Digital identity theft is striking deeper and wider than ever before, afflicting as many as 150 million victims over the past two years — whether they know it or not.
"Lots of times the victims are the last to know," Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Hoar of Eugene told a Chamber Forum gathering Monday at the Rogue Valley Country Club.
Hoar scans the latest identity theft reports every morning, such as one he saw Monday in which 46,000 faculty, staff and students at the University of California-San Francisco had their Social Security numbers hacked.
"The Secret Service says 70 percent of the credit card accounts in the country have been compromised," Hoar said, underscoring his point with a inch-and-a-half-thick printout of known computer hacks on file.
Identity theft — the misappropriation of identity information such as name, birth date, Social Security numbers, or a financial account number — occurs in many ways. With ever-increasing reliance on electronic media to conduct financial transactions and store information, identity information is more and more accessible to criminals.
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He queried the audience for examples of how they had been touched by identity theft. Among them were: a stolen checkbook, an insider using a credit card number produced by a traveler in Las Vegas and someone having his information taken while he was at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va.
Lawmen discover victim identities once they catch up to criminals, he said. Discovery is slowed because of how and where the crime takes place. Methods range from database breaches and computer intrusions, done by insiders or through vulnerable or insecure areas of computer systems, to theft of mailed pre-approved credit card solicitations, garbage or recycling material.
"I wouldn't have believed that one if someone wouldn't have stolen my garbage," Hoar said.
To that list, he added skimming, in which someone with an electronic device handles a victim's card for legitimate purposes, then copies the data from the card and later downloads it.
Hoar said drug users who once stole stereo and electronic equipment from cars and then pawned the items now bypass the gizmos and go straight for the personal information.
"It's much more convertible to cash and it's very lucrative," he said. "Rather than trying to smuggle narcotics over the border it's easier to go on line and make millions of dollars on a weekly basis."
He suggested buying shredders to destroy non-essential documents bearing identity information prior to recycling, not opening e-mails from unknown senders and carefully monitoring financial correspondence as front-line defenses against the threat.
Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail business@mailtribune.com.
