This From: ABC News.com, October 9, 1998                                                                       
http://www.abcnews.com                                                                                         
                                                                                                               
Identity Crisis                                                                                                
When Someone Else Becomes You                                                                                  
http://www.abcnews.com/sections/us/DailyNews/id_theft981006.html      

"You feel like [your credit rating] is a mark of integrity, and then                                  
        you're treated like a criminal and the whole onus is on you to                                         
        prove you didn't do it."   --identity theft victim Amy DuBois

By                                                                                                             
Jan M. Faust                                                                                                   
ABCNEWS.com                                                                                                    
                                                                                                               
Babies are targeted. So are ex-lovers, ex-roommates, ex-friends and                                            
ex-spouses. And oh yeah, strangers too. People who use the Internet are                                        
definitely at risk. And so are those who don^Òt.                                                               
                                                                                                               
     When it comes to identity theft^×the pilfering of someone^Òs personal                                     
data to get a free ride on a clean record or bountiful credit^×the scams are                                   
so wide-ranging that there can be no generalization about who will get hit                                     
and who won^Òt.                                                                                                
                                                                                                               
Although there are no definite numbers on the incidence of identity theft                                      
in the United States, it is believed to be on an explosive trajectory. Last                                    
year, Trans Union, one of the nation^Òs three major credit bureaus, reported                                   
approximately 350,000 cases of identity fraud. And, the U.S. Secret                                            
Service, a wing of the Treasury Department that gets involved on the larger                                    
cases, arrested approximately 10,000 people for participating in organized                                     
identity theft rings.                                 

As the numbers keep mushrooming, so have costs^×up from $442 million in 1995                                   
to $745 million in 1997, says Assistant Deputy James Bauer of the Secret                                       
Service. ^ÓSo there^Òs been a significant increase in the losses that tell us                                  
they^Òre doing it more and applying a certain level of expertise.^Ô                                            
                                                                                                               
 Your Money and/or Your Life:                                                                                  
                                                                                                               
When your evil doppelgangers go for convertible sports cars, or chunky                                         
diamond necklaces, more than your credit rating can be damaged.                                                
                                                                                                               
     ^ÓI can promise you the day you learn of it you are at least 18 months                                    
from being whole again, ^Ô says Bauer. ^ÓDuring which time you can^Òt buy a                                    
car, get a loan, maybe you^Òre turned down for a job, and you may not even                                     
know why.                                                                                                      
                                                                                                               
     Amy DuBois knows this firsthand. The 34-year-old Boston surgeon was                                       
swindled in what seemed a simple purse filching from her locked desk at the                                    
hospital. She took immediate, and what she assumed was adequate, action by                                     
canceling her credit cards and checks.                                                                         
                                                                                                               
     Once that might have been enough. But as Bauer points out, new                                            
safeguards in the credit industry, like real-time verification of credit                                       
cards, have forced thieves to get craftier.                                                                    
                                                                                                               
     The end result is that now, ^ÓPickpockets will steal your wallet, and I                                   
say this facetiously, but they^Òll give you back the cash, just to get the                                     
IDs,^Ô says Bauer.                                                                                             
                                                                                                               
 Instant Credit Can Be an Instant Headache:  
                                                                                                               
Although DuBois never recovered her purse or the money in it, it was the                                       
identification that was the real commodity. ^ÓNearly two years later,^Ô                                        
DuBois says, ^ÓI got a phone call at home from a collection agency about an                                    
overdue credit account of $3,500 from a jewelry store in Detroit.                                              
                                                                                                               
     ^ÓAnd then they started coming^×I got two more notices in the mail, and                                   
two by phone within the next couple of days.^Ô                                                                 
                                                                                                               
When she checked her credit report, she found that almost $30,000 dollars                                      
of jewelry, roaming cell phone charges, and department store items had been                                    
racked up in her name, from accounts made at department stores with instant                                    
credit, billed to addresses that weren^Òt hers.                                                                
                                                                                                               
     ^ÓThe instant credit folks, like the departments stores, they^Òre not                                     
checking or verifying because they^Òre so eager to have new customers,                                         
because it^Òs so competitive,^Ô says Beth Givens of the Privacy Rights                                         
Clearinghouse, whose consumer organization publishes help for victims. ^ÓI                                     
think the blame for a good bit of this epidemic lays at the feet of the                                        
credit industry.^Ô                                                                                             
                                                                                                               
 Will the Real Amy DuBois Stand Up?                                                                            
                                                                                                               
The fake Amy DuBois, it turned out, was a serious shopaholic. The real                                         
DuBois said that seeing her own credit report was ^Óeerie^Ô                                                    
                                                                                                               
     ^ÓYour student loans are there, your own Neiman-Marcus account, and                                       
then next to those are nine accounts that just aren^Òt yours, marked                                           
delinquent.^Ô                                                                                                  
                                                                                                               
     After 30 hours of her own time, four uninterrupted days of her 
secretary^Òs time, and about $1,000 in lawyer^Òs fees, DuBois is gradually                                     
starting to sort things out.                                                                                   
                                                                                                               
     That^Òs typical, explains Ed Mierswinsky, a consumer advocate at the                                      
U.S. Public Interest Research Group.                                                                           
                                                                                                               
     ^ÓThe victims end up in a real mess. They sit on hold with the credit                                     
card companies, they sit on hold with the credit bureaus, they get on                                          
endless voice mail loops, the police don^Òt care because the amount of money                                   
lost doesn^Òt make their threshold for making major cases and getting                                          
promotions.^Ô                                                                                                  
                                                                                                               
     For DuBois, what lingers now besides the voluminous paperwork needed                                      
to be filed whenever she legitimately needs to establish credit, is                                            
suspicion and mistrust about giving out her personal identifiers.                                              
                                                                                                               
     Recently while trying to open an account at Blockbuster Video, she was                                    
asked for her driver^Òs license and Social Security number. ^ÓI said, ^ÑNo, I^Ò                                
m not providing that. You don^Òt need to have that.^Ò^Ô Although she                                           
eventually relented on the driver^Òs license, she said she^Òs much more                                        
protective of her Social Security number.                                                                      
                                                                                                               
 Give Me Some Credit Here:                                                                                     
                                                                                                               
Guarding that precious number is one key to improving your odds, agree                                         
privacy rights advocates. Criminals will try to liberate it from you in a                                      
number of ways, as low-tech as sifting through your garbage can for                                            
records, and as high-tech as setting up application forms on Internet sites                                    
offering credit cards at the impossibly low, low rate of 1 percent APR.  

                                                                                                               
     And since it^Òs extremely difficult to eliminate risk, Givens suggests                                    
ordering your credit report at least once a year. ^ÓThe key is to catch it                                     
early. We recommend just going to one of the three credit bureaus, and if                                      
you see signs of fraud, then order the other two.^Ô                                                            
                                                                                                               
     That would have helped DuBois, who^Òs says she^Òll feel insecure and                                      
violated for the rest of her life.                                                                             
                                                                                                               
     ^ÓIt^Òs a very strange sensation. I have a very good credit record, I^Òve                                 
been very careful. You feel like it^Òs a mark of integrity, and then you^Òre                                   
treated like a criminal and the whole onus is on you to prove you didn^Òt do                                   
it. The whole thing is very frightening.^Ô                                                                     
                                                                                                               
     For all of her expense and troubles, DuBois^Ò experience could have                                       
been worse. More damaging than run-of-the-mill credit theft are those cases                                    
where criminal records or vital statistics are affected, through marriage,                                     
divorce, an arrest, or even death under the cloned name.                                                       
                                                                                                               
     ^ÓI know of a case out West where a lady died using an assumed name,^Ô                                    
says Bauer, ^Óand the true name holder had to get a death certificate undone.^Ô                                
                                                                                                               
 Recent Examples of Identity Theft:                                                                            
                                                                                                               
*In New York this week, the state attorney general warned of a scam being                                      
circulated through e-mail, faxes and fliers offering consumers a                                               
reimbursement of $500 from Gerber Baby foods as settlement in a phony class                                    
action. To apply, parents were asked to send copies of their child^Òs birth                                    
certificate and Social Security card. Babies^Ò Social Security numbers are                                     
plum because they allow for unflawed credit, and are rarely checked for fraud.       

                                                                                                               
*John and Jane Smith^Òs adult daughter obtained credit cards in their name                                     
and ran up debts of more than $40,000. She paid the interest fees so as not                                    
to alert her parents of her use of the credit cards, but was not able to                                       
keep up the payments. The credit card companies now demand the Smiths pay                                      
the bill, given that the debtor is their daughter.                                                             
                                                                                                               
*A thief stole Annette^Òs wallet, and has since written bad checks in her                                      
name, and used her credit cards. Annette wonders if anyone pays attention                                      
to driver^Òs license photos. The thief is white and Annette is                                                 
African-American. To make matters worse, she has to pay $10 every time she                                     
needs a notarized affidavit stating she is not the crook.                                                      
                                                                                                               
*Meredith rented a room in her home to a woman who found her SSN. She                                          
collected the pre-approved offers of credit that were mailed to the house,                                     
filled them out in Meredith^Òs name, and obtained 15 credit cards. She                                         
watched the mail and retrieved the monthly statements before Meredith saw                                      
them. She has since moved out, leaving Meredith with debts totaling $74,000.                                   
                                                                                                               
*Francine was employed for a time as a writer for a publishing company.                                        
After she left, she found that her employer was using her SSN and driver^Òs                                    
license number to obtain credit in her name. A police department detective                                     
investigating the case told Francine that the woman has a long history of                                      
identity theft spanning many states.                                                                           
                                                                                                               
*Cheryl and her 7-year-old daughter went to the bank to open a checking                                        
account for the daughter. The bank told Cheryl her daughter had a bad                                          
credit report. Cheryl thinks that her ex-husband has been using the child^Òs                                   
Social Security number to open credit accounts.                                                                
                                                                                                               
 The Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act of 1998  
                                                                                                               
A watershed identity theft law proposed by Sen. John Kyl, R-Ariz., when                                        
passed, will be the first to make identity theft a crime. Additionally, it                                     
allows for restitution to the victims, and establishes a central complaint                                     
center to help victims. A staffer for Kyl^Òs office says the act was met                                       
with no serious opposition, because it ^Óis very narrow, it criminalizes                                       
theft, we^Òre not going after any business interests or any other privacy                                      
concern.                                                                                                       
                                                                                                               
Copyright (c)1998 ABCNEWS