Study: ID theft usually an inside job

Up to 70 percent of cases start with employee heist
By Bob Sullivan
Technology correspondent
MSNBC
Updated: 7:03 p.m. ET May 21, 2004

A soon-to-be-released study reveals what some identity theft experts have hinted at for years -- the crime is largely the work of insiders. In a study of more then 1,000 identity theft arrests in the United States, Michigan State professor Judith Collins has discovered that perhaps as much as 70 percent of all identity theft starts with theft of personal data from a company by an employee.

"It used to be that shrinkage (theft) was the biggest cost to employers after payroll and healthcare. Today what we have to think about, in the information age, is employees stealing information," Collins said. "Why steal merchandise when they can steal data and get money?"

Collins, director of an identity theft program at Michigan State, randomly selected 1,037 cases from around the country, then painstakingly traced each incident to its origins. In 50 percent of the cases, the victim's identity was originally pilfered by a company employee. In another 20 percent of cases, evidence strongly suggested dirty play by an insider.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5015565/

You will let this out and there goes the home shredder industry.

Both times it wound up being a restaurant employee snagged the info. Think about that next time you hand over your credit card to pay for a meal; you just let a perfect stranger be alone with your credit card for a few minutes.

In the mid '80s someone stole my wallet, which contained a California driver's license and (a mistake I will never repeat) my Social Security number.

Someone posing as me opened bank accounts and obtained one or more major credit cards. He ran up some large bills and didn't pay them. A couple of years later I was arrested for failure to appear at an arraignment in another city. It took almost two months and a lawyer to straighten things out.

NEVER give your Social Security number to anyone unless it's absolutely necessary.

"It took almost two months and a lawyer to straighten things out."


:smoke:

I was in the joint only about 10 hours. It was only one felony FTA warrant, not for a violent offense.

I passed the time by telling everyone I was framed. I was in good company. Everyone else in there said they were innocent too.

:D

Of something.

on edit...10 hours would have had me, well, angry to say the least. Around here, domestic battery gets you about 10 hours. FTA without proof of service? Naaah.