Thread: Identity theft: Texas border, Brooklyn among nation’s ID t

Identity theft: Texas border, Brooklyn among nation’s ID theft hot spots
By Isaac Wolf, Scripps Howard News Service
Posted February 25, 2011 at 9 p.m

WASHINGTON — Want to lessen your odds of becoming a victim of identity theft? Don’t move to Brownsville, Texas.

More specifically, stay out of the city’s ZIP code, 78521.

That ZIP code has the dubious distinction of generating the most identity theft complaints during the last half-decade, according to a Scripps Howard News Service analysis of more than 1.4 million reports made by consumers to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

Residents from that ZIP code generated 1,513 complaints — far more than the 922 complaints from the second-place ZIP code, 90044, near Inglewood, Calif.

Another nearby Brownsville ZIP code, 78520, ranks 12th nationally with 813 consumer complaints. Also high on the list are ZIP codes in Texas towns near Brownsville, including Mission, Pharr and Weslaco.

Brownsville, a bustling international seaport on the Gulf of Mexico with a population approaching 200,000, sits astride two crucial corridors of crime: the international drug superhighway and the path for illegal immigrants, according to experts.

“You’ve got several different things that line up along the Texas-Mexico border that contribute to identity theft,â€

No telling how many people carry fraudulent identification, it's obviously a huge business in this country. Feel for those who have had their identities ruined, hear it can be a nightmare to clear up. Perhaps once a politician's child or relative finds their social security number has been used for years, maybe then more attention will be given to this issue?

A person told me they know an employer who tricks legal citizens to apply for work positions by posting job openings. When citizens apply for jobs they never receive responeses from employer because he use employment applications to hire undocumented aliens and fraud legal citizens. I am still trying to gather more information about this potential fraud activity, before taking the issue any further.

Maybe I will apply for a vacant position, and see what happen!!!

Let me also add; persons should use caution when applying for employment because most of the time full names, Social Security numbers and birth-dates is all needed to fall victims to identity theft, and it is very hard to be cleared of such fraud crime.