Charles Summers took a vacation and rented a car, never suspecting the employee taking his information for the rental would keep it to open a credit card and buy thousands of dollars worth of computer equipment.
The New England regional administrator for the Small Business Administration recounted his story on April 15 to a group of Rhode Island businesspeople at the first in a series of SBA seminars called, “Protect Your Business from Identity Theft.”
Some of the people in the group of about 20 attendees related firsthand to his plight – they also had their identities stolen.
“It is no longer a question of if, it is a question of when it will happen to you,” said John Palangio, director of Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch’s Consumer Protection Unit.
Identity theft is the crime of the 21st century; it is much easier to pull off than dealing drugs or robbery because it is very difficult for law enforcement to trace these crimes back to an actual person, said U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Alcides Evora. The Secret Service investigates financial crimes over a certain amount.
“Catching these criminals is nearly impossible because they aren’t right next door. They are overseas in Nigeria and Russia stealing from you over the Internet, or they have many fake IDs they use,” Evora told the group. “Prevention – being a smart consumer – is the key.”
Identity theft criminals steal your incoming and outgoing mail. They see the red flag on the box as the “steal me” alert, Evora said. Some dress up as homeless people and dig through trash looking for personal information, pretending they are searching for food. Other scammers send out mass e-mails from banks asking for account verification to get people to give up their personal information. Others are unscrupulous employees at stores and businesses who keep customer information and use it to steal their credit.
There are ways to prevent identity thieves from ruining your credit, which can take years to repair.
*Use strong passwords – combination of upper case, lower case letters, numbers and symbols – for your personal accounts.
*Get copies of your credit report at least once a year.
*Never share personal information over the phone. If someone calls asking for it, hang up and call the company to find out if they need any information.
*If you lose your wallet, call the three credit agencies and have a fraud alert placed on all your accounts. It is a free service that will stop your cards from being used.
*Have virus protection software installed on your computer – there are viruses that cause your computer to send out information that can be used to steal your identity.
*Even when all precautions are taken to prevent identity theft, hackers are able to get into company databases and steal information.
State Sen. Daniel DaPonte, an East Providence Democrat, submitted legislation that would force companies, whose information systems are hacked, to immediately report the breech to consumers to prevent companies from keeping a breech secret. The legislation is under review in the General Assembly.
