Identity thieves use a variety of methods to steal your personal information, including:

1. Dumpster Diving. They rummage through trash looking for bills or other paper with your personal information on it.

2. Skimming. They steal credit/debit card numbers by using a special storage device when processing your card.

3. Phishing. They pretend to be financial institutions, companies or government agencies, and send email or pop-up messages to get you to reveal your personal information.

4. Hacking. They hack into your email or other online accounts to access your personal information, or into a company’s database to access its records.

5. “Old-Fashioned” Stealing. They steal wallets and purses; mail, including bank and credit card statements; pre-approved credit offers; and new checks or tax information. They steal personnel records from their employers, or bribe employees who have access.

To prevent this from happening you will need to follow some of the basic rules to protect yourself, the three D’s.
Deter – Detect – Defend   this is now your mantra.
AVOID THEFT

Imagine having your identity stolen — and then someone uses your personal information to commit a crime. Sound bad enough? Then imagine you get sued for not protecting your own identity.

Those are the allegations in a lawsuit filed in Clark County. This case is taking some of the issues surrounding identity theft to a new level.

Your personal information stolen and used to commit a crime. You don’t even live in the state where the crime occurred. One day in the mail arrives a legal summons — saying you are being sued for that crime you didn’t even know about.

It all started in December of 2005 — when the driver of a rented jeep hit and killed 18-year-old Sonia Silva on Flamingo Road just outside of the Rio Hotel. At the wheel — Philip Thomson of Las Vegas — who used a fake Oregon driver’s license for the rental.

According to this lawsuit — that license contained the name of Neerav Shah, and the license number of another man, Joseph Parker. Now — both Oregon men are being sued.

“Shah and Parker had a duty of care to keep their identifies from being used unlawfully and fraudulently and/or actively participating in the act of creating or allowing others to create the fake driver’s license. Shah and Parker breached that duty when their information was used to rent the Jeep,” said Parker, reading from the lawsuit.

Parker says he was stunned to find out he was named in a Nevada lawsuit. “And really I consider myself to be a victim in this as well — not one of the culprits,” he said.

He was being sued essentially for being the victim of a crime. “”Right – which this person committed against me who rented the vehicle,” he said.

“Somebody used my name and committed a crime,” said Shah. Neerav Shah has credit card receipts for the dates in question – showing he was at home in Oregon. And while the suit does not accuse him of being the driver — he feels victimized.

“Yeah, it is frustrating. It is like you are powerless — anyone can file a lawsuit against you without any merits or anything. It has taken time away from work for myself, it has caused mental stress, it caused a lot of stress for myself and my family,” said Shah.

Las Vegas attorney Will Kemp represents the victim’s family — he declined the I-Team’s request to appear on camera.

In a phone interview — Kemp says the driver, Philip Thomson, told him during a jail deposition that one of the two Oregon men stole the other’s identity and sent it to Thomson to use.

Both men say — that’s nonsense.

“Completely random. I mean the person could have opened the phone book and gotten my name out of it,” said Shah.

“No, I don’t have any idea how my licenses were stolen. Actually, I have never lost my licenses themselves so the information itself must have been stolen either from some database or maybe a company where I use my license photocopied it and that got stolen or anybody that ever took down my license number for any kind of rental that I have ever done,” said Parker.

Both Parker and Shah have contacted their respective insurance companies to defend themselves from this legal action. And — they are both placing some measure of confidence in the legal system.

“Well, I can’t imagine a judge or a jury would actually reward somebody for this,” said Shah.

As for Philip Thomson, he was charged with and pled guilty to driving under the influence with substantial bodily harm in the death of Sonia Silva. Last September, he was sentenced to between two and 15 years in state prison.

As for the civil lawsuit involving the alleged identity theft — a jury trial is being requested but, so far, no trial date is set.

According the FTC, an average of between $500 to $1000 was the value of services or products received as a result of identity theft. Generally, if the abuse is on an existing account (credit cards, utilities, etc..) Then the losses tend to be lower. However, when new accounts are opened using a victims personal information, the losses tend to be much higher, typically More than $5000 and easily reaching over $10,000. And this does not count the time and money the victim will have to spend to repair the damage.

The sooner the abuse is discovered, the lower the amounts of fraud committed. Cases discovered and reported to credit reporting bureaus, the banks, and the authorities within days or even hours can result in losses closer to $100s. However, when cases protract out over months, then the losses can add up to over $5000 or more. Check fraud, however, can easily be the entire balance ($100 or $10,000) of the account in only a few days. Regardless of the type of fraud or the intent of the thief, the sooner you know, the better off you will be.

Use safe purchasing practices which does not expose you to risk. See the 7 Crimes page.

Yes this is a serious problem for those people who have had their ID’s stolen as it can cost them hundreds if not thousands to clean up the mess the thieves leave behind. Consumers that are victimized by identity theft have lost out on job opportunities, or been denied loans for education, housing, or cars because of the negative information on their credit reports. There has even been some victims who have been arrested for crimes that they did not commit. So the potential for damage, loss, and stress is considerable.

How do thieves steal an identity?
Some times it starts with your misuse of your personal information. For the thief you name and Social Security number, credit card numbers, and other financial account information is as good as gold.
Skilled identity thieves may use a variety of methods to get hold of your information:
They may steal your mail, wallet, or purse.
They may get personal information from you by posing as legitimate companies through email, in a practice known as “phishing.” Or they might lie to you on the phone.
They may take your information from businesses or other institutions by stealing personnel records, bribing or conning an employee who has access to these records, or breaking into your records electronically.

Some identity theft victims even report that their information has been stolen by someone they know. According to the FTC.

As we learn more about this all to common event that happens to way too many people we will do our best to share those bits of wisdom with all who reads these pages and posts.

As Johns fame to claim in his book is that he has been an Identity Theft victim (twice), not something that anyone really wants to admit but the facts are just that.
Many people are victims of Identity Theft as a direct result of their own actions or lack of actions. Are you taking all of the precautions that you should to protect yourself? Are you an easy target because you naively assume it will not or can not happen to you? Do you take a Few simple steps and assume that is enough to protect you from Identity Theft?

While groups of sophisticated criminals do fish for victims on the internet or via the phone, many Identity Theft sufferers are ‘victims of convenience’. The victim was susceptible to crime through their own direct actions on inaction’s. When a consumer leaves the open door, a thief can walk in and claim another victim. How open are you leaving yourself to ID theft?

The first line of defense in protecting you Identity is you. Learn to protect yourself with simple, easy steps before you are a victim.

Your Identity is you, Protect it wisely.