Washington (dpa) – The victims’ stories always have the same sound: one day
they are innocent and upstanding citizens, and the next day they are in a
desperate struggle with banks and credit card companies to try to regain their
good name.
What is going against them is that the credit cards and bank checks carry their
names for which cars, diamond rings and other luxury items worth tens of
thousands of dollars have been bought.
They are the victims of identity theft, in these days of the Internet a booming
branch of the crime industry in the United States.
A recent report by The New York Times said that while identity theft is hardly
new, law enforcement officials and consumer advocates say the Internet is
making identity theft one of the signature crimes of the digital era.
The Times said the U.S. Social Security Administration received more than
30,000 complaints about the misuse of Social Security numbers last year, most
of which had to do with identity theft. In 1998 the figure was 11,000, and the
year before, 7,868.
The Social Security Administration attributes the rise to the ease with which
Social Security data can be collected on the Internet.
For Maureen Mitchell in Ohio, the trouble began with a call last November from
Keybank Mastercard. The credit card company noticed three purchases totalling
2,164 dollars which deviated from her family’s usual buying pattern and so
wanted to check it out with her.
But it took a few days before the Mitchells realised that this was just only
the beginning. As Maureen described her plight to the newspaper USA Today,
there followed bills for a used off-road vehicle for 47,000 dollars and for a
Ford Expedition car for 41,000 dollars.
For police, the case was immediately clear-cut. Somebody had stolen the
personal data of Maureen’s husband and then applied for and got credit cards,
bank accounts and checks in his name. It is not clear when and where the data
were stolen.
For John Stevens, a military officer, there is still no end to the troubles
which began in 1997. Back then, he had found out that somebody had run up debts
of 115,000 dollars in his name.
In months-long negotiations with 14 central credit rating agencies, banks and
authorities, he sought to do battle against the theft of his identity, and he
was told several times that a “credit alarm” would prevent anyone from getting
new loans in his name.
But over and over again, he received new bills, Stevens recently told the first
national conference held to discuss identity theft. Sometimes it’s a bill for a
diamond ring for 2,000 dollars, other times it’s for a Jeep.
For the victims, there is usually no direct financial damage since the credit
card companies will pay the bill. But they must often fight for months or years
to try to restore their credit reputation.
Maureen Mitchell estimates that since last November she has spent 400 hours
writing letters, talking on the phone or sending telefaxes.
But financial damages are involved in some cases. One victim told how her banks
did not want to believe that somebody else was running up the debts and so were
seeking to get their money back.
Adelaide Andrews described how her bank suddenly refused to extend her real
estate loan after she had become a victim of identity theft.
The publication Consumer Report notes that relatively little effort is needed
for identity theft in the United States. In most cases, all that is needed is
the victim’s name, his or her Social Security Card number, and date of
birth.
If the thief then can get hold of an old credit card bill of the victim, then
there is no problem in applying for new credit cards in that person’s name or
to open up bank checking accounts.
There are many methods which identity thieves use to get the necessary
information. In Adelaide Andrews’ case, an employee at a doctor’s office, where
she had gone for an X-ray, had stolen her medical records which contained her
Social Security number and other personal data.
In other cases, thieves have bribed low-level bureaucrats in the Social
Security administration in order to get at the data, or even paid garbage
collectors to search for confidential documents.
But now in this age of modern electronics and the Internet, everything has
become easier for the thieves, and there has been a correspondingly drastic
rise in the number of cases.
According to USA Today, a small hand-held scanner can be used to copy the
information stored on the credit card while a customer is paying a bill.
A few clicks of the mouse is all that is needed in order to collect data on
most people, while hackers can break into the computers of large companies and
steal the credit card numbers of their customers.
The federal police agency, the FBI, recently investigated a hacker in Russia
who had managed to break into the computer of the on-line music company CD
Universe and steal the numbers from 300,000 credit cards.
Apparently nobody is safe. An 18-year-old British hacker was recently arrested
after, by his own account, he had managed to get the credit card number of
Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
