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Monday, 11 September 2006
Identity Theft - Newsweek Articles
July 4 issue - Newsweek (http://www.msnbc.msn.com)
He was Robbed by the Numbers
Daniel Bulley thought he was covered. The Chicago-based engineer, 42, was paying $40 a year to have the TransUnion credit agency monitor his credit report. Unfortunately, when an identity thief somehow got Bulley’s information and used it to open new credit lines in stores, the stores authorized his credit with one of TransUnion’s rivals, Equifax. In the eight weeks before Bulley caught on, his adversary charged $3,000 on credit cards and spent an additional $1,000 in telephone calls.
Bulley epitomizes how far victims will go to clear their records. He spent hundreds of dollars sending out certified letters to close accounts and, haunted by visions of overseas hucksters, even called the State Department. “I overreacted,” he says. “But it was traumatic.”
Betrayed by a Co-Worker
It was a big, nasty surprise. When Chevonne King-Lewis, a 23-year-old single mother from Atlanta, checked her credit report three years ago, she found that someone had opened more than 25 credit-card accounts, taken out loans and filed for a marriage license in her name. King-Lewis says she tracked down the culprit, an undocumented Mexican immigrant and former Taco Bell co-worker who used to stay at her house and must have gone through her possessions. Her ex-colleague allegedly had run up $37,000 in charges, including a car and a plush $1,200 mattress. Prosecution is pending. “It’s really scary knowing that someone else has been living my life,” King-Lewis says. “They can really get hold of anybody’s information. It’s not hard.”
On the Trail of the Perpetrators
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Hoar, seen here with evidence seized in a single case, wants to bring identity thieves to justice. With help from local detectives Robert Conrad (left) and Steve Williams (right), he’s prosecuting a Springfield, Ore., man who allegedly stole Social Security numbers from 50 victims and ran up a $100,000 tab. In addition to handling Internet fraud cases, Hoar helps coordinate computer-crime training for federal attorneys and FBI agents, and speaks to citizen groups about how consumers can protect themselves. His long-term goal is to cultivate partnerships between law enforcement and private industry. “The elephant in the room appears to be a lack of conversation about solutions,” he says.
Protecting The Right To Privacy
Beth Givens (near left) was fighting identity theft before there was even a name for it. The 54-year-old founder of San Diego’s nonprofit Privacy Rights Clearinghouse educates consumers on how to protect their privacy, helps victims and advocates for new laws that give consumers greater control over how their personal information is used.
In 1997, she met a local ID-theft victim named Linda Foley (far left) and urged her to testify at state ID-theft hearings. Energized, Foley, 56, started the ID Theft Resource Center, which she runs with her husband, Jay. She has since testified on Capitol Hill five times and the center has helped thousands of victims clean their financial records. Last year the center was given the National Crime Victim Service Award by the Justice Department.
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