April 24, 2008
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Here is another case of a police officer charged with identity theft.
We wrote about Brian Coble before, but this time it is Sgt. Mark Warf - an officer from Rutherford County, Tennessee.
Warf is no ordinary beat cop. He was the lead detective on a number of very high-profile murder cases. He had 23 years on the force and there was shock in the community when he abruptly resigned in July 2007.
Today however, Warf plead guilty to aggravated identity theft and now faces 2 years in prison.
The former sheriff’s office employee stole names and Social Security Numbers and charged $23,000 worth of stuff to 17 credit cards.
It seems amazing that a police officer of that standing would throw away everything for $23,000. I wonder what the story is there.
Source: NewsChannel5 & Bad Cop News
Posted in Cases, ID Thief Thursday, Identity Theft 
No Comments »
April 22, 2008
We’ve talked about house theft before, but this is a new twist. Red Tape Chronicles has a post about “house identity theft” via Craigslist.
The post gives a few examples:
- The con artist makes a Craiglist ad with pictures of the outside of an apartment for rent. The ad says something like “I’m out of town for a year, send a deposit and I will send the keys”
- In Oregon, a man came home to find his house being ransacked and people walking outside with all his stuff. Someone had posted an ad to Craigslist saying that everything in the house was free to take, and take people did.
You might think that no one would be dumb enough to believe that someone would give away their whole house or mail money to someone for keys to a place they have never set foot in, but the for the victims of these scams it is a nightmare and some of them are quite elaborate.
From the post:
“They send an application. It talks about the owner being a good Christian woman. There’s an online questionnaire. It’s very thorough,” Siddons said. By the time she contacted msnbc.com, she said she had already tried the police, the FBI, and Craigslist to no avail. “Results: My house is still listed for rent with Craigslist. … I’m concerned that someone will send eventually send money.”
Have you ever seen any Craigslist ads that would qualify as “identity theft” to you?
Posted in Identity Theft 2 Comments »
April 20, 2008
Do you use a notebook computer at work? What is on it’s hard drive? Any data on there that could be considered sensitive, either to your customers or employees? A University of Virginia laptop sure did.
Laptops are one of the most popular things to steal because they are portable, easy to conceal, and fetch a relatively high amount of money. Unfortunately for organizations, too often there is confidential data that goes with it.
That is exactly what happened to UVa. A laptop was stolen that had personal information (at least names and Social Security Numbers) of about 7,000 employees and students.
The police doesn’t think the confidential information was the target of the theft, and I agree (without knowing the details it was probably some crackhead looking for a quick buck), but still this type of breach is unacceptable, but unfortunately all too common.
The University sent out a letter to everyone affected by the breach, but I haven’t been able to find out if they are paying for any sort of identity theft protection. I would hope so.
Victims are understandably upset, like this education student Brian Reed:
Reed said he was “frustrated” that a UVa employee would keep his personal information on a laptop. Too many similar incidents have occurred at other universities and government agencies, he said, for UVa to store sensitive data anywhere other than on secure servers.
“This has happened many times before,” he said.
The University says they are “constantly reviewing and renewing its security procedures” (whatever that means).
Do you have any examples of scary stuff that you have heard stored on employee laptops?
Source: Dailyprogress.com via The Breach Blog
Posted in Data Breach Sunday 1 Comment »
April 17, 2008
Given that it tax time, and I’ve written recently about how tax time increases identity theft threat and the dangers of tax fraud, I thought it would be timely to have some tax fraudsters for ID Thief Thursday.
Last summer, 13 Kenyan nationals and 4 Americans were indicted as part of a $13.1 million (!) tax fraud and identity theft ring in Kansas City.
This week two of the accused, Vincent Ogega and Rashira Lewis, plead guilty to the crimes.
Nursing Home Racket
The ring would take the identities of seniors in the nursing homes where they worked and then filed fake tax refund claims.
Apparently already $2 million of claims had already been paid out, while the rest of the scam was caught before the check was cut.
The money was either wired back to Kenya or routed through Kansas City businesses and banks.
Local Business Involved
Rashira Lewis, 20, created a company called Montina Share Vacations which had as its sole purpose receiving fake tax returns and cashing the checks.
Plea Bargain
Vincent Ogega, 23, faced one of the highest penalties: reportedly up to 65 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
As part of the plea deal, they now face up to 20 years and up to $250,000 in fines, but sentencing has not happened yet.
The other members of the ring have not been indicted yet so we will see what happens.
Go Visit Grannie
If you have or know people in these nursing homes, it’s important to recognize how vulnerable they may be to unscrupulous employees. Make sure to stay involved in their lives and their finances (and visit them once in a while, will you??).
Source: Kansas City Business Journal and AllAfrica.com
Posted in Identity Theft 2 Comments »
April 16, 2008
When an identity thief steals your credit and racks up charges, that is bad enough. It’s a hassle to fight the card companies and credit bureaus to prove that it’s not your charge. But what do you do when your debit or ATM card has been stolen/cloned? That’s cold hard cash coming out of your account.
You’re Covered
Enter the Electronic Fund Transfer Act. This handy piece of legislation is designed to protect you against, surprisingly enough, fraudulent electronic fund transfers.
The coverage that is provided depends on how quickly you report it:
- Within 2 business days, you are limited to $50
- Between 2 and 60 business days, you are limited to $500
- After 60 days, you are on your own
But Wait, There’s More
If your card has a logo with a Visa or Mastercard symbol on it such as a Visa Check Card or a Debit Mastercard, they limit the liability to $50 instead of what is outlined in the EFTA. If the cards are used in stores (not at an ATM), they even have Zero Liability, which as the name implies means you’d have no liability for fraudulent charges.
Monitor, Monitor, Monitor
As with many things, the key to this is to be on top of your finance. Check your bank account regularly via online banking so that you can act on any discrepancies as quickly as possible.
When you find a incorrect transaction, call the bank and then send them a registered letter so that you can prove when you reported it. They are obligated to investigate it within 10 days, and if they find an error it must be fixed 1 business day after they discover it.
Do you ever get nervous using a Check Card or other type of debit card?
Posted in Identity Theft No Comments »
April 13, 2008
Remember how I wrote about the wide open access to many of our confidential records? Here is another perfect example.
Almost 50,000 patients of the New York-Presbyterian Hospital have had their identities stolen thanks to one man, Dwight McPherson.
McPherson worked as an admissions clerk at the hospital and between 2006 and 2008 has been stealing patients’ names, Social Security Numbers, and other information. (Notice the lack of the word “allegedly”. He’s already confessed).
Apparently he was quite selective on whose information he stole. From the AP story:
McPherson told agents that in 2006 he was approached by someone offering money in exchange for the names, addresses and other identifying information of male patients born between 1950 and 1970. The complaint said McPherson sold a batch of 1,000 records in December or January for $750, and another batch for $600 a short time later.
Police haven’t said who was buying the information and what it was going to be used for, but its a safe bet it was for nothing good.
What is interesting to me is how this was discovered in the first place. It wasn’t by the hospital (of course), but apparently postal inspectors in Atlanta came across some printouts of patient records, and that eventually led back to Mr. McPherson.
I suppose the only good thing in all of this is that it was only personal information that was stolen and not medical records. Otherwise there could be a horrible case of medical identity theft.
For the hospital’s part, it is doing the standard thing: reaching out to patients and offering them credit monitoring (I wonder which one). They say it is “examining its procedures to prevent future thefts”. I would hope so!
McPherson has of course been arrested and his next court date is in May. This one will be an interesting one to follow.
Source: WTOP
Posted in Cases, Data Breach Sunday, Medical No Comments »
April 11, 2008
Often the first clue that our identity has been stolen is a phone call or letter from a collection agency. If you have been a victim of identity theft, then you should not be responsible to pay any debts incurred, but convincing a debt collector of that is something else altogether.
More often than not the people calling you are not the creditors themselves, but some third party that has purchased the debt. Their entire business model is getting that money from you, so they will be very, very motivated.
Here are the steps you need to take to stop a debt collector from harassing you when you have been an identity theft victim.
- Make sure to document and keep a log of everything. Keep all envelopes received, notes about conversations including times, and dates, everything
- Tell the collector that you don’t want any more phone calls and you want all correspondence in writing. Tell them that you want to be the only person contacted. Follow up your request in writing
- Write the collector advising them that you are a victim of identity theft and that you do not owe any money. By law, if you inform a collector that you are an identity theft victim, they must tell the original creditor. A great letter for this is here
- Ask the collector for proof that the debt belongs to you. Request the debt application and/or copies of the receipts. They must by law provide this
- Use whatever information is provided to show that it is not you that applied. Compare signatures etc. It is up to the collection agency to prove that it is your debt if you say that it is not
Remember that this is only for getting a debt collector to leave you alone. It will not actually remove the debt. For that, you want to take the steps to fix identity theft.
Stories about unscrupulous debt collectors are everywhere. Remember, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act are your friends. Don’t be afraid to use them and don’t be pushed around.
Posted in Identity Theft, Identity Theft Recovery 2 Comments »
April 10, 2008
So you get arrested and charged with 69 counts of fraud, theft, and identity theft which carries a maximum of 35 years in prison, but your lawyers manage to work out a deal where you only have to serve 5. Seems like a pretty good deal right?
Not if you are Tynesha West. In a rare move, the judge who had accepted the 26 year old’s 5 year plea bargain changed her mind and withdrew it at the last second when she found out about West’s criminal record for similar crimes. West now faces going to court and risk getting the full 35 years, or take a new 10 year plea bargain.
Teachers, Lock Up Your Belongings
What were those crimes? Tynesha would pose as a volunteer, teacher, or student and sneak into Bay Area classrooms and steal teachers’ wallets. She then went nuts buying stuff using the credit cards and bank accounts inside. She even made up fake drivers licenses and opened up new accounts using the teachers’ identities.
The case she is being charged with had 24 victims named. When Judge Stark agreed to the 5 year plea, what she didn’t know that West had been convicted of the same thing in other towns in Northern California. Once she found that out it was game over. I imagine her probation record which “included fighting with other inmates” didn’t help either.
Needless to say, Tynesha’s lawyer is not at all happy about losing the plea bargain but in my opinion it is nice to see a judge doing the right thing instead of just saying “my hands are tied”.
Do you think the plea bargain should have stayed?
Source: San Jose Mercury News
Posted in Cases, ID Thief Thursday, Identity Theft No Comments »
April 9, 2008
The Consumerist has posted a crazy account of how easy it is to hijack someone’s Sprint account. I can’t believe it’s this easy.
We found you can hijack a Sprint user’s account as long as you know their cellphone number, just a smidge about them, and have half a brain. Once inside, you have total access to their account. You could change their billing address, order a whole bunch of cellphones sent to a drop location, and leave the victim paying the bill. There’s also the stalker’s wet dream: add GPS tracking to their cellphone and secretly watch their every movement from any computer.
No wonder Sprint was one of the worst institutions for identity theft.
Check out all the details here. (Via Digg).
Posted in Identity Theft No Comments »
April 8, 2008
We know that tax time can be a time to be on heightened alert for identity theft. Not only can the tax season attract scammers pretending to be the IRS, but tax fraud itself can be an alarming form of identity theft.
If I Work Two Jobs, I Want Two Paychecks
The most common form of tax fraud is when “undocumented workers” use your Social Security Number to get a job. The employer then reports those earnings to the IRS.
This can cause two problems:
- The identity thief could file a tax return to get a refund. When you file yours, the IRS will say that you’ve already filed a return
- Even if they don’t file a return, when you file yours it is going to look like you didn’t report all your earnings because you didn’t report those from the “other” job
What To Do About It
You will probably only find out that this has been going on when you receive a notice of some sort from the IRS. If you do, contact the IRS right away using the contact information on the notice and explain the situation.
If you still can’t get a resolution, the IRS has a “Taxpayer Advocate Service” (who knew?). Go to http://www.irs.gov/advocate/ or call toll-free: 1-877-777-4778.
Posted in Identity Theft No Comments »
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