social Security number on them that
say you’ve been a drug dealer and money launderer
for several years. You’re handcuffed and shoved into
the backseat of a policecar while your kids cry on the
front lawn. And—despite your alleged drug wealth—
you can’t post bail to get out that night.
Identity theft has become the fastest-growing crime;
over 40 percent of all consumer complaints in the
U.S. involve identity theft. ID theft will cost U.S.
1
WHY ID THEFT HAS BECOME SUCH A PROBLEM
consumers and their banks or credit card companies
more than $1.4 billion in 2004. By 2006, losses could
reach $3.68 billion.
Being dragged off to jail in front of your family may
not be the worst that could happen. There you are—
in jail for three days while you prove that the person
committing all the crime in your name isn’t you.
But, once you get out of jail you still live in fear of
getting arrested again and again.
Meanwhile, your imposter continues to use your iden-
tity to commit crimes and no one seems to be help-
ing you find this crook and prosecute him. When you
try to correct your criminal record, you run into sev-
eral stumbling blocks. So, you contemplate a name
change.
You’d think it would be easy to eliminate a record
that clearly doesn’t reflect you. You’d think it would
be easy to convince the police, a judge, a government
agency or similar authority that you’re not a thief,
crook, debtor, felon and conman.
But it’s not so easy. It becomes your word against a
database. To people who work with the database,
you’re a criminal—guilty until proven innocent.
A REAL LIFE EXAMPLE
Another scenario: A man quits his job in the hopes of
finding a more rewarding career, only to learn that he
can’t get another job because his cousin had been ar-
rested years earlier and had used his name in the ar-
rest.
2
CHAPTER 1
Terrance Summers worked as a Baltimore correc-
tions officer for 17 years, then tried to start a new
career. But he didn’t get far. As soon as he applied for
new jobs, he discovered that he had a criminal record;
prospective employers found several drug felonies
on his record. What had happened? His cousin Earl
Anthony Thomas had given his name in 1987 when
arrested on felony drug charges. This put Summers’s
name on the record, above his cousin’s fingerprints.
When Summers turned to Baltimore’s district
attorney’s office, he learned the hard truth: Once a
person’s name is entered into a criminal justice da-
tabase, it’s not easy to get it purged. And, once
someone’s name is attached to a set of fingerprints—
as Summers’s name was linked to his cousin’s—it’s
very difficult to change.
For Summers, the experience caused a financial cri-
sis. Unable to secure a job and an income, he lost his
fiancée (who left him due to the financial pressures),
burned through his retirement money and lost his ca-
pacity to make ends meet for his 10-year-old daugh-
ter. Getting justice was going to be tough. His cousin,
the man responsible for the trouble, had died in 1994.
Some victims of ID theft find that their names have
been misused after police stop them for a traffic
violation and discover that there is a warrant for
their arrest. There are also times when an innocent
person receives a summons to appear in court to
answer for a criminal act.
3
WHY ID THEFT HAS BECOME SUCH A PROBLEM
When cases like this reach the Baltimore D.A.’s office,
the prosecutors investigate the stories and usually start
with a fingerprint search. If a mistaken identity claim
checks out, the prosecutor writes a letter stating that
the victim has not been convicted of the charges on
his record. That is all the office has the power to do.
But for people like Summers, that’s not always enough
to convince prospective employers who find crimi-
nal charges during background checks.
There’s nothing new about criminals using aliases
to evade the law. But the sudden increase in identity
theft and the availability of stolen digital dossiers
on innocent victims makes it too easy for criminals
to get arrested and booked under a fake—possibly
your—name. Once police have booked a suspect un-
der your name, you could be plagued for life.
Identity theft is not just about getting falsely accused
of crime or living with serious marks on your crimi-
nal record (now that you have one!). ID theft covers
a wide range of issues and crimes. It goes from
the trivial to the outrageous. From jail houses to cof-
fee houses.
Most people don’t think or worry about ID theft
until they’ve become a victim. By then, it’s often too
late to prevent the situation from worsening before it
gets better. A typical victim spends an average of $808
and 175 hours over almost two years cleaning up
after an ID theft incident.
4
CHAPTER 1
WHAT IS IDENTITY THEFT?
ID theft happens when someone steals a piece of
personal information about you and uses it to com-
mit a fraud in your name. The thief might steal your
Social Security number, name, date of birth, credit
card information, bank account numbers, mother’s
maiden name, etc., and use these things to:
• Open up new accounts;
(cid:127) Change the mailing address on your cur-
rent credit cards;
(cid:127) Rent apartments;
(cid:127) Establish services for utility companies;
(cid:127) Write fraudulent checks;
(cid:127) Steal and transfer money from a bank
account;
(cid:127) File bankruptcy;
(cid:127) Obtain employment;
(cid:127) Establish a new identity; and/or
(cid:127) Apply for a mortgage, car loan or cell
phone.
Once someone assumes your identity to get credit in
your name and steal from businesses, you probably
won’t realize it happened until months later. Federal
law limits a consumer’s liability for credit card fraud
to $50 per account. Visa and MasterCard have
adopted zero-liability policies, but the real problem
remains in the clean-up of your credit report.
5