The Foreign Service Journal, May 2007

worked at in the 1970s to password- protect alumni information on their Web site, as that appears to be where the crooks found my old address and phone number. In the ensuing months, the Balti- more County Police fraud unit piec- ed together enough evidence to build a case against what turned out to be a ring operation. An employee at a chain video store, where I used to rent movies, was pilfering customers’ information, including Social Secur- ity numbers, and passing it on to an accomplice at an auto dealership. He, in turn, ran credit checks to mine for potential victims with good credit like me. Then a female accomplice generated fake documents like pay stubs and photo IDs. With overwhelming evidence, the police moved in and arrested the ringleader — but he was released on bail and promptly disappeared. Six months later, the police caught up to him and arrested him again. By then, the Baltimore County police had involved the FBI, Secret Service, Baltimore City police and Metro police to clinch the case. When the U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuted the case in federal court, the ringleader pleaded guilty and is expected to be sentenced to 10 to 12 years in prison. His two accomplices have also been arrested, but have not stood trial yet. Lessons Learned Identity theft is the fastest-grow- ing crime in the United States, and anyone can be a victim. No matter how hard you work to protect your- self, the security of your credit record depends a lot on other peo- ple, including low-wage employees of stores, credit-card companies and credit agencies. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to lessen the chances of being targeted, and to minimize the damage if you are victimized: • Keep only the credit cards you really need. At least one of the “big four” cards — Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover — can be used nearly everywhere. • Consider giving up all store credit cards. Those issued by stores are far less secure than the “big four.” At Sears and some other department stores, anyone with a fake ID and corresponding Social Security number can have a tempo- rary credit pass printed up on the premises for immediate use. Home Depot, CompUSA and several other companies did not even confirm my real mailing address before allowing criminals to open accounts in my name. Mindful of that, I have closed all my store credit-card accounts. • Keep all your credit-card numbers and point-of-contact in- formation handy in a safe place . Quicken, MS Money, Excel and for- fee credit-card protection services are all helpful tools for this. • Give out your SSN only spar- ingly. • Collect electronic evidence quickly. This is crucial in catching the bad guys. When you are over- seas, it may take months to discover you’ve been defrauded — but regu- larly checking your accounts online for any discrepancies or unusual activity, and reconciling your state- ments and receipts, can speed up the process. Don’t forget to period- ically request your credit reports from the big three credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and Transunion). • Notify the State Department immediately if you fall prey to identity theft or any other crime. U.S. government employees under chief-of-mission authority should immediately contact their regional security officer. Domestically-based Department of State employees should contact their local police. Finally, there is also a lot of helpful information available on the Internet: http://www.identitytheft.org/ and http: // www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fraud/idthe ft.html are good places to start. David Zwach, a Foreign Service secu- rity engineering officer, is currently serving in Abu Dhabi. He has previ- ously served in New Delhi, Frankfurt and Washington, D.C. He wishes to thank Detectives Mark Watkins and Missy Coyne of the Baltimore County Police Department, and Ms. Marsha Russell of the Baltimore County Dis- trict Attorney’s Office, for their assis- tance with this article. The views ex- pressed herein are those of Mr. Zwach and not necessarily those of the De- partment of State or the U.S. govern- ment. M A Y 2 0 0 7 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 19 K N O W - H O W There are steps you can take to lessen the chances of being targeted, and to minimize the damage if you are victimized.