Weekend I.D. Theft Blotter

The following recent reports involve alleged identity theft stories involving:

• a pizza delivery driver (Pizza delivery man accused of identity theft),
• a manager of an antiques business, for running up over $1,000 in charges on an account belonging to his ex-girlfriend (Police make arrest in identity theft case),
• a hospital employee who, according to police, used a hospital computer to steal social security and credit card numbers from 20 hospital patients (Guilty Plea in Identity Theft Case),
• a former Social Security Administration employee charged with illegally disclosing personal information she took off a government computer that was then used to rack up $2.5 million in credit card charges (Social Security Administration Worker Charged In Identity Theft Scheme),
• Nurse charged with stealing patient info and identity theft.

In addition, Credit Cards GB reports that a study by Visa reveals, "[t]he most common place where 40% of identity theft is found is in restaurants." The problems are caused by fraudsters who hack into the restaurant computers, which contain all of the customer details and transactions. To read more, see "Where do you think identity theft is most commonly started?"

Also, KOAA-TV in Colorado reports that Pueblo, Colorado police say that "[e]very year people learn they've fallen victim to identity theft after they file their taxes and find out they owe money for work they've never done." One identity theft victim may have had his identity stolen while he was in prison, since he recently learned he owed nearly $20,000 in back taxes for income the IRS says was earned during a period of time in which he says he spent in a state penitentiary. For more, see Pueblo man falls victim to identity theft.

Also, a Community Shred Day was held in Flint, Michigan yesterday. Dan Milliken, owner of iSHRED, an on-site document destruction company, supplied an industrial-sized document shredder, a monster machine inside a 35-foot semitrailer to promote document shredding as a way to combat identity theft. (Monster machine helps tear identity theft fears to shreds).

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