Identity Theft – This Kind of Thing Happens All the Time

I was having lunch with my friend, Crystal, the other day and she says to me “Oh, hey.  You’ll find this interesting.  I just had my identity stolen.”

Well, I’m all ears when something like this comes up.  I guess you could say that I am obsessive-compulsive about the topic of ID theft.  I read about it all the time, I write about it, I talk about it, I give speeches and presentations…...  

Perhaps even more importantly, I try to help stop it.

So, this is what happened to my friend.  She received a bill in the mail from AT&T Wireless.  It was unexpected and unlooked-for, because she doesn’t use AT&T, she uses a different cell-phone carrier. The bill was for a new family-plan wireless phone account, with 5 brand new iPhone 6’s, and a voice and data plan to handle 5 people. Well, Crystal pretty much immediately got on the phone and called them up, explaining that she never ordered any phones or services from AT&T.  Initially, the fraud investigator at AT&T pushed-back against her, saying that they had all the correct data to indicate that it was Crystal that had been in the store location and purchasing the goods.  However, after examining the details further, it turned out that the social security number used in applying for the account did not match my friend’s SSN.  Soon after that, the investigation team at AT&T acknowledged that a fraudulent event had occurred, and that Crystal was off-the-hook for the goods.

We were both able to look back and have a small laugh about the situation, but underlying this was the uncomfortable knowledge that Crystal got lucky.  It was an amateurish ID theft operation that performed this particular transaction.  And this, in itself, is pretty shocking, to think that the amateurs got away with what was at least $2000 worth of high-end smart-phone inventory.  How is it possible that an account got approved where the name, address and social security numbers did not all match?

The frightening thing about this little story is that this kind of thing happens all the time!

Even worse, it is becoming easier and easier for brazen thieves to do a better, more professional and complete job of ripping off your identity.  The fact is, many fraudsters WOULD HAVE BEEN armed with Crystal’s actual Social Security Number.  Or, more correctly, they would not have attempted a complex finance fraud without the stolen SSN of their intended victim. 

We have written much in the past about the modern face if identity theft, and how technology has fundamentally changed the playing field.  So, where is all the data being hacked from banks, retailers, merchant processors and government agencies that we hear about in the news going to?  Well, it’s all ending up in the same place, the Dark Markets, where advanced computer experts are able to run database analysis tools and find matching data on individuals.  In this way, they are able to assemble a complete file on a person – including SSN, address, Driver License number, and more, maybe even some of your passwords or PIN numbers!

Looking back on what happened to Crystal, I can say that she REALLY was lucky that it wasn’t one of these people – usually somehow related to organized crime families – who decided to steal her good credit and go out to buy those phones.