December 2004

Imagine going to your mailbox late one afternoon and

Or pulling into your driveway after running errands and experiencing a sudden, sinking realization that you’ve misplaced your wallet. When you get in the house, there’s a message from your credit card company asking them to call you immediately because you’ve exceeded your credit limit.

Think identity theft can’t happen to you?

"Everybody knows an identity theft victim," says Detective Tom Fischer of the Milwaukee Police Department’s White Collar Crimes unit. "But that victim may not even know the crime has happened to them until long after it has occurred."

For example, after investigating the collection letter, Sharon Kertscher’s friend found out that he was a victim of identity theft. "The thief had been using his social security number for four years without my friend’s knowledge," says Kertscher, a relationship banking officer and Prime Time director for Ozaukee Bank. "Identity theft is a crime that sneaks up on you and the victims often find out well after the crime has actually happened."

"Identity theft has been one of the easier crimes to commit and one of the most difficult to get to," notes Fischer.

But how exactly do thieves access our identities? Quite easily, in fact. While there are still those thieves who specialize in dumpster diving and garbage picking, many have chosen much "cleaner" routes.

"We’ve had cases where temporary workers have accessed it by working in hospitals and where health care workers have stolen medical information from their elderly patients," says Fischer. "We’ve also had servers in some major Milwaukee restaurants take the information when people use their credit cards."

One place where Fischer doesn’t see much activity is via Internet commerce. "Some people say they’d never shop over the Internet, but in my opinion, the Internet is safer than a five-star restaurant," he says. "You really don’t know what happens to your card when you hand it over."

So what can you do to protect yourself from becoming a victim of identity theft? First of all, request a copy of your credit reports from credit reporting bureaus. Eventually, consumers will be able to obtain a free annual credit report from a centralized bureau through the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003.

In the meantime, Deb Tomich, vice president of Marketing and Human Resources at Alliance Credit Union in Pewaukee and West Allis, says a good place to start is with your wallet.

"Don’t carry around your social security card," she says. "Take a look at everything you carry with you. Do you really need all that information?"

As for the insurance card that may have your social security number on it, she notes that the health care industry is no longer issuing insurance cards with printed social security numbers.

If you haven’t received a new card, contact your employer’s human resource department to request a new one with the number omitted.

As for the information you do carry, such as a driver’s license, credit cards and debit cards, Tomich suggests making a front-and-back copy of all of them and storing it in a safe place. "If you do find that your wallet has been stolen, you’re going to be in crisis mode," she says. "You’re not going to be thinking clearly and you’re not going to know who to call to cancel your cards."

The next step is to think about your mailbox, a rich source of information for an identity theft. "When you put your flag up, you’re advertising to everyone that you have outgoing mail," says Fischer.

Incoming mail should be taken care of as soon as it arrives. "Shred those unsolicited credit card applications," says Kertscher, who adds that shredders should be used on any document with personal information, including medical documents. "And open up any statements from your bank

or charge accounts. You’ll be able to see right away if there was any unauthorized activity or anything unusual that had occurred."

Identity theft also occurs when people respond to an innocent-sounding (or looking) request for information verification of accounts. When this occurs online, it’s known as phishing. Lending institutions, credit card companies or other providers of services will rarely make unsolicited phone calls or send e-mails requesting such information.

"While many of these requests will look quite legitimate, they are often poorly worded or contain spelling errors," notes Tomich.

 information, there are two basic ways to check it out: Either call the known customer service number on a statement or bill to find out or go to the real corporate Web site by manually typing in its address. Never follow the links imbedded in a solicitation e-mail.

Victims of identity theft should never attempt to confront the thief. Depending on how the stolen information is used, it is sometimes possible to track down the offender. Fischer says this is not a good idea.

"Nationwide, 53 percent of gangs are funding their activities through identity theft operations," he says. "Even though it may seem like a simple situation, it

may not be. We’ve found that in many instances the thieves are not well organized - a good majority of them are people who simply can’t afford to buy things themselves - but this is a group of people with a potential for violence."

Instead, identity theft victims should work with their lending institutions, credit agencies and local law enforcement to resolve the problem.