Gimme your name and SSN
The heist of thousands of personal records underscores a national ID-theft scourge
Last year, more than 9 million Americans had their identities stolen. Thieves used the personal identification of others to take over or open up credit card and bank accounts, or apply for car loans and cellular phone service. The bogus accounts cost the economy $53 billion and forced victims to spend 260 million hours on the phone, in court, or writing letters to resolve these messes. A total of 28 million Americans were victimized over the past five years.
That's 13 percent of the U.S. adult population.
What used to be considered a nuisance is now a full-blown epidemic. But here's some bitter medicine: No matter how vigilant you are in guarding your personal information, no matter how thorough you are at shredding your financial statements, there is no vaccine for identity theft. "You can reduce the risk of getting it, but there is absolutely no way you can totally prevent it," says Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a consumer advocacy organization.
This message was driven home loud and clear recently when ChoicePoint, a leading information broker that provides data on individuals--including names, addresses, and Social Security numbers--to insurers, landlords, and other businesses, acknowledged that it had been duped into providing some of those sensitive details to 50 phony firms: A criminal organization had set up the firms to pose as legitimate buyers of information, but their true intent was stealing identities. So far, more than 700 people whose identities were nabbed have had their addresses changed without their consent, a common step identity thieves take before opening new lines of credit in a victim's name.
As many as 145,000 personal files--law enforcement authorities say possibly even more--may have been breached, but it's not yet known how many of those individuals have been financially defrauded. Only one person has been sent to prison so far in the ChoicePoint case. But "he was a very small player in what we think is a major criminal effort," says Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office.
Extreme vigilance. Even if every one of the criminals is eventually brought to justice, the individuals whose identities were compromised still aren't out of the woods. "There's a huge international black market for identity theft," says Mark Durham, communications director for Identity Theft 911, a San Francisco-based firm that offers consumer education and victims' assistance services. There's no way to tell what the criminals did with the information or whom they may have sold it to. "If you're a victim, you're going to have to watch your back for a very long time," says Durham.
Perhaps the most frightening aspect of this case is that it points to the numerous shortcomings of the nation's data-collection system. For example, ChoicePoint, which maintains 19 billion personal records in its database, ought to have the most rigid security standards. "If this isn't an eye-opening case on the threats to our privacy, I don't know what is," says Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, who plans to propose legislation to better regulate information brokers. Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee said it planned to hold hearings on the privacy responsibilities and practices of the data-gathering industry.
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