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CRIME: Identity theft is rampant in
Ridgefield
Sep 6, 2006
It’s complex, tough-to-fight, and it’s rampant in Ridgefield.
Identity theft has become the fastest-growing crime in town,
Ridgefield Police Captain Stephen Brown said last week.
“Over the
last three years it’s increased,” he said. “Identity theft
represents the greatest rise in complaints we’ve seen.”
Identity
theft is no longer about simply stealing credit cards, he said,
although that happens.
For
8 ways to avoid identity theft, see this week's Press.
| More dangerous are sophisticated
criminals whose victims may remain unsuspecting for months or even
years. Once thieves get hold of a victim’s personal identifying
information, they can wreak credit havoc with it. If they readdress
the credit card bills to a fake address, the victim doesn’t even
know he has been victimized.
Hundreds of thousands
“The
detective bureau has worked on a few that run into the hundreds of
thousands of dollars in Ridgefield,” Captain Brown said. “These are
cases where phony accounts have been set up in someone’s name. The
criminals who will do this will try it over and over in many
forms.”
Identity theft has become such a problem that it is
changing the way law enforcement operates, he said.
“We
have to be more technologically savvy, and these types of crimes
require more cooperation between law enforcement agencies and
between businesses and law enforcement agencies,” he said.
“The
solvability rate on identity theft is not high,” he said. “They can
commit these crimes from a distance and many times do it
anonymously. Especially with technology being what it is today, a
criminal doesn’t have to come to Ridgefield to victimize a
Ridgefielder. Or they could steal someone’s mail here and go out of
state or even out of the country to open an account.”
To get a
victim’s identifying information, criminals often take homeowners’
trash or steal mail directly from the mailbox, Captain Brown said.
There are also thieves who specialize in what has been dubbed
“Dumpster diving,” he said.
The
best protection
The best protection is to shred all
mail with identifying information, Captain Brown said. He cautioned
that pre-approved credit cards often contain enough information for
an identity thief to use, so they should be shredded instead of
trashed intact.
Brent DiGiorgio of People’s Bank agreed.
“Shredders are so important these days,” he said. “Shred your
personal information and protect yourself that way.”
The problem
of identity theft is plaguing banks and credit card companies
nationally, not just in Ridgefield, Mr. DiGiorgio said. “It’s the
fastest growing crime in the nation,” he said.
“You need to be
vigilant about maintaining your records and your personal
information,” he said. “One crime I’ve heard of most frequently is
you’re getting a credit card statement every month, and then one
month you don’t get it and then the next, and the person may have
stolen your card and changed the address.”
Identity theft can be
a huge problem for the victim when it is eventually detected, he
said. “There are so many ramifications — it can take years to
restore your good credit and your good name.”
For banks and
credit card agencies, the best protection against identity thieves
is an education, he said. “If we can educate and warn our customers
about how their identity may be stolen, that’s the best we can do,”
he said. “The old slogan ‘forewarned is forearmed’ is so
applicable.”
‘Everyone is
vulnerable’
Captain Brown said the Ridgefield police
have had complaints about several kinds of identity theft.
“We
get calls from people who say they were asked to give some
identifying information over the phone or over the Internet,” he
said. “Some criminals will take mail out of mailboxes or Dumpsters.
Outgoing mail should be put in a post office collection box, rather
than being left in the mailbox with the flag up.”
He said
identity thieves don’t discriminate or prey particularly on the
elderly, which is a common misconception. “Judging by the complaints
we receive, everyone is vulnerable,” he said.
The thefts can be
small unauthorized charges that appear on a credit card, or they can
be very large, he said.
There have been a handful of six-figure
thefts in Ridgefield, he said. “Those are more rare,” he said. “I
think there have been under five since 2003.”
He said one case in
Ridgefield required the help of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
which usually does not handle cases that do not involve a loss of at
least half a million dollars.
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