Traveling credit card a real surprise to owner

Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Mar 21, 2005 by Stephen Pounds Cox News Service

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Caren Bulmer's Visa bank card made a road trip last year to Manhattan, without ever leaving West Palm Beach or her wallet.

In February of last year, someone used Bulmer's credit card to buy two $1,500 gift certificates at a Staples store, by having the cashier key in the numbers rather than swiping the card. Then they cashed them to buy computer laptops and printers. Fortunately, when she saw them on her bank statement, she was able to call Wachovia Bank and have the charges removed.

But the stress of the ordeal didn't end there. To this day, she has no idea how thieves could have gotten her card number. The bank referred the case to its fraud department. When Bulmer asked what would happen, a Wachovia customer-service person said she didn't know whether anything further would be done.

"I said, 'Is this it, aren't you going to find out who did this?' " Bulmer recalled recently.

To be sure, such concerns about ID theft have heightened over the past month after computer security at U.S. information brokers ChoicePoint Inc. and Seisint Inc. was breached and the identities and other personal data of 175,000 Americans were stolen.

At least three bills in Congress would place stiffer regulations on data brokers and limit access to consumers personal records.

But while Congress lays out laws to protect Americans personal information held by data brokers, only a fraction of identity thefts are pilfered from them.

In fact, most ID theft results from decidedly low-tech schemes that range from a waiter swiping your credit card through a pocket- sized imprinter to sell the number on the black market to low-lifes who Dumpster dive, or fish for credit card receipts in a garbage container.

"There are people out there stealing people's identities and hundreds of thousands of dollars. My case is little compared to that," Bulmer said. Little, and unusual because most cases take months or years to resolve, and rarely is someone ever prosecuted.

A sobering fact given that an estimated 9 to 10 million Americans a year are victims of identity theft, and the number of complaints reported to the Federal Trade Commission has risen each year since 2000, sometimes doubling. The effect is a $53 billion-a-year bite out of the economy.

The ordeal can be at once frustrating, and eye-opening to victims. The FTC says it can take anywhere from one hour to 240 hours to resolve credit problems resulting from ID theft. Sadly, you may be violated again months after you think the case is closed.

But it's not computers hackers who are swiping people's identities by the terabyte.

A study by Pleasanton, Calif.-based Javelin Strategy & Research released in January showed 68 percent of ID theft occurred off- line, with 29 percent occurring after someone loses their wallet, checkbook or credit card. Online methods accounted for less than 12 percent of the cases, while computer hackers were responsible for only 2.2 percent.

"Of the people who know (the thief), they say it was a family member, a neighbor or an in-house employee," Javelin chief strategist James Van Dyke said. "It's often a crime of opportunity."

The old-fashioned theft of a purse was the culprit in Malka Kornblatt's case.

Last June, the 72-year-old former college dean put her purse in the trunk of her 1964 Pontiac Le Mans convertible but left the top down. In the 15 minutes she was away from the car, someone had ripped the rear seat out and made off with her purse.

"It never crossed my mind that my trunk wasn't safe," she said. "I was hysterical."

Gone were at least nine debit or credit cards from banks, retail outlets, department stores and oil companies. Her driver's license and Medicare card also were stuffed in her purse.

"The (Medicare) card has your Social Security number on it and they tell you not to carry your Social Security number," Kornblatt said. "Why they do this, I don't know."

She called Wachovia Bank 30 minutes later, but the thieves already had bought a $1,700 computer with one of her credit cards.

At one point, there were up to $15,000 in withdrawals and charges on her accounts. Though the charges were canceled and the money restored to her, Kornblatt has become extra careful after the harrowing experience: She's taken the number off of her house and she's had her vintage Pontiac modified so the trunk is no longer vulnerable.

"I was paranoid, totally paranoid," Kornblatt said.

There's no clear rule on who to contact first once you're a victim of identity theft. In whatever order, call the bank, the police and the nation's three credit bureaus -- Equifax, TransUnion or Experion. Any credit bureau will notify the other two.

By placing a call to a credit bureau, a fraud alert can lock down your credit reports. No new credit card accounts or other debt will be granted in your name for 90 days, a period that can be extended to seven years by request. A bank can block your new charges and issue you a new account number.