This From: Baltimore Sun, October 13, 1998
http://www.sunspot.net

Identity theft robs victims of more than their names
Losses from fraud may exceed $1 billion a year, experts say
http://www.sunspot.net/cgi-bin/editorial/story.cgi?storyid=900000205083

By
Del Quentin Wilber
Sun Staff

After moving into his Baltimore apartment the other day, Leon Bean couldn't
turn on a light. And that was the least of his troubles.

Since 1996, when his birth certificate was stolen in a burglary, the
25-year-old nursing assistant has been jailed for a crime he did not commit
and has received bills for necklaces and groceries he did not buy. The
electric company wouldn't turn on his power because it said he owed $1,400.
But it was a debt run up by someone else.

"I had to prove who I was, that I was the real Leon Bean," he said.

Bean is the victim of identity theft and fraud, crimes that are sweeping
the country, costing financial institutions millions of dollars while
causing grief for victims.

A Baltimore man is accused of assuming Bean's identity, setting up a
checking account in Bean's name and defrauding his bank of thousands of
dollars.

Yet, two years after the burglary, Bean's struggles continue.

"Every time I go into a bank and try to set up an account, they look at me
like I'm crazy," Bean said.

Once the province of organized rings such as Nigerian fraud artists who
swindled area residents of millions of dollars lastyear, common crooks have
found identity theft easy and lucrative.

The proliferation of such fraud has prompted a proposed law in Congress and
a recent report by the General Accounting Office that stressed the threat
of identity theft. The report offered no estimates of nationwide losses,
but some experts say they exceed $1 billion a year.

"This has become the path of least resistance for criminals," said Jim
Bauer, deputy assistant director of the U.S. Secret Service, which monitors
identity theft. "At first, sophisticated rings were into it. Now, it is
becoming commonplace."

Last year, the Secret Service arrested 9,455 people on charges of
committing financial crimes while using someone else's identity. The cost
to victims, including banks and individuals, was more than $700 million in
those cases.

Consumer advocates say criminals assume the identities of about 350,000
people a year. Some authorities worry that the widespread availability of
personal information -- on the Internet, from data bank services and
private companies, and from government agencies -- could cause an explosion
of identity theft.

"It's absolutely scary, the amount of information that's out there about
you," said Katie Nohe, consumer advocate for the Maryland Public Research
Interest Group.

Identity theft is nothing new. In the Bible, Jacob dressed as his twin and
received an unintended blessing from his father, Isaac. Wild West outlaws
and mobsters took on others' names to escape detection.

Thieves have forged checks and swiped credit card receipts, stealing
millions from companies and wreaking havoc with victims' credit reports.

When banks and credit card companies began monitoring purchases with
computers and alerting cardholders to unusual buying spates, thieves
created their own accounts -- in others' names.

Essential ingredients

Now, when rummaging through trash cans and ferreting through mailboxes,
crooks are seeking papers containing Social Security numbers and birth
dates, the essential ingredients of identity fraud.

"It's an epidemic," said Lt. Jay Fisher, commander of the Baltimore Police
Department's property crimes section. "This is a huge web we're caught in."

Bean, the Baltimore victim, knows that well.

A few months after the burglary, he received a notice from the Home
Shopping Network and another from Provident Bank about purchases and
overdrawn accounts.

When Bean tried to close a checking account, he learned that there was a
warrant for his arrest on charges of depositing stolen checks.

For someone else's crime, Bean spent a day in jail.

Bean professed his innocence, but few believed him -- until he was directed
to Baltimore police Detective David Wimmer. Eventually, Wimmer arrested a
city man accused of stealing Bean's identity, getting a Motor Vehicle
Administration learner's permit and establishing the fake account, police
said.

Prosecutors then dropped the charges against Bean.

Timothy Mark Barnette, 25, of the 1000 block of Edmondson Ave. is scheduled
for trial next month on charges of theft and using false documents in
connection with the false bank account.

In a Howard County case last month, Brenda Moon of Baltimore received a
notice about a loan application she supposedly had requested. But she had
never asked for one, and she alerted national credit bureaus.

Within days, she got a call from Norwest Financial Leasing Inc. in Ellicott
City, where a woman was seeking a $5,000 loan in Moon's name to take her
children to Disney World.

Moon called Howard County police detectives, who waited outside Norwest
Financial until the $5,000 check was issued. Police arrested a couple in
the parking lot as they left the business.

Larry Lamont Bush, 38, and Yvette Denise Canty, 35, both of Baltimore, were
charged with theft and released on bail.

"I thought this only happens to people with money," said Moon, a secretary
at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Cache of information

Detectives said they searched Bush's home and found an astonishing cache of
information -- Social Security numbers, names and addresses -- on more than
60 area residents, said Howard County police Cpl. Ellsworth Jones.

They also found 27 stolen credit card numbers and credit histories on two
dozen people, Jones said.

Bush allegedly set up a fake storage business and then asked a California
credit bureau for histories on potential applicants, Jones said.

The credit bureau sent the information to Bush via the Internet, Jones said.

"A lot of people hold their credit history or report pretty dear to them,"
Jones said. "For someone to gain access to it so easily, that could really
damage a lot of people."

In the cases of Bean and Moon, police say, the losses could have been far
bigger. In many instances, criminals pillage accounts for months or years
without discovery.

In most states, assuming someone else's identity isn't a crime. But once an
identity is used to defraud people, banks or other financial institutions,
the perpetrator can be prosecuted for fraud.

Congress has considered measures that would make the actual theft of
identity a federal offense. The House passed a bill last week, and the
Senate passed a similar version in the summer. Congressional staff members
say a bill could soon be before President Clinton, who has signaled his
intention of signing it into law.

To guard against identity theft, consumer advocates suggest carefully
throwing out papers containing personal information. They also urge
discretion in supplying Social Security numbers and birth dates, and say
consumers should avoid leaving outgoing mail such as credit card bills and
other personal data in their home mailboxes because that offers thieves
easy access.

Bean and Moon say they have learned their lessons.

"I'm just an average person working day to day," Moon said. "I don't have
anything thieves would steal. I just don't want any more bills."

Sun staff researcher Jean L. Packard contributed to this article.