Technology and Easy Credit Give Identity Thieves an Edge(AZ, 1 in 6)

[RedEarth]

— In a Scottsdale police station last December, a 23-year-old methamphetamine user showed officers a new way to steal identities. His arrest had been unremarkable. This metropolitan area, which includes Scottsdale and Phoenix, has the highest rate of identity theft complaints in the nation, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Even members of the Scottsdale police force have had their identities stolen.

But the suspect showed officers something they had not seen before. Browsing a government Web site, he pulled up a local divorce document listing the parties' names, addresses and bank account numbers, along with scans of their signatures. With a common software program and some check stationery, the document provided all he needed to print checks in his victims' names — and it was all made available, with some fanfare, by the county recorder's office. The site had thousands of them.

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In an economy that runs increasingly on the instantaneous flow of information and credit — aggressively promoted by banks and credit card companies despite the risks — Phoenix and its surrounding area provide a window on one of the system's unintended consequences.

According to a Federal Trade Commission survey in 2003, about 10 million Americans — 1 in 30 — had their identities stolen in the previous year, with losses to the economy of $48 billion. Subsequent surveys, by Javelin Strategy and Research, a private research company, found that the number of victims had declined to nine million last year but that the losses had risen to $56.6 billion. In Arizona, one in six adults had their identities stolen in the last five years, about twice the national rate, according to the Javelin survey.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/30/us/30identity.html?ei=5094&en=739bb2e394d0d773&hp=&ex=1149048000&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print