Eye on the Market

The forgery and identity theft mastermind portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in the 2002 film Catch Me If You Can has put together a list of tips to avoid being a victim of identity theft.

Frank W. Abagnale Jr., who is now an anti-fraud adviser to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and to other government agencies and corporations, has written columns advising consumers on how to prevent identity theft for the www.Bankrate.com Web site.

In his commentary, Abagnale notes that while lenders ultimately pay the steepest price for identity theft crimes, individual consumers who are victims, on average, "will spend $1,374 and 175 hours cleaning up their credit reports."

He also says, "I don’t know of any crime that’s easier—and easier to get away with—than identity theft." He says that written checks alone contain enough information to get an identity thief started.

Abagnale also says that identity thieves have become bolder, opening several accounts, perhaps going so far as to apply for a car loan or even a mortgage.

Despite the discouraging words, Abagnale also offers 14 prevention tips, including:

• Refuse to print your Social Security number on your checks or to have it printed
by retailers on a check.

• Cross-cut shred bank statements and credit card statements and applications.

• Look at credit card statements carefully each month to check for unfamiliar and
unauthorized activity.

• Photocopy the backs of credit cards and other cards carried in your wallet so, in case of a lost or stolen wallet, banks can be called immediately to put a freeze on account activity.

• Remove your name from marketing lists, contacting the major credit bureaus
and the Direct Marketing Association to request placement on name-deletion lists.

The entire list can be found at www.bankrate.com/brm/news/advice/20030124b.asp.

Identity thieves have apparently pegged a new information stealing technique to the 2004 elections, according to the Missouri Office of the Secretary of State.

Missouri residents who receive telephone calls soliciting personal information on the claim that "corrections" are needed in local voter rolls have been asked to contact law enforcement officials immediately and then notify their local election officials, Secretary of State Matt Blunt says.

Blunt’s office in Jefferson City has been notified that such incidents have been reported in at least five different Missouri counties.

These false solicitations occur as follows:

• A resident is called by a person who claims to represent a well-known non-partisan civic organization.

• The caller claims to work in "the voter registration office," and maintains that errors have been found in the person’s registration and are in need of correction.

• The caller then solicits personal information, including Social Security number and date of birth.

• In some cases, residents are told that they have been removed from the voter list but will be able to re-register on the phone if they provide personal information.

"Absolutely no personal information should be provided in response to such a telephone call," says Blunt. "Law enforcement believes this is a new form of identity theft, preying on people’s concern that they will be unable to vote in [an upcoming] election."

The MSNBC.com Web site recently featured a book excerpt from the network’s Bob Sullivan, who has written Your Evil Twin, a book about identity theft.

In a chapter that was excerpted on the Web site (www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5763781/?GT1=5035) this fall, Sullivan spins the tale of an identity thief serving time in prison who paved an identity theft trail of destruction through the entertainment industry.

While jailed in the 1990s, James Rinaldo Jackson was able to obtain information from unsuspecting insurance and credit card representatives and blaze a trail of illicit purchases. Sullivan’s book implies that Jackson was able to obtain information from, first, the Screen Actors Guild and then from credit card companies with little difficulty.

Once out of jail, his activities increased until he was apprehended with a $55,000 Cadillac Allante and a $40,000 Lexus in his driveway as well as luxury items and travel expenses made at the expense of others, including former Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin.