By DOUG NURSE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
March 19, 2009
For identity thieves, crime pays.
Two Florida experts told about 80 police investigators at a seminar Thursday in Alpharetta there is little incentive for police departments to deter identity theft. Even though identity theft ruins thousands of lives and costs millions of dollars, few such thieves are caught, fewer are convicted, and even fewer receive significant jail time, Wayne Ivey, Florida Department of Law Enforcement agent.
Miami-Dade Police Detective Juan Koop and Ivey spoke at a identity theft summit sponsored by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and LifeLock, a company that specializes in battling identity theft.
Local police departments have other priorities than identity theft, and not many police are interested in pursuing such cases because they’re hard work and not very sexy, Koop said.
“Sometimes we’re a little lazy, and we need to do better,” he said.
Federal agencies often have $200,000 threshold before they pursue a case, which means a lot of cases are dropped, Koop said.
Many judges give identity thieves relatively short sentences, sometimes just probation, he said.
Part of the problem is that an estimated 65 percent of identity theft goes unreported, Ivey said. Many victims are elderly and are ashamed they’ve been victimized, or they’re afraid their grown children will say they can no longer manage their own affairs and take away their independence, he said.
Elderly people are a favorite target of identity thieves because they tend of have good credit that they don’t use very often or ever check, Ivey said. That allows thieves to take advantage of their credit for long periods of time without detection, he said. Older people also may not know who to call.
Thieves also take advantage of older people’s loneliness, trust, and not being familiar with current rules or technology.
In one recent scam, callers will tell people they’re from the IRS and their stimulus check is ready, but they need to confirm bank account numbers and other personal information. Another fraud occurs when callers say they’re with the court system and that a bench warrant has been issued because the person failed to show up for jury duty. But, they say the whole mess can probably be cleared up if the person will just provide some information.
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