August 12, 2004

Almaden’s Bob Hughes shares story of identity theft at AVCA meeting

By Sheila Sanchez
Staff Writer

On Super Bowl weekend in 1996, Almaden resident Bob Hughes was left feeling terribly surprised when he became a victim of identity theft.

The retired GE engineer received a call from a security official at his bank alerting him of three limo charges on his visa credit card in Seattle, Wash., which amounted to $450.

“I was a babe in the woods,” said Hughes of how the news hit him. “I knew nothing about identity theft.”
Hughes refused to pay the charges. He cancelled the credit card.

A few days later, Hughes received another call from a finance manager at the Four Seasons Hotel in Olympia, Wash., asking him to pay hotel charges for leaving the hotel without paying his bill. Although the identity thief had been unable to use his credit card to pay for the bill, he had used a fake copy of Hughes’ driver’s license.

Hughes was shocked when the number of the fake driver’s license matched the number of his license. “I fell right through the floor,” he told about 20 members of the Almaden Valley Community Association Monday evening at the Macdonald’s Restaurant on Almaden Expressway and McAbee Road.

Hughes, who suffered many sleepless nights because of the ordeal, circulated a flyer during the meeting showing the fake and original licenses. Many facts in the fake license were the same as the original license, such as his name, number, address, sex, hair and eye color; however, three discrepancies were obvious: the typeset of the letters on the fake license and the date of birth was different by about 30 years and the signature was misspelled.

“It told me that he got information from an inside source without making a copy of my original driver’s license. My wallet was never stolen, my wife’s purse was never stolen and our house was not burglarized.”

Hughes faxed his license to the hotel worker to compare the documents and cleared the charges.

The next week, a woman from the MBNA credit card company called him to tell him the company was issuing him a credit card for West One Bank and was confused about where to send the credit card because of the two addresses that appeared on the records, one in Seattle and one in San Jose.

He immediately warned her an identity thief was soliciting the card.

She advised Hughes to call the three credit bureaus, Experian, Trans Union and Equifax and put a fraud alert on his report for seven years. He then learned that he had a black mark on his report from the Bon Marché department store.

The thief had applied for a department store credit card to purchase about $400 in goods. To clear the charges, Hughes had to convince Bon Marché that he was innocent and then contact the credit report company to clear those records. It took about six months to right the wrong.

Ultimately, Bon Marché withdrew the charges after asking Hughes to provide four copies of his signature from old documents.

Hughes had to change his driver’s license number and Social Security number, and wasted several hundred hours on the theft.

Hughes believes, somehow, his information was stolen from an inside source.

As a victim of identity theft, Hughes volunteers to speak about the insidious crime. He has given about a dozen presentations on identity theft and is scheduled to give eight more in the future.

Hughes shared with the audience his definition of identity theft: “A hidden scam perpetrated by an unknown individual whose objective is to live an opulent life style supported by your bank account for as long as possible.”

He said the crime has become so popular because it can be committed from the comfort of the criminals’ homes using a printer, laminating machine and computer. “They don’t need a gun, no police chase, no fingerprints and it’s an equal opportunity crime,” that can also be done at any copy center.

“My objective tonight is to scare the holy daylights out of you about identity theft,”
said the self-described “pioneer victim” to the audience.

There were no laws on the books about this crime until recently. In July, President George W. Bush signed into law a tough new identity theft bill, passed by Congress in response to evidence that the problem is growing rapidly as more Americans use the Internet to shop and manage their personal finances.

The Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act adds two years to prison sentences for criminals convicted of using stolen credit card numbers and other personal data to commit crimes. Violators who use that data to commit “terrorist offenses” would get five extra years.”

Identity theft topped the list of consumer fraud complaints to the Federal Trade Commission in 2003, accounting for more than half of all the complaints tracked by the agency. The FTC recorded 214,905 cases of identity theft in 2003, up from 161,836 in 2002.

In a report published last September, the FTC estimated that identity theft claimed 9.9 million victims in 2002, costing businesses and consumers $53 billion. The report, based on a telephone survey of more than 4,000 adults, estimated that as many as 27.3 million Americans fell victim to identity theft in the past five years.

Hughes told those gathered that if they become victims they should react quickly, obtain their credit reports, contact their financial institutions and credit card companies, change account numbers as necessary, request a fraud alert on their credit report, date and keep records of everything, respond with requested information, and dig up examples of their signatures. But most importantly he stressed that it is important to stay informed.

Ways to prevent becoming victims are to set up a secure mail delivery arrangement, save or shred financial documents, don’t give any information to anybody unless initiating contact, reduce the number of credit cards carried, store a list of credit card information, including phone numbers; become informed, read all credit card bills in detail, check out the privacy Rights Clearing House (www.privacyrights.org) and the Identity Theft Resource Center (www.idtheftcenter.org), guard Social Security numbers, call creditors if bills do not show up on time, truncate the account number on check payments, don’t write driver’s license numbers on checks and stop pre-approved balance transfer checks.

Hughes also told the audience about a weapon against identity theft called the security freeze, which lets individuals block access to their credit reports until they personally unlock the files by contacting the credit bureaus and providing a PIN code. Identity theft victims are turning to it because it appears to successfully block fraudsters from opening accounts with stolen names.

Paul S. King, a certified financial planner with King Wealth Planning, Inc., also a victim of identity theft, was at the meeting Monday evening to share information about a class on identity theft he will be teaching at DeAnza College and at various senior centers throughout the area. He passed out an identity theft kit letting people know ways to prevent, detect and recover from the crime.

“I’ve been scammed myself,” said King, relating how three years ago an identity thief tried to open an account in Las Vegas using his name. When the bank called to verify the information, King informed them that it was a fraud and that he had never been to Las Vegas. “There was no direct financial cost to me, but it was very nearly a big theft. They wanted to open a checking account, take my bank account and dump it in there and they wanted to take all the money. He was caught at the bank by a teller who saw that the identification he presented looked fraudulent.”

For more information on identity theft visit www.caag.state.ca.us/idtheft/tips.htm. For more information on Hughes’ presentation on identity theft e-mail him at o8subob@aol.com. For information on King’s classes call (408) 879-0789, or e-mail him at paul@kingwealth.com.