Identity Theft Is Usually an Unsophisticated Crime 86
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by
Soulskill
from the skilled-in-refuse-investigation dept.
from the skilled-in-refuse-investigation dept.
apatrick writes "A recent research report by Heith Copes (University of Alabama at Birmingham) and Lynne Vieraitis (University of Texas at Austin) has examined identity thieves and their methods. Copes and Vieraitis searched federal court records in the US for people convicted of identity theft and then tried to find out where they were serving their sentences. They were able to find 297 inmates, from which they sampled 59 inmates in 14 prisons across the country. The convicts agreed to do detailed interviews, in private, to talk about themselves and their crimes, and the results are reported in a recent issue of Criminal Justice Review. According to Copes and Vieraitis, 'it is best categorized as an economic crime committed by a wide range of people from diverse backgrounds through a variety of legitimate (e.g., mortgage broker) and illegitimate (e.g., burglar) occupations.' As to the issue of whether these are white-collar criminals, the authors say: 'Despite public perceptions of identity theft being a high-tech, computer driven crime, it is rather mundane and requires few technical skills. Identity thieves do not need to know how to hack into large, secure databases. They can simply dig through garbage or pay insiders for information. No particular group has a monopoly on the skills needed to be a capable identity thief.'"
These are just the ones being caught (Score:5, Insightful)
The sophisticated high tech criminals are not in prison. They're on a beach somewhere enjoying your money.
Re:Checkbooks (Score:4, Insightful)
i still can't believe how many people write checks because they think it's safer than computers. that one piece of paper gives a thief your name, sometimes your address, bank account # and the ABA routing #. if it's someone working in a mail room they can just copy the address from the envelope if you don't have it on the check. Then they can buy the rest of the info for cheap from some company and they have your entire profile. if you own property then all your info is available via your county courthouse and some company that organizes all this info.
Re:Checkbooks (Score:4, Insightful)
and if you're one of the idiots writing a check to pay for a retail purchase because you think credit cards are evil then the store probably puts all kinds of other info on the check like driver's license # to track you down in case it bounces
Re:Sample error? (Score:2, Insightful)
The sophisticated ones generally don't get caught, or at least not so quickly.
They usually get caught because they become complacent or greedy. It's a statistics game: And one they will lose because they are human and will make a mistake eventually. Usually, the mistake is because of one of those two reasons.
Re:These are just the ones being caught (Score:5, Insightful)
And the penalty for identity theft should be the same as the penalty for taking someone's life (because that's what the do, sort of), at least if it's done for criminal reasons.
Taking life is penalized so harshly because it's irreversible.
Re:Capable...? (Score:3, Insightful)
Why should your bank have a right to your SSN? Only your employer and the SSA have an actual need for the number, to remit the required payments.
The *real* flaw in the system is exposed (Score:4, Insightful)
This entire identity database system, usually based on one or two numeric identifiers, makes tracking people easier. It means larger and larger businesses can exist with larger and larger customers paying them larger and larger amounts of money with a great deal less overhead. The problem is that these relatively simple information "keys" are was is being exploited by identity fraudsters.
I refuse to call it identity theft -- the identity isn't being stolen and the name seeks to imply that the victim is the person whose numeric identifiers are being used to commit fraud against commercial activities. The commercial activities aim to place the burden of the problem onto individuals whose identities are being spoofed instead of accepting the blame for trusting fraudsters too easily. The requirements for proof of identity are too low and it is by no means the fault of the people who have these systems forced upon them. It is the fault of the lenders and other business and government entities who have all adopted this ridiculously simple and vulnerable form of identity verification.
There was a time when a person had to actually SIGN a document or contract to be held liable for a debt or obligation. These days, the requirements are much more trivial and the requirement of evidence is a great deal lower. Now the burden of proof is largely on the people who are literally innocent of any wrong doing while the burden of proof from the victims or plaintiffs (the commercial activities) is really quite low.
The system is VERY weak and VERY exploitable and the people who are most interested in keeping the system going (government and commercial activities) prefer to shift the blame and burden of damages on to innocent parties rather than themselves. "I'm sorry sir, someone has pretended to be you and now your assets are frozen until we can sort this mess out." How is that right, fair or reasonable? The "system" is forced upon us all and so we have little choice or ability to "protect" ourselves. All of the data that is misappropriated usually comes from government and business databases and no so much from the person's own negligence (though I recognize that some is) but the fact is that people cannot "protect" their information when they have to share it with so many strangers so often... strangers who have little if any obligation to safeguard the information and when they do have an obligation to safeguard, often fail with no punishment at all.
In short, the government issues you a number whether or not you use it and it is somehow YOUR problem if someone else were to learn that number and use it to steal from someone else.
Now I know why bank robbers on TV have been known to use Richard Nixon masks when robbing banks! They are not held accountable while Nixon is blamed for the crime.
Re:The *real* flaw in the system is exposed (Score:5, Insightful)
This is the effect of the system blaming the person whose identity was spoofed rather than blaming themselves or the system in general.
It is a very bad system and punishes the innocent more than it punishes the guilty. The response you describe is exactly why and how this system fails. This system only benefits large government and large business. Why? Because they don't actually have to KNOW their customers to confirm their identities. They only have to know some numbers. Not only does this system serve to strip away human identity, it punishes completely innocent people quite often.
The system either needs to be fixed or done away with. The harm outweighs the benefits.
Re:These are just the ones being caught (Score:5, Insightful)
This sounds like my door-to-door survey which indicates that homelessness is a complete myth. Or my phone survey where I did a random sampling from the Yellow Pages and discovered that not a single person has so far given up their land-line.