In cases of ID theft, numbers do lie

Metro reported triple the number of cases in ‘07 as cited in federal ranking

Friday, March 6, 2009 | 2 a.m.

2,930 — Number of identity theft complaints filed by Nevadans reported by the Federal Trade Commission in 2007

8,761 — Complaints filed by residents of Las Vegas and unincorporated Clark County, according to Metro

Federal Trade Commission: State Data

Own a business? Be vigilant, thieves are lurking (6-2-2008)
Here comes more bad news for identity theft victims (5-23-2007)
Stealing your child's credit (12-11-2006)

Metro Police: Identity theft prevention

Nevada has the nation’s third-worst identity theft problem — according to a federal study that wildly underestimates the rates.

A Federal Trade Commission report released last week revealed Nevada citizens filed 2,930 identity theft complaints in 2007, enough to rank us third in the nation, per-capita.

But Metro Police say residents of Las Vegas and unincorporated Clark County filed 8,671 identity theft complaints that year.

The reason for the almost three-fold difference? Victims who reported identity theft cases to the FTC were just going the extra mile. It’s widely understood that more than half of identity theft victims don’t report the crime to local police, let alone tell the feds.

So in reality, Nevada victims are third in the nation when it comes to reporting their cases to the FTC. For all we know, we might rank even higher for actual cases of identity theft.

Last year local victims told police they lost $20 million to identity thieves. Metro Capt. Stavros Anthony, briefing the department’s top brass Tuesday, put it like this: ID theft is “expected to increase every year for the foreseeable future.”

The federal numbers don’t match our local statistics because identity theft isn’t a crime police are required to report to federal authorities for tracking. And even if it were, the number wouldn’t be an accurate accounting of how prevalent the crime is, experts say. Bob Sebby, a lieutenant in Metro’s financial crimes section, figures only one in every 10 local victims files a police report.

Most people who discover their credit or debit cards have been compromised call their bank and consider the case closed when a refund comes through. This is a problem for police officers such as Sebby, who need victim crime reports to track down credit card skimming devices and forgery operations.

In 2008, 9,101 cases were reported to Metro’s identity theft and forgery task force, which is 17 detectives strong.

To illustrate the problem for his peers Tuesday, Anthony showed the room a photograph of a local Bank of America ATM. It looked normal to the many people who ran their cards through it — until the part holding the card reader fell out of the machine. Inside, the police found a camera and a card skimmer, which allowed thieves to capture private bank account information encoded on the card’s magnetic strip.

Nevada is regularly ranked in the top five for instances of identity theft. In fact, our third-place ranking in the 2007 federal study is an improvement — for the previous five years, Nevada was second in the nation.

Gaming destinations are always a lure, Sebby says, because of the amount of cash casinos keep on hand. With the right forged documents, thieves can get cash advances from casino cages, or come in with bogus cashier’s checks, trade them for chips and play at being high rollers with stolen money, until they cash out and vanish.

That’s the rub — finding identity thieves is often a matter of incredibly complicated monthslong investigations. When a criminal is pretending to be someone else, finding out who he really is isn’t easy.

“We’re always searching for a ghost in the beginning,” Sebby said. “We have to take nothing and turn it into a live human being.”

The majority of identity theft cases can be traced back to mailboxes or trash cans that have been rifled through, credit card skimmers and online scams. Numerous Web sites — including Metro’s lvmpd.com — offer advice on how to protect your identity. Sebby’s suggestion — if you must use a debit card, never let it out of your sight.

In one instance, Metro detectives discovered waiters were skimming credit cards, then selling the info to a second set of thieves, who would tap into the accounts. Stockpiles of stolen bank information are bought and sold this way, by groups of criminals who work in and out of the country, Anthony said. More organized gangs are getting into the business, as well as violent criminals, who figure getting their hands on someone else’s bank account is more lucrative and easier than sticking up a 7-Eleven.

And it’s not just citizens. A growing number of Metro Police are victims of ID theft, Anthony said. As he looked out at Metro’s command staff during his Tuesday meeting with them, he added: “It’s pretty brutal out there.”

Discussion: 5 comments so far…

By azsk8fan

3/6/09 at 5:35 a.m.

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So here's what happens when you DO report it - NOTHING - My husband and I both had our debit cards used in Identity Theft - in his case the thief paid their cable bill and another utility bill - so how hard would that be to track this person down?? Police wouldn't be bothered and neither would Wells Fargo - they just gave my husband his money back. In my case they actually had the thief on tape at the cash register of a hobby store - and again, the police didn't care. The (Police) told me that it's so rampant that they just don't do anything about it unless it's over a certain dollar amount. Sad part is that thiefs probably know this too so they know just how far to push it in order to avoid detection. It's unbelievable the amount of leg work I did myself to track everything down but I managed to do just that based on the charges that were and were not 'approved' (some were denied because they didn't fit my spending pattern (per Wells Fargo) ) In the case of the hobby store they first went to a Smith's store and used the debit card to buy a prepaid credit card for $100 and then 7 minutes later attempted to make a $500 purchase at a hobby store - based on the time between the Smith purchase and the hobby store attempt I figured the 2 stores had to be located in the same strip mall and sure enough I found the hobby store, talked to the manager, he ran the tape - they were easy to spot because it was at 7pm and they were the last customer of the day - and there they were big as life on a tape and even with all that - and even with the other thief paying their bills with my husbands card absolutely NOTHING was done - except to reimburse us, which is, of course, better than nothing, but I would have liked to have seen the thiefs arrested.
By Lenny_V

3/6/09 at 3 p.m.

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Wow. So, you took the photo of the suspect and police refused to do anything? They were probably embarrassed because you did their job for them. And even Wells Fargo doesn't care about getting their money back? I guess the amount is chickenfeed considering they just got a couple billion for nothing from our idiot government.
By Lenny_V

3/6/09 at 3:02 p.m.

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I'd be so pi$$ed about them doing nothing, I'd probably track the guy down and make a citizen's arrest. Force lazy friggin' Metro into doing their job.
By rizzo_rizario

4/21/09 at 6:20 p.m.

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That's pretty sad that they couldn't make a case out of it even with the evidence you gathered.
And how come they never mention the fact that allot of these identity thefts are actually done by the account holder themselves. It would be easy enough to go on a spending spree and then after your done call in and dispute the charges or report your card as lost or stolen as long as you didn't use a pin with any purchase and the signature didn't match your in the clear and your just considered another victim of identity theft.
Now there's one to think about!
By sbennett23

6/15/09 at 11:19 p.m.

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I had a similar situation several years ago where I had credit cards that were not activated sitting in the back of a desk drawer at home. The thief stole the cards activated them with his own pin and took several thousand dollars in cash advances to the point I received over the limit charges. All said and done I was exonerated of the charges but I could not file criminal charges against the individual. The Credit card companies are considered the victim and only they can press charges. The credit card companies are making so much money off their honest customers they have no incentive to spend their resources on fraud they just pass the cost along to you.