Identity theft reports in Lynchburg area jump 30 percent in 2008

Reports of identity theft have jumped some 30 percent in the Lynchburg area in 2008, according to a federal report.

Statewide, fraud and identity theft complaints are up almost 55 percent over 2007 figures, rising in line with national trends, said the Consumer Sentinel Network’s Data Book, which complies reports of fraud and identity theft from across the nation.

“It’s a growing threat,” said Officer Dave Ragland of the Lynchburg Police Department. “More than 10 million Americans per year are victims. It is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the country.”

The Consumer Sentinel Network compiles a report each year, culling information from law enforcement reports as well as complaints filed with the Internet Crime Complaint Center, the Better Business Bureau, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Identity Theft Assistance Center and the National Fraud Information Center, among others.

The Lynchburg metropolitan statistical area saw an increase in fraud complaints, rising some 62 percent from 636 to 1,032, averaging out to about 430 complaints per 100,000 residents. Identity theft complaints rose 30.6 percent from 183 to 239 in 2008.

The top-ranking area for identity theft in the state is credit card fraud, followed by phone or utilities fraud.

“Don’t drop your guard,” Ragland said. “People don’t understand how much work it is to get your identity back once its stolen. … They can wreak havoc on your live in a matter of hours.”

Nationwide, the reported cases of identity theft jumped about 50 percent over 2007 numbers, and most of that jump can be found in the latter months of the year when economic conditions worsened, said Tami Nealy, communications director for Lifelock, a company that provides identity theft protection and resources to consumers who have had their identity stolen.

There are several steps people can take to help protect their credit:

- Shred any papers with personal, identifying information, including credit card offers or those checks that credit card companies often send out.

“Shred, shred, shred,” Ragland said.

- If you don’t have a mailbox that locks, never place your bills there for mailing. Criminals sometimes look through mailboxes for bills to gather account numbers and other identifying information. Also, when ordering new checks, request that they be sent to your bank for pickup.

- Never give out personal information like your date of birth, social security number, or account numbers over the phone on a call that you have not initiated. Your bank shouldn’t call and ask for this information.

- Keep receipts. Matching them to the account activity on your statement can immediately spot any fraudulent transactions.

- If you have accounts you are not using, close them.

- Request a free credit report to check the status of your credit and see if anything looks amiss. All consumers are provided with a free report each year from one of each of the three credit reporting agencies: Equifax, TransUnion and Experian.

Nealy recommends requesting the report from one company and four months later, requesting it from another agency, so once every four months you see what is on the credit report.

Free credit reports can be requested at annualcreditreport.com

- Consumers are entitled to place a fraud alert at each of the three credit reporting agencies. The fraud alert means that anytime someone wants to open a new line of credit, identity verification is needed.

For people who have not been victims of identity theft, the alerts can only be placed for 90 days at a time, but can be renewed indefinitely. For those who have become a victim, the alerts can be placed for seven years.

Consumers need to give the credit reporting agencies a reason as to why the alert is needed, and that can be something as simple as “identity theft is up in my state and I don’t want to be the next victim,” Nealy said.

- Report any instance of identity theft immediately to the police, the major credit bureaus and the Federal Trade Commission.