ID Theft Part II:Vigilance Is The Key For Protection

Drive through any given La Cañada neighborhood late at night and it is easy to see which streets expect garbage pick-up the following day. This is convenient for the homeowner — just put those trash cans out the night before because the next morning will be typically hectic. But among the garbage is also the recycle bin, where credit history is waiting to be picked up by an enterprising crook who is talented at putting small pieces of torn paper together.

According to Clarence Jorif, special agent with the U.S. Secret Service, there are people who either steal recycle bins outright or, cloaked by night, just dig through the piles of paper left in those bins and pull out documents with the potential for ID theft. There is a lot of information that can be obtained.

“You get a bill, your account’s on it, you get a [personal] letter or something from AARP that congratulates you on your birthday coming up. They can get your name, your parent’s name, your social security number,” Jorif said.

Even if the discarded items are ripped up by hand or a straight-edged paper shredder, Jorif warns that those who want to get personal information are very creative in their methods. They can piece together shredded papers to get enough information to open accounts.

“They can get information from these items even if you rip them up,” Jorif said.

Discarded mail is not the only way people are falling victim to identity theft. The Internet has opened a whole new world of information. Many times people will be contacted by outside sources via e-mail claiming to be official account representatives. In one CV sheriff’s report, a La Crescenta woman had been contacted via e-mail by what she thought was Bank of America asking her for an account update. She supplied all her information, then found out the bank had not really contacted her.

Jorif has also seen cases where e-mailed solicitations had been made from entities claiming to be banks or mortgage companies.

“For example, Chase Bank contacts you, stating there is a problem with your mortgage account, “ Jorif said. “They [bad guys] are actually just ‘phishing’ in an attempt to get information.”

Jorif explained that “phishing” is a term used to describe the act of finding personal information or exploring ways to get to a victim. E-mails can be sent from seemingly legitimate businesses or from people out of the country who have millions of dollars they cannot get into the states without the recipient’s help.

“A lot of those e-mails come from Nigeria,” said Detective Roger Burt of the Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station.

This scam usually begins by writing to the recipient offering to pay them for their help in transferring money from one overseas bank account to the United States.

“They also contact you by phone,” Burt said. “I took a report of a woman in La Cañada who was contacted by someone in Canada that said if you send us [this specific] amount of money we will have someone bring more money to you.”

In these cases the e-mail will instruct the recipient to send only $5,000 to release the funds, Jorif said, with a promise of more money in return.

Technology has helped society stream their lives with MP-3 players and cell phones shrinking in size while gaining in technical ability. The identity theft criminals have also gained by this advanced technology.

“Skimmers” are becoming a more and more popular way to access a person’s information.

“Skimmers are a little electronic device,” Jorif said. “They can be as small as the narrow side of a deck of cards.”

Jorif explained that a skimmer can be held unnoticed in the palm of a hand. It records the names, account numbers and other identifying information from the magnetic stripe off of a credit card to be downloaded onto a personal computer later. And that data can then be used to make phony cards.

“Through the magnetic strip on the back of the credit card the skimmer captures [the information]. Then they [bad guys] will take that information and put it into a re-encoder and transfer to a computer where they print the information onto a credit card [that they produce] with the person’s name and [a corresponding] driver’s license. They then go out and buy stuff,” Jorif said.

The skimmers are so small that most victims don’t realize their credit card information had been stolen, even when it was done in front of them. Jorif gave an example of a waiter who would take the customer’s credit card at the table, neither the card nor the waiter left the customers sight, and yet the identity was stolen. Although new technology is being introduced to help those protect their identity, more technology to counter those protection programs are in the hands of criminals. The criminals can be anyone from sophisticated groups to drug addicts who find this an easy way to get money to continue their habit.

Law enforcement agents are able to track some of the suspects.

“Many times they are methamphetamine users that want it so bad we can catch them,” Burt said.

Burt advised people to check their credit report at least once a year to look for anything unusual.

“Also, many of the victims are elderly,” he said. “If you have an elderly parent you should [monitor] their accounts.”