[StBernard] The Crime That Keeps On Stealing

[Westley Annis]

The Crime That Keeps On Stealing
Frank W. Abagnale Jr. 05.29.07, 6:00 AM ET


Forty years ago, few people could have predicted that identity theft would
become as big an epidemic as it is today. Few could have imagined the
importance of taking mail to the post office instead of leaving it in our
mailboxes for pickup or shredding documents before throwing them in the
trash. And who would've guessed that a $2 pen could help prevent a crime? 

Amid this epidemic of identity theft, we see more and more people becoming
faceless victims. Those victims waste countless hours and money recovering
what was taken from them--their name, their credit, their money, essentially
their lives. The problem is that we are a reactive society. We wait until a
problem surfaces before seeking a solution. 

We need to find ways to protect ourselves before identity theft strikes. We
can make drastic improvements toward diminishing this crime, but it will
never disappear altogether. If you haven't been a victim of identity theft,
it is likely just because thieves haven't gotten to you yet. If things fail
to change, your turn will come. Prevention is not simply a matter of
following a checklist of tips--it is about education. This is the primary
factor in protecting ourselves. 

While more and more people are using online banking, America's 78 million
baby boomers, who make up 15% of the U.S. population, continue to be a
paper-driven majority. This group also accounts for 30% of fraud victims, as
estimated by Consumer Action, a consumer-advocacy group.

A check holds all of the information needed to steal your identity: name,
address, bank account, routing number. If written with a ball-point pen,
information can easily be removed by a process called check washing, a
common form of identity theft. It is the process of taking a check or
document that has already been filled out, removing the ink with a regular
household chemical, then re-writing in a new dollar amount and recipient. If
you are careless, your personal check could contribute to the 1.2 million
fraudulent checks written every day. That's more than 13 per second.

The American Bankers Association states that check fraud is growing 25% per
year. To slow this growth, we need to understand how it works. I know
first-hand how easy it is to perform check fraud. About 40 years ago, I
cashed $2.5 million in fraudulent checks in every state and 26 foreign
countries over a five-year period. I was involved in a high-stakes game of
stolen identities. I know how easy it can be to perform this theft, but I
also know it is just as easy to prevent.

Criminals rely on our mistakes to make their jobs easier. Taking a few
precautions will make you less attractive to predators. Don't leave mail in
your mailbox overnight or over the weekend. Thieves wait for that red flag
to go up to score an outgoing check or other personal information. When
writing checks and filling out important documents, use a gel pen, like the
Uni-Ball 207, so thieves can't remove the ink and change the information.
These pens trap the ink within the fibers of the paper, making it
essentially impossible for check washing to occur. Additionally, shred or
tear up unwanted documents that contain personal information before
discarding them. The cost of a high-quality shredder is far less than the
cost of having your identity stolen.

Let's face it: We can't always control what is happening in our world, so we
must take steps to control what we can. Technology is here to stay, but
there are still simple and inexpensive ways to prevent identity theft when
writing checks. Remember that a crook always looks for the easiest route to
riches. Don't hand him a map. Be proactive and start protecting yourself
today. 

Frank W. Abagnale Jr. was a check forger for five years in the 1960s.
Currently, he runs Abagnale and Associates, a financial fraud consultancy
company. His life story provided the inspiration for the feature film Catch
Me If You Can, nominally based on his ghost-written biography of the same
name. His latest book, Stealing Your Life, was released in April 2007.