The Foreign Service Journal, May 2007

18 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A Y 2 0 0 7 A s I’ve learned the hard way, Foreign Service employees are an attractive target for identify thieves, both because we tend to be affluent and because we frequently live overseas, where it can take longer to discover a financial problem. One day in January 2005, a letter from Home Depot caught my atten- tion. “Please call to verify your enrollment in the Balance Protector Program,” it read. I knew I was not enrolled because I did not even have a Home Depot credit card. But when I called, the representative told me that they had indeed issued a credit card in my name — with a bal- ance of $6,980.22. That was my first inkling that I’d become a victim of identity theft. I immediately called the big three credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and Transunion) to report the activi- ty. They increased security on my records, so for the next seven years no creditor can issue me a charge card without first calling me at home. In addition, all requests for credit checks by companies intend- ing to issue cards will be scrutinized more carefully, and all first-time purchases with new credit cards will be flagged. While helpful, these measures only partially solved the problem. Credit-card companies do not have to verify information with any of those bureaus before issuing a card to someone claiming to be me. In addi- tion, none of those unverified cards will show up on a credit bureau’s radar until they’re used for the first time. Sure enough, over the next couple of months I received more credit-card bills totaling $65,000 from fraudulent accounts, including my hijacked Sears account. I guess I should feel lucky, though; most cases of identity theft involve losses in the neighborhood of $100,000. It turns out I was able to limit the thief’s win- dow of opportunity by reporting the first incident right away. Still, it took months of follow-up and the completion of numerous affi- davits to clear my credit record. I also had to clear my family’s record, as well, supplying signatures from my wife and children (including a 7-year- old!) to prove they had not opened any of these accounts. But all that effort paid off, because I was not liable for a cent. Following the Trail I filed the police report in Balti- more, Md. (the crimes occurred in Baltimore County, outside the city). Because their fraud division was understaffed and unable to begin investigating my case immediately, they accepted my offer to gather evi- dence on my own. Timely collection of evidence is critical to building a case because stores eventually record over their surveillance camera foot- age and archive their sales records. I contacted the companies that were setting up charge accounts in my name to inform them of the situ- ation and to find out where the thieves had made purchases. I was able to meet with security personnel who helped me review their surveil- lance records. I recovered footage identifying the suspects at specific cash registers on the days the fraudu- lent purchases were made. At one store, a security officer recalled that the suspects looked like “nice people,” and even questioned their guilt. When I asked the officer to describe the clothes they were wearing, the description matched the clothes they had purchased at a department store using “my” card. A loan officer I spoke to was livid upon learning that she’d been duped into securing a $40,000 car loan for one of the suspects, who had pro- duced a fake military ID and a forged State Department pay stub. I also asked a Boy Scout camp I’d Dealing with Identity Theft B Y D AVID Z WACH FS K NOW -H OW Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the United States, and anyone can be a victim.