Law enforcement battles ID crime

Be diligent, watch for signs

By SUSAN TEBBEN Glasgow Daily Times

GLASGOW — Identity theft has been around for many years and officials say it does not show signs of slowing down. With the simplicity of some scams and the sophistication and conspiracy of others, there are ways for the public to protect themselves.

The Barren County Sheriff’s Office and the Glasgow Police Department deal with identity theft regularly, even before sending off cases to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Louisville.

Detective Rusty Anderson of the BCSO said they average five to 10 investigations of identity theft and fraud per month and receive five to six reports weekly of money-related fraud, like the Nigerian bank transfer and stolen property shipments that are well-known in the United States.

But Anderson said, there are always the simpler ways that thieves can have personal information and access to an individual’s money without the victim ever knowing.

“Lots of people have a credit card in their name and they don’t know it,” Anderson said. “The only way they’ll find out is when creditors start calling about a card [the victims] don’t know anything about.”

Almost all of the scams that the sheriff’s office deals with are overseas, which Anderson said detectives had figured out by tracking phone numbers. They’ve also found many online scams involving e-mails claiming to represent the Mexican and Canadian lotteries. A popular target for suspects is the elderly.

“They talk to them on the phone and they say the right things. Most older people want to help people so that’s the ones they’ll go for,” Anderson said.

The GPD has said they currently have six confirmed cases they are investigating, according to Lt. Col. Kent Keen, public information officer for the GPD.  

Most cases of fraud and identity theft are sent to the FBI, who will often send them to the United States Secret Service for further investigation.

As far as state cases, most of the instances the FBI branch in Louisville sees are of the low-tech varieties.

“The most popular that we’ve seen, in my experience, is the theft of the mail, whether it be mailing something out or receiving mail from a source that wants you to send something out of the country for them,” said Special Agent Brett Johnson.

How They Do It

Among the most prominent and overlooked crime is the compromising of debit cards and credit cards, which can happen right in front of you.

“If you’re in a Chinese restaurant or a Mexican restaurant, they often have a lot of immigrants who have to pay sponsors that got them into the country or things like that, so they wear a swiping device that they can use to pick up your information and give the card back to you. You’ll have no idea it happened and then they’ll take your information and clone your card,” Johnson said.

For all identity thieves, the small things are what counts and they are counting on the day-to-day actions that consumers take for granted.

“Real professionals wait six months [after they get the account information] then go to a gas station and buy something small just to make sure the card will go through,” Johnson said. “Then they’ll go buy the high-end electronics for the most part.”

Law enforcement finds out about the fraud in different ways; local deputies and officers hear about them from concerned citizens who have found a discrepancy in their credit or spending habits. The FBI gets reports from banks. They all hear about different methods, like sticking a piece of X-ray film in an ATM to prevent the card from coming out. The thief then acts as a good Samaritan, pretending to help while watching the owner of the card re-input his or her PIN.  

There is no age limit on identity theft, according to Johnson, who said they had had reports of children stealing mail from relatives for their personal information.

The more sophisticated thieves create an entire illusion, Johnson said, instead of just isolated events for quick cash. Many times they will establish bank accounts and create multiple identities. For a few hundred dollars a criminal can enter someone’s personal information online, add his or her own picture and have a fake ID that looks completely legitimate sent to them. After they receive the fake ID, they can go to the health department to get a certified birth certificate, followed by a “replacement” Social Security card.

“Now they are the victim,” Johnson said.

Proving and Prosecuting

For local law enforcement, the problem is in receiving the complaints and then being able to prove them.

“We charge if we can prove it,” Anderson said. “Every case is different but the trouble is we’re just a small community and a lot of the identity thefts happen online, so it’s hard to get to everything and to track it all.”

The FBI usually finds out when there has been a large compromise of credit cards, a rash of thefts noticed by the banks or just an astute victim. From there, they investigate to find the common theme, often a bunch of cards used at the same business.

When they have enough to prove the theft, criminals are almost always charged with aggravated identity theft, which comes with an automatic two-year prison sentence. Aggravated identity theft usually requires a more complicated scheme, but it can apply to any case. Federal investigators like to charge it because of the heavy penalty.

Will The Thefts End?

Even Johnson admits that for every step in policing the identity thieves that the government makes, the criminals find another way around the systems.

Identity theft, whether it be online, in the mail or in-person, has been going on for years, but it is a still a relatively new thing for investigators, consumers and prosecutors alike. Keen and Anderson agree that, on the local level, they are still figuring out how to track the criminals and how to find out about the crimes before the suspects can get too far off the map. The FBI and the Secret Service are working together to find a way to catch the thieves, but the learning process continues.

“I see the problem leveling off sometime, when we learn more about it, but this is a problem we’re going to deal with for the next decade at least,” Johnson said.

How to Protect Yourself

The way to avoid identity theft is surprisingly simple. It doesn’t even have to involve paying for security services like LifeLock.

“You just have to be vigilant,” Johnson said. “Make sure you’re always balancing your checkbook and examining line items on your credit statement. One of the biggest things is checking your credit report, which you can do for free online through the government’s website - annualcreditreport.com - without having to enroll in anything.”

As far as buying security, Johnson recommends investing in computer protection more than anything else.

Anderson added that anything asking for a bank account should be completely avoided. Consumers should pay local companies if they are paying bills online and make sure all the sites they go to on the Internet are secure.

As far as what consumers can do to protect themselves on a daily basis, in restaurants and running errands, Johnson had a simple answer for that as well.

“Pay cash.”

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