Given the high rate of fraud and ID theft these days, it’s natural to feel a little vulnerable. But when the institutions we depend on are involved in fraud, we have to wonder if any place is safe. Take for example, the eighteen people indicted for operating a bank fraud and identity theft scheme in New York. According to a report by Jonathan Stempel of Reuters, there are 227 counts in the indictment that involve cashing over a 1,000 counterfeit checks at several banks. Criminals pulled this off by recruiting bank employees to collect data from customer files. The alleged crimes took place between October 2007 and February 2009, so the scheme went on for a while. Huge amounts of money were stolen, including $1.446 million at just one of seventeen targeted banks. To read more on this story go to http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE54Q4PJ20090527

On the other side of the country, a 36 year-old California woman was caught and charged with ID theft, burglary and other charges. According to a report from Redding.com, this enterprising person allegedly used 13 different names while passing more than 50 counterfeit checks over a six month period. Apparently, the woman thought she was so good at her career choice that she phoned the police to brag about he exploits. She’s been sentenced to thirteen years in prison. If you’d like to read the story, check out http://www.redding.com/news/2009/may/27/anderson-woman-sentenced-prison-identity-theft/

I came across an interesting study by the Identity Theft Resource Center that discusses the impact of ID theft on people and businesses. There’s a lot of data in the study, so I won’t repeat all of it here, but a couple of figures stood out. According to the study, opening new lines of credit using someone else’s ID has been the most common financial crime for the past six years. In fact, 67% of victims were in this category. In 2008 it cost victims an average of $739 in out-of-pocket expenses and 58 hours to sort things out. However, if a new account was created in a victim’s name, the hours spent fixing the mess averaged 165 hours. Very discouraging. For more on this interesting study, go to http://www.idtheftcenter.org/artman2/publish/m_press/Identity_Theft_The_Aftermath_2008.shtml

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