When an errant item showed up on Chantal Perreault’s banking statement in October, she thought it was simply a misdirected payment. But as the Las Vegas resident delved into the details of the $700 deposit, she found that she had become another casualty of identity fraud.
First there was the disputed banking deposit, then there were letters thanking her boyfriend for opening up credit accounts with J.C. Penney and Wal-Mart. A salesperson from Cingular called to find out why Perreault’s boyfriend wanted to open two more accounts when he already had one with the cellular phone carrier.
“I now have fraud alerts on all three of my credit reports, and I filed [a complaint] with the Federal Trade Commission,” she said. “It’s very inconvenient.”
Identity fraud is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the nation; one study claims there’s a victim every 79 seconds. Experts say one out of eight Americans has been a victim in the past five years.
“It’s bad, bad, bad,” said Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director for U.S. Public Interest Research Group, a consumer advocacy organization in Washington, D.C.
Those stung by an identity thief usually get tangled up in trying to clear their name. Individual victims can spend up to 60 hours trying to undo the damage, according to Your Credit Card Companies, an ad hoc group of some of the largest credit card issuers.
“It’s a nightmare,” Perreault said. “I’m still cleaning it up.”
Perreault isn’t sure how thieves got her checking and savings account numbers, her Social Security number and driver’s license information, or how they managed to ferret out the maiden name of her boyfriend’s mother.
She suspects information used to fill out a mortgage application found its way into dishonest hands since the fraudulent activity began the day after she and her boyfriend closed on their house.
Just how did roughly 3.23 million Americans become identity theft victims last year?
“It’s not rocket science,” Mierzwinski said. “It can be done with sophisticated gangs and it can be done by a high school dropout.”
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Guard personal information
– Protect personal information such as credit card numbers and your Social Security number. Don’t carry your Social Security card with you and keep the number off your checks and driver’s license.
– Review your credit reports at least once a year and check monthly financial statements for suspicious activity. Copies of your credit report are available by calling Equifax at 800-685-1111, Experian at 888-397-3742 and TransUnion at 800-916-8800. Consumer advocates suggest getting copies from all three agencies, since each one has a different way of reporting credit information.
– When paying your credit card bill, put only the last four digits of your account on your check.
– Halt pre-approved credit card offers by calling 888-567-8688 (5OPT-OUT). The process should eliminate some mailings, but it won’t catch them all.
How to respond if you are a victim
– Contact your financial institutions and credit card companies and notify them of the situation. Close any accounts that have been opened fraudulently.
– Call the credit reporting bureaus and ask them to place a fraud alert on your credit report.
– File a police report and contact the Federal Trade Commission’s identity theft hot line at 877-438-4338 or www.consumer.gov/idtheft.
— Lorene Yue
