Identity thieves target common ethnic surnames

Miguel Garcia was making a name for himself in radio as the afternoon on-air personality at a Hammond, Ind., station in March when he opened a shocking letter from the IRS.

It said he owed $35,000 in back taxes. Three days later, he got another letter from the IRS saying he owed an additional $45,000. A third letter arrived saying he owed $95,000, and more followed nearly every other day for a total of about 30 letters, putting him on the hook for close to half a million dollars in back taxes -- and the letters keep coming.

After the third letter, he finally called the Internal Revenue Service. "When I talked to the IRS, I explained my situation and said, 'I don't have $95,000 to give you.' "

After some research, the IRS provided Garcia with a detailed list of all of the jobs he was reported to have held from 2003 to 2006 -- 60 in all -- and the picture became clearer. Some one, or several someones, had been using his Social Security number.

He had become another in the growing pool of victims of identity theft, one of 255,000 people across the United States who filed complaints with the Federal Trade Commission in 2005.

But his case may be part of a relatively new twist in the scam. Authorities think Garcia was targeted because of his common Hispanic name.

Miguel Garcia -- like John Smith or Jan Kowalski or Shui Wong -- is part of a growing trend: legal immigrants, naturalized citizens and U.S.-born residents with common ethnic names increasingly targeted by illegal immigrants who resort to stealing plausible identities so they can find jobs to pursue the American dream, causing those who came before them mounting headaches.

Now Garcia, known as "The Freakin' Puerto Rican, Donnie Devoe" at WPWX-FM (92.3), is in damage-control mode, trying to clear his name and his credit by sending the IRS his check stubs, past tax returns and Social Security reports. "I was freaking out. They had it that I worked one job that made $150,000," Garcia said. "She asked if I worked for this other company because last year I had made $250,000 that I hadn't filed taxes for." Garcia, who rents, had to laugh, "If I made that kind of money, I would have bought a home by now."

Cries for help often wind up at the Illinois attorney general's office, which started an identity theft hotline in January of this year -- the first hotline of its kind at the state level. The office has seen a steady increase in the number of people calling for assistance. They call after getting letters from the IRS saying they owe back taxes on jobs they never held, being denied unemployment benefits because state records show they are gainfully employed at more than one job, or when they lose their public assistance benefits because of income they're supposedly earning.

"We've definitely noticed a trend just since January," said Nikole Armour, a consumer advocate with the attorney general's office. "Of the 3,000 complaints we've logged, 300 have been for work-related ID theft, and of those, 240 of them involved people with Hispanic, Polish or Asian last names."

Garcia's ordeal may take years to clean up and will surely mean more headaches, if not more money. The attorney general's office has been able to get the IRS to put its demands on hold and got three Miguel Garcia impostors fired from the jobs they used his Social Security number to get. But those three are a drop in the bucket, and Garcia can only imagine how many more are still out there using his number.

Most government agencies that study identity theft statistics don't track ethnicity of victims. But even coupled with a general underreporting of identity thefts, stories like Miguel Garcia's are trickling out. Trickling too fast for some.

There are groups that would prefer not to shed light on the issue, fearing it will stoke anti-immigrant feelings at a time when comprehensive immigration reform is at the national forefront.

But Richard M. Stana, director of justice issues for the U.S. Government Accountability Office, has testified before Congress on the prevalence of identity fraud and its links to alien illegal activities. He says the Immigration and Naturalization Service reports extensive use of fraudulent documents by aliens, intercepting tens of thousands of fraudulent documents used for obtaining employment -- including counterfeit Social Security cards.

"There is every indication that this is a growing problem, and I can't see that growth abating anytime soon," Stana said. "This is a pervasive problem, whether the theft is for getting work or stealing money."

Stana testified that any rise in employment-related ID thefts targeting people with ethnic surnames could be traced to the 1986 law that required employers to collect documentation from new employees proving their identity and eligibility to work. According to INS figures, 50,000 unauthorized aliens used 78,000 fraudulent documents to obtain employment in the 20 months between October 1996 and May 1998. Of those documents, 36 percent were Social Security cards.

"I think most people don't know when someone has taken their ID," said Claudia Farrell, spokeswoman for the Consumer Protection Division of the Federal Trade Commission. "Many times, people don't even find out they've been victimized until months or even years after the fact, and some victims never come forward," she said, "so there's a lot of unreported ID theft."

Many people, exhausted from the crushing load of paperwork, don't further burden themselves with reporting the crime to multiple agencies that may or may not communicate with each other.

Reporting is further complicated when friends or family "borrow" the identity of a child born here with an ethnic surname.

Chicago Police Department sources in the Financial Crime Division say although they can't pin down reliable numbers because of the way statistics are collected, they are seeing an uptick in people using the Social Security numbers of babies and children born here. With those names and numbers, they can get mortgage loans, file for duplicate public assistance benefits and commit credit card fraud.

Jay Foley, director of the nonprofit Identity Theft Resource Center, said the problem is skyrocketing because it's very easy to assume a child's identity. The crime goes undetected for up to 18 years and then devastates the victim for life. It's difficult to detect because the child or parent never suspects there is a reason to check the child's credit.

"The beauty for an ID thief is that when they're dealing with a child, they get to establish the identity," Foley said. "The thief could be a stranger or a relative -- maybe even a parent who has convinced themselves that using the child's number to help get the family out of debt is in everyone's best interest."

The child is usually hit with the revelation on the day he or she goes to get a driver's license, is unable to get a college loan, or is denied a credit card or an apartment lease. "I've heard so many stories of child victims getting derailed so badly from going to college, or getting an apartment -- it's just sad," Foley said. "And it's underreported, especially when there's a relative involved."

Most experts agree that illegal immigrants do their best to remain in the shadows -- they don't put a spotlight on themselves by opening up charge accounts, running up bills and failing to make payments. Most are just trying to make a living, and some don't understand the damage they can cause for other people.

Noel Gerena, a military veteran in his mid-30s who lives on the North Side, empathizes. "I was fortunate to be born into citizenship. I understand the plight of the Mexican people," Gerena said. "I understand why they're here. I'm glad they came! This is the land of opportunity, and God bless them, but this is causing problems for me."

Two years ago, Gerena found out his Social Security number was used by someone else to get a job. Gerena had lost his union gig and went to the Illinois Department of Employment Security to file for unemployment benefits. He was denied because, according to state records, Gerena was employed at a company in the Pilsen neighborhood. After going through the long process of contacting the Social Security Administration, the IRS and the credit bureaus to get himself back on track, he was finally able to collect his benefits and move on.

Fast forward two years to spring 2006. Gerena lost his job and was again faced with the same roadblock to unemployment benefits for the same reason -- he was "already employed." Gerena recently learned that the same company that two years ago employed multiple people under his name and Social Security number was back at it, despite repeated pleas for it to stop employing people using his number.

"I called [this company], and they told me: 'What do you want us to do about it?' They didn't care," Gerena said.

Francisco Rodriguez, of Zion, a naturalized citizen since the 1986 amnesty initiative, fought with a company that repeatedly employed people using his name and number. Despite several requests for them to flag his name and number, he says his pleas fell on deaf ears. "I'd call the company, and they'd only say they couldn't do anything, or that they'd let that employee go already," Rodriguez, who is in his mid-50s, said in Spanish. "They'd tell me that person had provided all the necessary documents to prove they were who they said. Then they just stopped answering my phone calls."

Even though the Social Security Administration offers two free major database tools for employers and third-party submitters, like payroll services, to verify names and Social Security numbers for annual wage reports, there is no incentive for employers looking to exploit cheap labor to use those tools and no real mechanism for enforcement.

Both Rodriguez and Gerena say they have been told by the Social Security Administration that their situations aren't dire because their credit hasn't been affected.

Kia Green, an SSA spokeswoman, said that when a theft is finally reported and the victim provides the appropriate documentation, there is no permanent damage to a victim's Social Security earnings record.

She advised combing through your Social Security earnings report each year. If you don't notice that your reported income is too high, you will run into trouble trying to claim your benefits later.

It's that potential for more trouble that keeps all three victims awake at night, wondering how this happened and when -- or if -- it will ever be resolved.

"I know I never lost my Social Security card or my license, so how could this have happened?" Rodriguez said. "And how do I keep them from doing it again -- they know the number; they can go out and use it again. He'll always have access, and I'll always be worried someone will open credit card accounts and get me in debt."

Experts say the numbers could be lifted off stolen mail or out of the trash of a target, or bought from black-market dealers who use high-tech computer hacking to get numbers and make fake cards. In the case of children, a relative or acquaintance might simply ask a relative with a new baby to lend out the number -- or just steal it.

"I live in fear," said Gerena, who got another bomb dropped on him in June, when he was notified that his personal information was on the Department of Veterans Affairs laptop that disappeared in May. "I'm scared to get a credit card, I'm scared to try to purchase a car or a home. I started telling my family and friends to tell anyone who calls for me that I was never in the military, and if they say they were a friend of mine to tell them I died in a car accident," he said. "This is the worst thing that's ever happened to me."

Christine Nielsen, a lawyer with the Illinois attorney general's office, has heard those words over and over again. "We try to alert the government agencies about this problem," she said. "They've been responsive, but it's new enough that agencies just don't know what to do."

To try to figure it out, the office hosted its first ID theft summit Thursday for representatives of 100 business and consumer groups, law enforcement officials and government entities to identify the most pervasive identity theft issues and come up with ideas for new legislation, education initiatives and improved intra-agency cooperation.

"The summit addressed all the problems -- like this one -- we never anticipated," said Deborah Hagin, chief of the attorney general's Consumer Protection Division.

"There's nothing that can beat the networking that went on," Hagin said. "All these groups have seen the impact of the problem; now they can continue to cross-educate and figure out how they can help each other and stay connected."

"Most government agencies that study identity theft statistics don't track ethnicity of victims. But even coupled with a general underreporting of identity thefts, stories like Miguel Garcia's are trickling out. Trickling too fast for some.

There are groups that would prefer not to shed light on the issue, fearing it will stoke anti-immigrant feelings at a time when comprehensive immigration reform is at the national forefront."

'A pervasive problem'

"But Richard M. Stana, director of justice issues for the U.S. Government Accountability Office, has testified before Congress on the prevalence of identity fraud and its links to alien illegal activities. He says the Immigration and Naturalization Service reports extensive use of fraudulent documents by aliens, intercepting tens of thousands of fraudulent documents used for obtaining employment -- including counterfeit Social Security cards.

Just one more big problem as a result of the government not securing or borders!

It's an illegal employer problem

"Employers Prefer Ignorance
If illegal aliens invent a SSN, steal or borrow an authentic card, or buy a counterfeit one, most likely the SSA will not catch it without the aid of employers. But few employers seem inclined to offer that cooperation. The Employee Verification Service (EVS) is a mechanism for employers to match an individual's name and SSN with SSA records. There were 6.5 million U.S. employers in fiscal year 2000. Only 6,000 employers were registered users, and of those, only 211 used EVS. Employers complain that the feedback is not timely, and Mr. Huse acknowledged that SSA has not implemented its new online EVS as of October 2001. However, he also stated that a number of employers find the system to be “too helpful”, exposing the fact that their employees are in the country illegally or holding visas that do not permit them to work. Employers who knowingly hire these people are subject to fines and penalties."
http://www.cis.org/articles/2002/back302.html

"These are but a few indications of the wide ranging and deep-rooted consequences of what the false document industry has bred. There sadly are many, many more. But ownership of false documents by illegal aliens now begs another question. In order to receive benefit of the path to citizenship which both the Senate and the Bush administration have proposed, will not illegal aliens then need to admit that they have been using fraudulent documents in order to become employed, receive state and federal benefits, receive an education, drive and register to vote? For if they really want to come out of the shadows as their advocates continue to claim, then illegal aliens will have to abide by the law and reveal their true identities. However, that proposition may ultimately prove too foreign for them to bear."

http://www.amhersttimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1562&Itemid=27

Social Security Number Overexposed, Unsafe

By Nicholas Beadle

(AXcess News) Washington - It is the nine-digit key to your life – and B.J. Ostergren has more than 18,000 of them.

For the past four years, the 57-year-old former insurance adjuster has lost sleep to gain boxes crammed with public records, many plucked from county clerks and recorders' Web sites. They have one golden kernel: Social Security numbers, usually partnered with enough information to open a fraudulent line of credit – or worse.

From her home in Hanover County, Va., she writes and calls the holders of the numbers she turns up, many of whom did not know their records were online. Her Web site, the Virginia Watchdog, has a page devoted to political leaders whose Social Security numbers she has found with ease.

Some of her best finds: former CIA chief Porter Goss, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and the president's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush – and their wives.

"We're just spoon-feeding criminals," Ostergren said.

Over the past seven decades, the Social Security number has evolved into the primary identifier in nearly every facet of American life. Because of that, many believe it is time to add a few more keys to the chain – or completely change the lock.

"The Social Security number was never intended to be a universal identifier," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "Everything sticks to it – it's like flypaper."

After the first number was assigned in 1936, the Social Security Administration struggled with getting the public to understand the trackers, let alone coaxing holders to protect them. More than 40,000 Americans, for example, used a number from a faux Social Security card inserted into wallets made by the E.H. Ferree Co. in the late 1930s. Worse, the number was the real tracker of the company vice president's secretary.

The number's spread as an identifier began in earnest with a 1943 executive order that it be used "exclusively" when federal agencies started new recordkeeping systems. Despite that, for several years Social Security cards were marked with pleas that neither they nor the number be used as identification.

When the federal government expanded in the 1960s, so did the number's applications. The Internal Revenue Service made it the heart of its taxpayer identification system in 1962. Medicare and Medicaid lobbed more responsibility onto number in 1965 by forcing most Americans older than 65 to have one.

The next five years saw the Social Security number become the default I.D. for U.S. soldiers and Veterans Administration hospital patients and become an integral authenticator in banking and securities.

And as the number accrued more responsibility, it also gained more gratuitous display – on service tags, Medicare cards, driver's licenses and college I.D. cards.

The most dangerous confluence of use and exposure, however, came in the early 1990s, said Robert Ellis Smith, author of "Ben Franklin's Web Site: Privacy and Curiosity from Plymouth Rock to the Internet." Credit agencies began using the number as their chief means of verifying applications while the Federal Trade Commission started allowing the trade of the number and other personal information.

"Without that, you wouldn't have much identity theft," said Smith, publisher of the Privacy Journal newsletter.

That opened the door for Social Security numbers to be dealt out on black market sites that can appear and evaporate within a day, said Beth Givens, executive director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a California-based consumer rights group. And with close to 90 million records breaches at government agencies, universities and corporations in the past year and a half, she said there is no telling how many Social Security numbers have fallen into the wrong hands – and how many times.

Identity theft has dipped from about 10.1 million victims in 2003 to roughly 8.9 million in 2005, according to a survey performed by Javelin Strategy and Research, a business consulting firm. But because identity thieves are using information to open more new credit lines and accounts rather than pilfering from existing ones, the average cost per case has risen from $5,249 to $6,383, said Rubina Johannes, a Javelin research analyst.

State federal and business leaders need to develop a uniform policy on when and how the number should be used and collected, said Barbara Bovbjerg, Government Accountability Office director of education, workforce and income security. Most of the impetus to protect the number remains on the consumer, she said, but there are many weak spots in the number's use.

Some Social Security numbers are easily accessible through public records placed on the Internet by a few county clerks and recorders, Bovbjerg said. But in those districts, she said officials are torn between protecting their constituents' vital information and preserving thousands of accessible, often un-standardized records.

Consumers also find double standards in government and business. The Social Security Administration implores new cardholders to protect their numbers, but advises them to carry a Medicare card that clearly displays the tracker at all times, Bovbjerg said. Of the 23 credit card-issuing banks and credit unions Javelin ranked as the best at fraud protection, Johannes said almost half still use full Social Security numbers in consumer communications.

Headway has been made in protecting the number. Recent anti-terrorism legislation has made it illegal for states to put the Social Security numbers on driver's licenses, Bovbjerg said. Most American colleges no longer use it as their standard identification number. A May GAO report found that online consumer information brokers offered few full Social Security numbers.

In March, the GAO recommended to the House Ways and Means Committee that Congress pass legislation to limit the wide trade of Social Security numbers, if only because no alternatives are even near the horizon.

But fortifying information likely to have been exposed a dozen times only increases the incentive and effort to nab it, said Kerric Harvey, an associate professor of public affairs and media at George Washington University.

"The Social Security number has outlived its usefulness," she said. "We're using staple guns, we're using Silly Putty, we're using Scotch tape, we're using all kinds of things to build on.

"That's not smart management, it's bad citizenship and it's ineffective protection."

Harvey favors a system of three "consistent, replaceable" identifiers that would include a linguistic code and the use of biometrics – identification based on physical attributes such as fingerprints, eye structure and hand geometry.

Safer, less dramatic methods of authentication are already available to creditors and others in the private sector, Givens said. For example, she said they could install automated systems that match multiple types of information about a person – phone number, birth date, current address – to verify their identities instead of hedging everything on nine digits.

Or, Rotenberg said, new methods could simply be phased in to lessen the Social Security number's burden. "We need unique identifiers, not universal identifiers," he said. "Would you really want one key to unlock all the doors in your life?"

But wide use of the number will not be extinguished anytime soon, Bovbjerg said. The Social Security number is a key tracker of income for disability benefits and child support and America's chief social welfare program.

And despite its overexposure, the Social Security number still has one draw that keeps government agencies and companies flocking to it.

"It's just not as convenient to use multiple variables," Bovbjerg said. "It's really an issue of balancing the risk of identity theft versus the convenience of getting credit at the Ford dealership.

"I don't think anybody knows if that threshold has been reached."

To view Ostergren's Web site, go to: http://www.thevirginiawatchdog.com
To learn about protecting your Social Security Number, go to: http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs10-ssn.htm

Source: Scripps Howard Foundation

Date: July 17, 2006
Section: National News
The URL for this article is: http://www.axcessnews.com/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=10474

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