Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: Report on identity theft from RISKS
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2000 20:13:00 -0500
Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2000 09:27:21 -0500 From: Mich Kabay <mkabay () compuserve com> Subject: Report on identity theft Caitlin Liu of the *Los Angeles Times* published a thorough report on identity theft on 16 Jan 2000 (front page). In one case, 22-year-old San Diego college student Jessica Smith had her car stolen with her handbag inside. Although the car and bag were recovered, someone stole her identity. She nearly got fired from her new job when a background check showed that "she" had outstanding warrants for prostitution. She was unable to obtain credit, phone service or even to rent an apartment. With the help of a sympathetic police investigator, Smith was able to prove her innocence of the charges a reversal of the usual burden under criminal law, where usually the state has to prove guilt. She obtained judicial documents explaining that her identity had been stolen; nevertheless, she has been hauled into police stations to be fingerprinted to prove that she is indeed the person authorized to carry those documents. Image Data LLC, an identity-fraud prevention service based in Nashua, NH, commissioned a study in September 1999 that suggested that one out of five Americans or a member of their family have been victimized by identity fraud. [Readers should always be wary of statistics that report how many "members of your family" or "people you know" have particular characteristics: it is possible that a single person can be reported by multiple people. The over-counting bias increases as a function of sample size and of social relationships among the sample population.]
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- IP: Report on identity theft from RISKS Dave Farber (Jan 29)