Best Way To Catch An Indentity Thief: Do It Yourself
from the start-running dept
We've noted several times the disastrous mess that identity theft leaves its victims to clean up. The damage fraudsters do can have effects that linger on long after the standard post-data-leak offering of a year's free credit monitoring, particularly as credit bureaus don't make it easy to correct errors on credit reports and banks aren't always helpful. Payments News points to an interesting story from the SF Chronicle several days ago that describes how one identity thief was caught -- by her victim. The victim was in Starbucks one morning, and noticed a woman wearing a coat that looked exactly like one she'd seen in a security photo taken at a store when one of her credit cards was being used. She called 911 and chased the woman on her own for 45 minutes, then when a cop finally showed up, the thief was arrested. Given that more than six months had passed since the initial theft, it doesn't seem like the banks' investigators or the police were making much headway in their investigations, and without the victim's determination and a healthy bit of luck, it's hard to see the fraudster getting caught. Still, her conviction and subsequent sentencing aren't exactly impressive: a judge sentenced her to time already served of 44 days and gave her three years' probation. The fact that she was already on probation didn't really seem to stop her from committing identity theft in this case, so it's hard to be optimistic it will stop her in the future. With identity theft a problem that continues to grow, this tale is hardly confidence inspiring, and it's clear that much work needs to be done in both the prevention of identity theft, as well as the investigation and prosecution of those who perpetrate it.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Identity theft
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identity theft
I'd even pay extra to have my report locked, and require phone or email verification to release a credit report. If Congress is going to pass laws in this area, I'd like them to require credit agencies to offer this service.
They don't seem inclined to offer it themselves, presumably because it would mean less business.
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Re: identity theft
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Identity theft
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california credit freeze
Also, note the 3-5 day turnarounds on locking and unlocking the account. We'll see how it works in practice.
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Is this the man who steals the indents from my paragraphs in a plain text file?
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Re:
I've noticed when he steals mine that he sometimes gives me a bunch of >>>>>>>s in return.
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No motivation...
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Identity Thieves - Crime = Punishment
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Re: Identity Thieves - Crime = Punishment
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Identity Theft Victim Caught Criminal in the Act
Second, if I were the victim I, would of copied both, my driver's license photo and, current photo of myself on a single piece of paper and, added the police report, title of the complaint and, my full name and, asked each retailer that I had made a purchase at on my bank statement to place this at the front register's so, that if the 'criminal
attempted to use my credit again, the clerk would have the police stations phone number available to immediately contact them and, catch the thief in the act.
Good for the victim that she followed through on catching the thief even, though it was risky the, theif could of had a gun on her. She should still see if she can "freeze" her credit report's as, we can here in Ohio.
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Re: Identity Theft Victim Caught Criminal in the A
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Re: Re: Identity Theft Victim Caught Criminal in t
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Jail time isn't the end of it
I'm sure the criminal punishment along with civil compensation likely does fit the crime. I think the problem is these criminals aren't ever likely to go clean especially when they see their life as hopelessly ruined by their previous actions.
The mentality of these people is often "If you are already ruined, what does a little more damage do if it lets you have some temporary fun?"
And lastly, just because I can understand the situation doesn't mean I have any clue how you would fix this problem.
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Umm Libel?
How about a simple law that states if you have access to any personal information, you have to submit an OPT-IN form annually to the information subjects, in order to maintain the data. The current process now is an opt-out, annually, which is nice for them, since they can hit the reset button after the first year, and release your information.
I mean I would love to see that logic work for me; Walk up to a individual, punch him in the face, when he complains inform him that he did not submit a "punch in the face" opt-out form. To bad I can't afford lobbyist to write that one up for me :(
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For a moment I thought this was a new term...
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Fed up
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i hate thieves
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