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Identity Thieves Not Big On Technology
alphadogg sends us to Network World, as is his wont, for a summary of a new study of identity theft based on the outcomes of more than 500 Secret Service cases from 2000 to 2006. Here is the study report (PDF). The AP has coverage emphasizing other slants on the findings. Among the surprises: just 51% of convicted ID thieves were sent to prison. Only 20% of the cases involved use of the Internet, and such cases may be on the decline. More perpetrators used good old-fashioned dumpster diving and stealing stuff out of mailboxes.
From the AP article: "The Federal Trade Commission has said about 3 million Americans have their identities stolen annually." And this study covers 517 cases over 7 years (2000-2006). I'm sorry, but I can't see a study of 517 cases during a period of approx. 21 million crimes providing really useful data.
Start a happiness pandemic
My mail slot goes straight to a shredder so I'm safe.
Did they really need to spread that out over two pages? There's only one god damned sentence on the second page.
Maybe those who use high tech did not get caught?
Either tech for ID theft is on the decline, or hackers have seeded data to the secret service to make them look the other way! I cry Conspiracy! heh, but seriously, isn't this sort of flip-flop normal? It would always make sense to take care of it the easier way. And if computer security goes beyond the point of paper security, it's time to make the switch! It'll go back though, if the mail / dumpster maintainers start to see their faults.
Use a shredder.
Why should I bother. I have access to your bank account in minutes, I just directly wire money overseas and start laundering them.
There's no even time to start stealing "identities" as it's understood in the classical sense.
That's odd. This summer in Norway, over 100 000 people got their identity stolen when web-services using the registry of all norwegian citizens (to perform tasks like credit check etc.) leaked personal information. I was one of the victims after 60 000 of those thefts happened through Tele2's website (and I have never had anything to do with Tele2 before). Funny thing is, Tele2 knew about the flaw for about 8 months (after several warnings from the Norwegian Data Inspectorate) before the attack and did nothing to fix it. With that kind of mentality and ignorance among people who have access to our personal information, why should I believe that it is declining? Because someone somewhere have statistics that might suggest that it is?
And a fire.
"*just* 51% of convicted ID thieves were sent to prison"
Why exactly would you want to maintain a non-violent criminal in a prison anyway? What societal benefit could possibly justify this?
Have you been touched by his noodly appendage?
Law enforcement is becoming less and less effective at identifying and prosecuting electronic identity theft. After all, only 20% of thieves who got caught used the internet.
If they're not so tech-savvy, I say we send out "V1@gr@ for Identity Thieves" emails en masse, and see who responds. Then we'll steal their info.
After all, all of the respondents must be identity thieves. Damn them!
That seems to indicate that only cases that had been SOLVED were used in this "study".
Of course, which case would be easier to solve?
#1. Someone in Russia stealing your ID via a keylogger installed on your workstation.
#2. Someone in your apartment building breaking into your mailbox.
they are thieves more interested in stealing money, they are not technophiles...
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
The big money is not in taking cash out of someone's account and hoping that they don't notice.
..... BankAccnt1 - BankAccnt2 etc
Here, you know what databases are, right? Think of a database of every possible Social Security Number.
Then, think about a criminal organization filling in the information they can find from various sources.
SSN - FName - LName - DoB - MomMaiden - Address - SpouseLink - Child1 - Child2
Fill in enough of that information and you can use it to get info on the numbers you don't have filled in.
Now, they are you, as far as any financial institution is concerned. They can take out a second mortgage on your house. They can buy a car in your name. They can steal more from you than you have in any of your accounts.
They can even try to cash out your 401k. They are you.
The identity thief sues you for endangering him when he sticks his hand into your shredder while trying to steal your mail.
But at least that only applies to the USA for the time being.
Technology breeds crime
God spoke to me.
It would be interesting to see these, and see if I won a bet that they'd be either mostly 30s white men with part-Slavic ancestry or recent African immigrants.
Anti-Globalism
Looking at the number of cases closed is the wrong statistic. In combating the problem of identity theft, or online fraud in the larger sense, what really matters are the actual losses associated with each case.
I don't really care if some mope dug through my dumpster, stole my credit card pre-approvals, and got caught using the fake card running up $200 worth of porn purchases. The case I worry about is the single criminal or criminal organization that systematically steals millions of pieces of credit card data and efficiently exploits each piece to the maximum extent possible.
If the investigation of each of those scenarios is one case then they have equal weight under the statistic used by the article. In terms of actually combating identity theft the latter example and the resultant prosecution is much more important and effective. Unless they discuss the loss amounts associated with cases of each case, this statistic, the conclusions based on it, and the entire article are missing the point and not talking about actually fighting identity theft and are instead talking about looking like you are fighting identity theft.
The other comments are completely on the money pointing out that this is only closed cases and the difficulty of actually closing an international investigation.
All in all another wholly misinformed article about the real threat of identity theft and online financial fraud.
to know what crimes to commit, robbing a bank or robbing a guy's ssn from the dumpster. At least there's only a 50/50 chance you're going to jail with one and 100% with the other. We'll only see this form become more popular...
FlyingPizzas.com, for the tasteful hermit
You have to admire his audacity.
Spice up the headline
No surprise that identity thieves aren't big on using the Internet. I mean, think of the risks of their putting personal information out on the 'net... They could have their identities stolen!
"Flag on the moon. How did it get there?"
only 51% of the theft that has been caught to the prison. how do we know how many of them involved out there? if all of them are detected, then they definitely will get caught! that is just some of the prediction from the research. actualy it is very hard to solve. for me it is impossible for us to fully take care of them. even for the time being, i have no worried about this since i don't have credit card, but if i have, i will worry about these people will steal my credit card information and use it to enjoy the porno things!! damn man!!
I'd hate to see this guy trying to give advice on Identity Theft
Make SELinux enforcing again!
Two major problems with these numbers. First, they cover 6 years in which technology has become significantly more pervasive. Second, they were done by the Secret Service which is not a generic computer crime organization. The study should have been about how the Secret Service still deals with a much higher percentage of physical identity theft than electronic even though electronic id theft has become a lot more common.
As we all know nowadays we can't run out from identity thieves since they are the ones who are concouring the technology world today.so, what we all have to do is just be careful in using this service.
Well, at least we know that Generation Y isn't responsible for any of this! http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/24/143247 They're far to "technological fluent". They can't help but use the Internet!
You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
Interesting timing on this article. Just last night, my wife and I got a call from Discover, asking if we had attempted to use our Discover card recently. It just so happens that the ONLY thing this card is [well, was] used for, was the recurring monthly cost of XM Radio. Other than that, we don't use the card at all.
It turns out that at 9:24PM EDT last night, someone tried to buy $986 worth of crap at a Walmart in Jacksboro, TN. I live in Dallas. So it was definitely not myself or my wife. Thankfully, the charge was declined. Someone had also made a whopping $2.51 purchase at some online computer store which I had never heard of. I don't know what kind of nothing they bought, but that usually wouldn't even cover shipping.
What we think happened is this. Our current cards are set to expire at the end of this month. We both still have our cards, so most likely, someone snagged my replacement card out of the mail. Discover says they did send out replacement cards, but we never got them. I'm still trying to figure out where the cards were mailed from, to see if it was somewhere near TN.
I'm guessing this thief isn't too bright. I'm think they weren't able to actually activate the card, which is why it was declined at Walmart. It may have gone through at the computer site because the card number is the same as my active card, and perhaps they don't ask for the 3 digit verification number on the back.
At this point, I'm working with the Walmart in question to have them save their security tapes on all the registers at that time. I'm also trying to get in touch with the online computer store to see if they have records on where the item was shipped. I'll give that info to the fraud group at Discover and hope for the best.
Even though it hasn't actually cost me any money, I want to nail that punk to a tree. Now we have to deal with having our account closed and switched to a new account. We take reasonable precautions to keep ourselves, safe, but you just can't protect mail you haven't even received yet.
Nothing to see here
Why are American houses' post boxes openable by anyone who cares to wander past? Here in the UK all our post boxes are in door/wall of the actual house, and I believe the postmen/women are required to ensure that mail is posted through them, so opportunist thieves cannot easily steal mail.