January 30th, 2009
fraud . iapp . identity theft . Privacy
Identity Theft – Lower Than Low
Catching up on some of my email, I caught this article in my IAPP Daily Dashboard from the end of December:
IDENTITY THEFT–U.S.
ID Thieves Operate As Digital Grave Robbers When the family of Zal Chapgar began receiving telephone calls verifying information from their son’s credit applications, they thought there must have been a mistake: the 23 year old had died recently. When the calls persisted, they knew something was wrong and learned that identity thieves were attempting to use the deceased man’s digital identity to perpetrate their crime. This story from the Philadelphia Inquirer tells the Chapgar family story and describes how even death isn’t enough to stop the scourge of ID theft.
Full Story
Really? Stealing the identity of the deceased? I suppose this is actually pretty standard and common for fraudsters these days, and maybe throughout history, but for some reason reading about it in the context of some parents who’ve lost a child – and then have to deal with this. Well, that is just disturbing.
The article, by Jeff Gelles of the philly.com Inquirer, summarizes the identity theft problem fairly well and is worth the read. A few tidbits:
- Last year, identity theft drew more than 258,000 complaints to the Federal Trade Commission, a third of all complaints. It led the list for the eighth straight year, eclipsing complaints about catalogue sales, Internet auctions and sweepstakes.
- Formal complaints are the tip of an iceberg. In 2005, an FTC survey estimated that 8.3 million Americans fell victim to some form of identity theft. The most common involved misuse of a victim’s existing accounts.
- The most serious frauds, including the opening of new accounts in a victim’s name, affected an estimated 1.8 million people.
- Identity theft can be a big hassle to any victim, and is quite costly to some. One in 10 victims put the cost of the crime at $1,200 or more. On the other hand, more than half reported no out-of-pocket costs, and among victims of new-account fraud, the median loss was $40, the FTC found.
I don’t know why I’d expect identity theives and crooks to have scruples or morals – but this seems particularly low. It’s really just sad.
Years ago when I first began blogging, I thought I’d blog alot about spam. I’ve had plenty of opportunity, and have done minor posts here and there over the years – either here or on the Return Path blog, but never did keep the momentum going. 