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Somebody stole Jeffrey Brown's I.D. in November 1999. He
didn't find out about it for 11 months--3 weeks before closing on
a mortgage. The thief opened 9 credit accounts, bought a car, rented
an apartment and racked up $45,000 in debt--in Jeffrey Brown's
name. "I was absolutely shocked. I was completely unaware
that anything of this sort could have gone on," said Brown.
Privacy
expert Robert Douglas says I.D.theft is a growing problem. Personal
information--from stolen purses, ATM receipts, trash, or credit
card offers stolen from the mail--was turned into money. Now the
Internet can make stealing I.D. even easier. "An identity
thief can now sit online and apply very quickly for multiple
credit cards in a person's name until they get one that's
accepted for instant credit - and they're on their way,"
said Helen Goff Foster of The Federal Trade Commission.
Douglas
says it's such a lucrative business, organized crime is switching
from drugs to identity theft. "Why are they doing that?
Because they know they don't have much of a chance of ever being
caught, of ever being prosecuted, and if prosecuted, relatively
little chance of ever doing a day in jail," said Douglas.
The
Identity Theft Act of 1998 set up stiff penalties for ID theft
and the FTC has set up hotline for people to file complaints. It
received 25,000 complaints last year, and is receiving 2,000
calls a week.
"Most
people won't be aware that there are accounts opened in their name
until they check their credit report, and most people don't check
their credit report as often as they should, " said Foster.
The experts also say it's much easier to prevent id theft than
clear your credit.
To clean
his credit, Brown went to PromiseMark, a company specializing in
preventing and resolving I.D. theft. According to Bernie Brenner
of PromiseMark, the average time for an individual to clean up
their credit is 175 hours and 23 months once they are victims of
identity theft.
PromiseMark
says it can cut that to a few weeks. For a yearly fee, it
provides customers with firewall software to protect computer
files while they're online, computer virus bulletins and credit
monitoring. It also provides a fraud resolution service to deal
with creditors, law enforcement and all the paperwork if someone
has already stolen your identity.
To prevent
your I.D. stolen, experts suggest shred a document that has any
personal information on it before throwing it away. If you find
your I.D. is stolen, the FTC hotline number is 1-877-ID THEFT.
Related
Links
Reporter:
I.J. Hudson
Web producer: En-Huei Hu
Air date: 02-27-01
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