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Chattanooga: Consumers warned holiday open door for identity theft(Chattanooga Times (Free Press, TN) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Dec. 8--While shoppers are busy taking advantage of holiday sales, identity thieves are finding bounty of their own. Anne Wallace, president of the Identity Theft Assistance Center, said law enforcement officers often note people out shopping in the malls are a target for criminals and bad economic times are an opportunity for crime. "This season, we have both," said Ms. Wallace, whose national organization shares data about identity theft cases with federal and state law enforcement agencies. Identity theft is a year-round threat, said Chattanooga police Sgt. Mike Minnick of the department's property crimes division. Because people are more distracted during the busy holiday shopping season, thefts of wallets and credit cards are more common, which can lead to identity theft. Identity theft often is an intangible loss, so even realizing a breach of information has occurred can be difficult, said Betsy Broder, an assistant director in the Federal Trade Commission's Division of Privacy and Identity Protection. "Information ... can be stolen without a physical transfer of anything," Ms. Broder said. "In 50 percent of cases I deal with, victims don't know how the information was stolen." FTC statistics show that only about one-third of identity theft victims report the loss to local law enforcement, even though the resulting report can be crucial in resolving problems. Even if victims find out about the crime, the criminals may be outside the reach of local police departments, said Chattanooga police Sgt. Mike Minnick of the department's property crimes division. "A lot of identity theft that gets reported to us occurs out of our jurisdiction from people who live here, like someone who says that someone in Arizona set up a credit card in their name," Sgt. Minnick said. Resolving identity theft can be time-consuming, an FTC report shows. In 63 percent of cases where an identity theft resulted in new accounts being opened in the victim's name, resolution took more than a month, according to the FTC's 2006 Identity Theft Survey Report. In most cases, however, ID theft can be resolved quickly if a discrepancy is caught soon enough, Ms. Wallace said. "We strongly encourage people to monitor their accounts online for anything suspicious," she said. "If you see something suspicious, call your financial services company right away. Don't wait for the end of the month." Online resources provide a plenty of tips to prevent identity theft from occurring, but defense begins with thinking logically, especially when tough economic times make "get out of debt" Internet scams more tempting than ever, Ms. Wallace said. "Our best advice is, 'If it sounds too good to be true, it is,'" she said. "You never wear out your need for common sense." To see more of the Chattanooga Times/Free Press, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.timesfreepress.com. Copyright (c) 2008, Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Tenn. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |