[September 11, 2009]

Boulder ID theft summit: Fighting crime bit by byte

Sep 11, 2009 (Daily Camera - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Police pulling someone over these days must look for more than a handgun tucked into the console or a knife hidden underneath the driver's seat.

Tools of the modern-day criminal include laptop computers and magnetic card encoders and readers, with which someone can pilfer hundreds of thousands of credit card numbers and create a cavalcade of phony ATM and credit cards that can wipe out bank accounts and charge up astronomical debt.

That was the sobering message from Justin Feffer, a member of the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Electronic Crimes Task Force, during an identity theft summit held at Boulder police headquarters Thursday.

"People are doing this because it's too easy not to be doing it," Feffer told 60 or so officers, detectives and agents from local, state and federal agencies who attended the summit from across Colorado.

He pointed out a Web site that sells a machine that can print logos and holograms on blank magnetic card stock. It can then punch numbers and letters into the card and apply a thin layer of silver color to the embossed surface to give the card an authentic look.

"This stuff's out there -- you can buy it," Feffer said.

And that means local law enforcement needs to be aware of it, Feffer said, and know how to recognize the signs that someone may be perpetrating electronic crimes -- be it in the realm of credit card theft, child pornography or identity theft.

Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett told the assembled crowd that ID theft is the top complaint at his office's consumer protection division.

He praised Colorado's tough laws against assuming someone else's identity, saying identity theft has the same felony designation as second-degree assault and carries a prison range of two to six years.

But he said his office doesn't have the resources to fully delve into complex computer crimes, instead parceling out that kind of analysis to state or federal labs that have the expertise on staff.

"There are some offices that have folks that do nothing but computer forensics," he said. "I don't have that yet." Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner said electronic crimes and identity theft have become pressing enough problems for his department that he plans by spring to have a computer forensic detective on staff.

"We're in a transition period right now where we're going to get someone up to speed to do those computer forensics," he said. "The idea is to put in place a person who is an expert in electronic data collection devices." Beckner said as frightening as the prospect of identity theft is, there's a flip side to all the high-tech information gathering and storage that goes on in today's world.

He said police have been able to crack cases by finding extraneous and incriminating bits of electronic data on computers, cell phones and PDAs.

The 2006 murder case of Boulder businessman and bodybuilder Sergio Libman may never have been solved had it not been for the fact that Ryan Barry called Libman on his cell phone about a car he had for sale, the chief said.

Barry, who was later convicted by a jury of killing Libman in Boulder's Steelyards neighborhood, is serving a life sentence behind bars.

"Had we not had the ability to download that information off the cell phone, who knows?" Beckner said.

To see more of the Daily Camera, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dailycamera.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo.

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