Is the federal government getting the job done when it comes to identity theft? The Department of Justice has issued a document summarizing its progress. Uncle Sam's apparent aim is to convey the message that the government is aggressively working to turn back the rising tide of ID theft. Read on and draw your own conclusions.
The Justice Department defines ID theft as a crime that victimizes people and businesses in every community, from major cities to small towns. In fact, a presidential task force, co-chaired by U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Federal Trade Commission Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras, began working in May to develop a comprehensive national strategy to combat its spread.
The Justice Department expects that its recommendations will result in the improved ability of the government and the private sector to combat this online scourge. Big claims, but the federal government no doubt can bring tremendous resources to bear. And that is the case here with some 17 federal agencies and departments having been mobilized for the job.
Cross-agency cooperation to disrupt identity theft also is increasingly widespread, with federal authorities helping to coordinate 96 task forces and working groups.
Law enforcement authorities can now tap a Federal Trade Commission repository of more than 1 million complaints to identify trends and targets. The idea is to encourage more coordination and data sharing among the 1,300-plus criminal enforcement agencies with access to this system.
• U.S. Attorneys increasingly participate in identity theft task forces or working groups.
• The FBI participates in 21 identity theft/financial crimes task forces or working groups in most of the major metropolitan areas. In addition, the agency's cyber division includes more than 80 working groups to investigate all cybercrime violations, including identity theft and Internet fraud.
• The Secret Service has 51 financial and electronic crimes task forces dedicated to fighting identity theft-related crimes.
• The Postal Inspection Service actively leads 13 financial crimes task forces and working groups.
• Fraud task forces have been set up in 11 cities to enhance interagency communication and improve each agency's ability to pursue fraud investigations.
Before the president receives the final strategic plan in November, a set of interim recommendations are being implemented.
These include:
• The formulation of step-by-step guidance to federal agencies should they suffer a data breach
• A uniform police report to be used by identity theft victims
• An amendment to the criminal restitution statutes that would allow identity theft victims to recover the value of the time that they spend attempting to make themselves whole
• "Good government" measures to reduce the amount of paper currently in circulation that contains Social Security numbers, which can be the most valuable piece of consumer information to an identity thief
Are these recommendations going to be enough? More meat clearly needs to be put on these bones. However, the fact that the government appears to be taking identity theft as a serious matter is a good sign.
Biography Eric J. Sinrod is a partner in the San Francisco office of Duane Morris. His focus includes information technology and intellectual-property disputes. To receive his weekly columns, send an e-mail to ejsinrod@duanemorris.com with "Subscribe" in the subject line. This column is prepared and published for informational purposes only, and it should not be construed as legal advice. The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the author's law firm or its individual partners.
Why don't we copy the rest of the world in this matter. In most places to get a credit card you need a bank account, not just a SS number. It's really an insanity to be able to get hundreds of credit cards on a number that can be obtained so easily. If you have to apply by your bank than it's impossible to just forge numbers....
Make it like in the whole world you have to apply for a credit card by your bank. You can't just get hundreds of credit cards with any Social (not so) Security number. I just can't begin to understand why they don't do this.
In the state of California it is my understanding that both Wells Fargo and Bank of America will issue a bank account with only a Mexican matricula. No social, no drivers license, not passport needed. I do not believe that banks are in any way concerned with identity theft as a whole. They want all the clients they can get and at they will stoop to any level to do so.
Identity theft by illegal aliens constitutes the largest numbers by far. While the vast majority of undocumented workers only use the stolen ssn to get work, the theft occurs nonetheless. The fallout of this sometimes comes years after the theft has occured. The government needs to, and can, address the illegal immigration problems first and foremost. This will solve a miriad of other problems too.
While the government, and all the aforementioned agencies, toy around with these commissions, simply communicating with one another in a meaningful way would be better. For example: millions of employers report earnings on ssn numbers that are issued to children under the working age. Well, that is a tip that could easily be spotted by computer analysis and sent to another agency for enforcement. But apparently there are either laws or other political reasons for not doing so.
In any case, I do not believe the banks are the answer to the ID theft problem. We pay dearly to our government and they are not ony capable but responsible for such enforement.
10 million people a year are affected by identity theft. Credit bureaus and data brokers buy and sell your name, address, Social Security number and credit file to anyone who will pay for it.
They oppose credit freezes because they think consumers' credit information is their product to sell. They make money every time they sell your information to banks, mortgage brokers, car dealerships and other retailers. Of course they don't want consumers to have control over their credit files; it takes away their bread and butter.
Consumers should have the right to see and monitor their own credit. If the credit bureaus didn't sell our information, those who issue credit wouldn't be able to give credit to the wrong persons. It is time we stopped this legal form of racketeering.
Credit freezes for all or victims only?. - A bill pending in the House of Representatives would limit who can put a security freeze on credit reports. brn/060911/19696.html
Don't delay. Demand the right to freeze your credit report and regain control of your most vital information.
I don't believe identity theft will ever be fixed. Yea, right you say. Yes it can you say. How do I prove I am me? Memorizing a number? Apply only in person? That only proves I exist, not who I really am. Let's get a little deeper. Fingerprints, DNA. That will prove I'm me. Well, only if a previous sample is on file to compare it to. Once again, it proves I exist, not who I am. But wait, DNA can prove what lineage I come from. That helps immensley. Oh, you want me to give a DNA sample to be kept on file. That violates my right to privacy. As a collective we seem not to want anybody who can protect us to know who we are, but we want them to stop someone from impersonating me when I cannot prove who I am. Boy, what a mess. I do believe it can be minimized a bit though, but the public won't like it. 1. Credit can only be applied for and obtained IN PERSON. 2. Everybody requesting credit must submit at minimum finger prints and photo to be stored in a database. This must be checked before credit is issued. If a conflict occurs, all parties must be contacted and arrangements made to identify all. 3. Criteria for recieving credit must be revised. Credit giving agencies need to be held more liable and to a higher standard. 4. Penalties for ID theft need to be sterner. This will not fix the problem, but may help slow it down. You may ask why I have this attitude on ID theft, well I'm a victim. So is my mom. Let me tell you a little about what you have to look forward to if you become a victim too. In my moms case: My father needed an attorney. He hired one that was reputible. He was in jail at the time. My mother divorced him for the reason he was in jail. With power of attorney I closed all credit accounts that would not remove my moms name from the account. One day my mom gets a letter from one of her credit card issuers saying because of her recent credit standing decline they were raising her interst rate. Apon looking at her credit report an account formerly "closed" was re-activated and a large sum of money was spent. The next day my fathers attorney calls and tells us that his legal secretary may have compromised my moms identity, among others. The legal secretary was caught, pleaded guilty to fraud, senteced to jail and court ordered restitution be paid to the credit card company. I filed all the paperwork with the credit card company and sent them all the court documents showing the fraud, thought I did good..laugh laugh. That was in June / July of 05. After fighting the credit card company (they claim they didn't have to agree with the courts and the person's guilty plee) and repeating the story countless times to collection agencies my mother recieved a letter from the credit card company stating that they have found her not liable for the charges. By the way, it took them 1 year and 2 months to come to this conclusion. So, fixing the problem, it won't happen as I see it.
Going after the criminals after they commit the crime is barely a solution. They need to hold the parties that make ID theft possible more responsible....namely banks, telecoms, insurance companies etc. This is where a good portion of the problem will be in the future. As in the HP pretexting scandal, it doesn;t seem to be all that hard to get ahold of peoples data online. I doubt if its all that much harder to get banking info as it is telephone records.
Nothing the federal government is proposing to be done will stop this crime, or even slow it down. I for one am a victim of this crime and when I went to report it, the police said, "that very few of the Identity Theft thieves ever get caught."
The theft doesn't always happen the way you might think. Many times unethical employees are collecting personal information at banks, savings and loans, and other financial institutions and then selling it to their contacts.
This information is used to open up new credit cards which get promptly used through all facets of our society, to buy items and drop shipped to points around the country. The thieves know approximately how much they can charge on the card without the red flag going off. Once, the thieves get close to the flag limit, they then go on to the next credit card.
So, until the government figures out how to catch and prosecute these thieves, anything the government says that they are going to do is nothing more than talk.
FOR 200 YEARS THIS COUNTRY WORKED FINE WITHOUT CREDIT REPORTS. SUDDENTLY NOW THE CREDIT SCORE RULES YOUR LIFE! WHY? WHO GAVE THE BANKERS THE RIGHT TO DO THIS? THIS IS NOTHING BUT RACKETEERING. DID THE PEOPLE OK IT? I DONT THINK SO. LOOK ON THE INTERNET DOES ANY ONE QUESTION IT? I DON'T SEE ANYONE...THAT IS VERY STRANGE! SOME THING IS VERY WRONG HERE AND NO ONE QUESTIONS IT! REMEMBER THE "LEAST NO MAN CAN BUY OR SELL THING".WHY DO THE CREDIT REPORTS HAVE MORE POWER OVER YOUR LIFE THAN THE GOVERMENT? CAN YOU TELL ME????????
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Identity theft by illegal aliens constitutes the largest numbers by far. While the vast majority of undocumented workers only use the stolen ssn to get work, the theft occurs nonetheless. The fallout of this sometimes comes years after the theft has occured. The government needs to, and can, address the illegal immigration problems first and foremost. This will solve a miriad of other problems too.
While the government, and all the aforementioned agencies, toy around with these commissions, simply communicating with one another in a meaningful way would be better. For example: millions of employers report earnings on ssn numbers that are issued to children under the working age. Well, that is a tip that could easily be spotted by computer analysis and sent to another agency for enforcement. But apparently there are either laws or other political reasons for not doing so.
In any case, I do not believe the banks are the answer to the ID theft problem. We pay dearly to our government and they are not ony capable but responsible for such enforement.
bureaus and data brokers buy and sell your name, address,
Social Security number and credit file to anyone who will pay for
it.
They oppose credit freezes because they think consumers' credit
information is their product to sell. They make money every time
they sell your information to banks, mortgage brokers, car
dealerships and other retailers. Of course they don't want
consumers to have control over their credit files; it takes away
their bread and butter.
Consumers should have the right to see and monitor their own
credit. If the credit bureaus didn't sell our information, those
who issue credit wouldn't be able to give credit to the wrong
persons. It is time we stopped this legal form of racketeering.
Credit freezes for all or victims only?. - A bill pending in the
House of Representatives would limit who can put a security
freeze on credit reports.
brn/060911/19696.html
Don't delay. Demand the right to freeze your credit report and
regain control of your most vital information.
1. Credit can only be applied for and obtained IN PERSON.
2. Everybody requesting credit must submit at minimum finger prints and photo to be stored in a database. This must be checked before credit is issued. If a conflict occurs, all parties must be contacted and arrangements made to identify all.
3. Criteria for recieving credit must be revised. Credit giving agencies need to be held more liable and to a higher standard.
4. Penalties for ID theft need to be sterner.
This will not fix the problem, but may help slow it down.
You may ask why I have this attitude on ID theft, well I'm a victim. So is my mom. Let me tell you a little about what you have to look forward to if you become a victim too.
In my moms case:
My father needed an attorney. He hired one that was reputible. He was in jail at the time. My mother divorced him for the reason he was in jail. With power of attorney I closed all credit accounts that would not remove my moms name from the account. One day my mom gets a letter from one of her credit card issuers saying because of her recent credit standing decline they were raising her interst rate. Apon looking at her credit report an account formerly "closed" was re-activated and a large sum of money was spent. The next day my fathers attorney calls and tells us that his legal secretary may have compromised my moms identity, among others. The legal secretary was caught, pleaded guilty to fraud, senteced to jail and court ordered restitution be paid to the credit card company. I filed all the paperwork with the credit card company and sent them all the court documents showing the fraud, thought I did good..laugh laugh. That was in June / July of 05. After fighting the credit card company (they claim they didn't have to agree with the courts and the person's guilty plee) and repeating the story countless times to collection agencies my mother recieved a letter from the credit card company stating that they have found her not liable for the charges. By the way, it took them 1 year and 2 months to come to this conclusion.
So, fixing the problem, it won't happen as I see it.
But then, Uncle Sam, has no problem, stealing peoples money, bodies and minds, so a little identity theft really isn't such a big deal is it.
Dianne
The theft doesn't always happen the way you might think. Many times unethical employees are collecting personal information at banks, savings and loans, and other financial institutions and then selling it to their contacts.
This information is used to open up new credit cards which get promptly used through all facets of our society, to buy items and drop shipped to points around the country. The thieves know approximately how much they can charge on the card without the red flag going off. Once, the thieves get close to the flag limit, they then go on to the next credit card.
So, until the government figures out how to catch and prosecute these thieves, anything the government says that they are going to do is nothing more than talk.