Law enforcement agencies team to fight identity theft

Jace Radke

Thursday, July 8, 2004 | 8:16 a.m.

For more information about identity theft and consumer fraud and how to protect yourself, go to www.consumer.gov/sentinel and www.usps.com/ postal inspectors.

Federal and local law enforcement agencies have joined forces to fight identity theft and financial fraud, crimes that are among the fastest growing illegal activities in Nevada and the nation, Sheriff Bill Young said.

The Southwestern Identity Theft and Fraud Task Force is a way for local police agencies and federal agencies such as the Secret Service and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service to work together on crimes that can be committed from a computer.

"The suspects in these kinds of cases are many times not even in Las Vegas," Young said at a press conference announcing the task force Wednesday. "It's frustrating for local officers to investigate a case only to learn that the bad guy is sitting behind a computer outside the state or even (outside) the country.

"That's why this partnership with our federal counterparts is so important because it gives us access to their resources around the world."

The task force grew out of a previous unit that handled mainly financial crimes; the new task force will focus on identity theft. The task force began operating in April and has already resulted in federal charges against 41 individuals, said Dan Bogden, U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada.

The task force, which includes officers from Metro, Henderson and North Las Vegas Police, as well as postal inspectors and Secret Service agents, is based out of the downtown offices of the Secret Service.

"There isn't a week that goes by in the Las Vegas Valley that we don't have reports of identity theft happening," said Paul Masto, acting special agent in charge of the Las Vegas field office of the Secret Service. "It's a growing problem.

"I don't know why anyone would try to rob a bank and risk capture or being killed for $5,000 or $8,000 when they can sit at home at their computers and steal people's identities."

According to a 2003 Federal Trade Commission study looking at trends in fraud and identity theft, it is estimated that almost 10 million Americans were victims of identity theft in 2003, and 27 million were victimized in the past five years.

The report ranks Nevada second in the rate of identity theft with 113 reported victims per 100,000 residents. Arizona leads the nation with 122 victims per 100,000 residents and California is third with 111 victims per 100,000 residents.

Young said that in Metro's jurisdiction alone there were about 5,000 reports of identity theft in 2003 and that there have been about 2,300 reports so far this year.

"The most common type of identity theft reported by victims in Nevada is credit card fraud followed closely by utilities fraud," Bogden said. "With the formation of this task force, we hope to reverse the trend by placing a group of law enforcement agents and officers in charge of investigating crimes involving stolen identities, possession of counterfeit checks and mail theft."

Bogden said that the task force screens cases to determine if federal or local prosecutions provide the harshest penalties before deciding where defendants are charged.