IDENTITY THIEVES - OFTEN SOMEONE YOU KNOW

http://www.freemarketnews.com ^ | by Michael J. Ross

[FreeMarket1]

IDENTITY THIEVES - OFTEN SOMEONE YOU KNOW

Feb 10, 2005 - FreeMarketNews.com

by Michael J. Ross

Internet users and other consumers who are worried that their online transactions put them at high risk for someone stealing their personal financial information, may gain some comfort from recent news that 72 percent of the thefts of confidential information, were done off-line. In fact, identity thieves obtained the bank or credit information on their victims from online sources in only 12 percent of the cases. So if these miscreants are not getting the bulk of stolen financial data from our Internet transactions, how exactly are they going about it? For the most part, they are combing through our trash, and picking through stolen or lost wallets and purses, according to a survey conducted by Javelin Strategy & Research and reported in a Reuters article dated 26 January 2005. The survey consisted of 38 questions, and the results are derived from telephone interviews with 4,000 consumers - an alarming 509 of whom have been victims of identity fraud.

The typical consumer would likely be astonished to learn that the identity thief's identity is often quite familiar to the victim. Specifically, half of all known identity thefts are committed by the victims' friends, family members, and neighbors -- thereby giving new meaning to the phrase "Neighborhood Watch".

Furthermore, identity thievery conducted off-line is far more lucrative than that conducted online. In particular, the average identity theft in the former case cost the consumer $15,607, versus only $2320 in the latter case. No reason for the huge disparity was apparently noted in the study.

One possible reason for the sizable difference, is that the typical compromised Internet transaction will only yield the victim's name, credit card number, expiration date, etc. Moreover, most credit cards have limits as to the personal liability of the victim, to say nothing of well-financed anti-fraud departments with powerful computers sifting through each day's credit card purchases. In contrast, the off-line identity thief can pull out of the average person's trash a stack of discarded bank account statements, credit card statements, tax forms, credit cards about to expire, signature examples, and even blank checks.

Not only is the average loss far lower for online transactions, but the odds of the theft being caught or at least stopped are much greater than for off-line identity theft. In those cases where the victim discovered the fraud on the Internet, their average loss was only $551. This compares favorably to those cases where the victim eventually learned of the fraud by receiving mailed statements, in which case it costs them $4543 on average.

The Reuters article made no mention as to whether the survey discussed whether online fraud is expected to grow in ..................... Full Article www.FreeMarketNews.com

[End Times Sentinel]

This was clearly the case with me when someone stole my Visa card and signed me up for a membership to onionbooty.com.  Least that's what I told the missus.

Owl_Eagle

”Guns Before Butter.”

[ItCanHappenToYou]

A cautionary tale:

My identity was hijacked in 1975. An Amex account was set up in my name, and airplane tickets to Las Vegas were charged on it, and never paid. A very nasty man tracked me down and harrangued me over the phone trying to collect. That's how I found out about it.

Funny, in 1975 I had just finished my first degree, landed my first job, but had not yet set up even a checking account, much less an Amex account. I had a savings account and paid cash for everything. As a single woman living on her own and just starting out, I doubt I would have qualified anyway. Times were different then.

It turned out that the adoption agency that coercively and illegally took my firstborn also handed over my name, address, all my vital information including my SSN to the adoptive parents. Turned out the adoptive father was an attorney working for OC in Cleveland, Ohio. He had set up an account in my name using my info, used the account once, and then dumped it.

He was busted by the FeeBees for a bunch of other things in 1985 and spent a great deal of time in the penitentiary in Chillicothe, Ohio.

******* crooks.

[Minn]

onionbooty.com?

What the hell is onion booty?

[ItCanHappenToYou]

What the hell is onion booty?


Sounds smelly, doesn't it?

[cassie22]

Today there's an article in my paper about a man who worked at a busy gas station arrested for ID theft. Seems he had a device that copied credit card info. Data is then downloaded to a computer and fake cards created. At least eight customers victimized but law enforcement said hundreds possibly affected since the device used contained about 500 entries.

[Our man in washington]

I can't believe who would resort to identity theft.

Me, I'm too busy to pull a stunt like that, being that I am a Temple Grad, Rabid Football fan, and my hobbies include displays of self-righteous indignation, vitriolic abuse of egalitarians, leftists and commies, and espousing unpopular political beliefs... and cooking.

[LOC1]

In November, 2004, someone stole my name, my driver's license number, and my birth date. He stole bank account information from someone else, and an address and phone number from yet a third party. Using all of that stolen information, he created fraud lent preprinted checks on a PC, and presented those checks to merchants. The total of the forged checks identified to date is $10,100.

It is possible that my driver's license information was stolen at a Day's Inn hotel where my family and I stayed just before all of this started. The clerk in that hotel made a copy of my driver's license when I checked in. Never again !