Employment ID theft is largest local problem

Illegal employment issues are common

By Sara Foley
Corpus Christi Caller Times
Posted February 26, 2011 at 10:23 p.m.

While credit card fraud is the most frequent type of identity theft reported nationwide, Corpus Christi area residents had more problems with information manipulated by illegal workers.

Nationwide, 11 percent of identity theft complaints related to employment fraud, which occurs when someone steals another's identity and Social Security number to gain legal employment.

In Corpus Christi, employment fraud was nearly four times higher than the national average, making up close to 42 percent of the complaints filed with the Federal Trade Commission between 2005 and the first three months of 2010.

The Corpus Christi area ranked eighth in the nation in total identity theft complaints per capita, according to a 2009 Federal Trade Commission report.

The closer cities are to the U.S.-Mexico border, the more prevalent employment fraud problems become, said Bert Howard, the managing partner of Business and Risk Consulting Group of America who specializes in identity theft.

Those complaints often surface this time of year as people prepare their annual income tax statements and learn the Internal Revenue Service thinks they worked a job that they didn't.

Police have few resources to help those victims, said Corpus Christi Police Lt. Kelly Isaacks, who oversees the department's financial crimes unit.

"What we do with these cases is not much," she said.

Often, the Social Security number's owner and the theft suspect live far apart. When someone comes to report employment-related identity theft, police refer victims to the Internal Revenue Service or send the case to law enforcement officers where the number is being used, which often is in another state, Isaacks said.

Police can go into the workplace where the identity was used, ask for the worker's paperwork and see if the person still works there.

"Often times, they're gone," she said. "It comes up two or three years afterward. If you go back to where the person first used the identity, they don't know who Joe the cook was or where he went afterward."

It's also common to see children of illegal immigrants learning years later that their parents used their children's legal status and Social Security numbers to gain work, said Melissa Goonan, education director with Consumer Credit Counseling Service of South Texas.

The children frequently learn about the problem when they're applying for college financial aid and inherit any bad financial decisions their parents made.

"They may have an entire work history that's part of their credit report at age 18," she said. "In order for it to be removed, they have to file a police report against their parents. It goes unreported."

Employment-related identity theft is one of the fastest-growing types of fraud nationwide, Howard said.

But it's not the only kind of problem area residents should be concerned about, he said.

Identity thieves now are targeting medical identification to steal health insurance benefits, creating driver's licenses and using stolen identities when they're caught committing crimes.

Traditional types of identity theft, such as forging checks, have changed, too.

Last week, Corpus Christi police charged six people in connection with an identity theft ring that stole $47,000 from the checking accounts of 51 victims.

According to police, the accused stole checks from mailboxes, such as those the victims were mailing out to pay bills, and used the routing number and account number to manufacture checks with different names on them.

Terrell Hass, 69, didn't realize until three days after the checks to pay his credit card and utility bills were missing that someone had spent more than $10,000 buying appliances, clothes and groceries. By that time, his bills were late and his checking account had nothing left in it. It took almost three months to sort out the problem.

"My checkbook had never left the house," he said. "They were floating money everywhere."

He has set up a separate account only to pay bills to keep cash away from potential thieves, he said.

But even those without cash for criminals to spend can become targets, Howard said.

That was the case for Corpus Christi resident Alvin Tatum, 41.

Nearly 20 years had passed since Tatum last saw his childhood best friend, James Newton.

Since the two graduated high school, Newton had been in and out of jail and had problems with drug addiction. When police caught him with cocaine in 2003, he gave them his old friend's name instead of his own.

Tatum learned years later, when he was rejected for employment for a part-time job, that Nueces County records showed that he had been charged and convicted of drug possession and served nine months in a state jail.

He turned to an attorney to straighten out the confusion, but he couldn't afford the $500 fee. Instead, he signed up for a prepaid legal service that charges a monthly fee.

"He knew my name was clean," Tatum said. "He knew what type of life I lived. He gave my name thinking they were going to give him a slap on the wrist. Back then, I trusted him with my life. That's why I was so shocked."

Corpus Christi police also have seen ex-boyfriends, ex-wives, sisters and roommates steal identities to sign up fraudulently for electrical service, payday loans, cable and serious financial problems, such as credit cards and false businesses.

"It's not always some stranger digging in your mailbox," Isaacks said. "Someone close to you has access to your information."

Identity thieves in Corpus Christi have used stolen checks to create fake businesses, intercepted credit card transmissions and bought electricity and cable in other people's names, Isaacks said.

That's just what the police know about. Often, people only file a report when banks require it.

Howard said his analysis has shown that few cases are reported and even fewer are ever closed. Only one of 700 identity thieves are caught, and few get jail time, he said.

"You always think it won't happen to you," Howard said. "It's no longer a question of if. It's when."

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