You can be a victim of identity theft – even if you are Colorado Attorney General John Suthers.
On June 3, Colorado Springs police arrested Laque Ivy, 22, for trying to cash a check in Suthers’ name at an ACE America’s Cash Express Store. An accomplice, Matthew Mack, 42, was arrested for parole violations, said Colorado Springs police spokesman Rafael Cintron.
Suthers said a credit-card company had mailed him the check as part of a promotion for cash advances. He never saw the check, or knew of its existence, because someone had stolen it from the mail.
Fortunately, an ACE employee found Ivy suspicious and gathered enough information to have her apprehended. Suthers is glad she was caught but doesn’t take the impersonal crime personally.
“She has no clue (about whose checks she stole),” Suthers said. “I’m sure she just hit a mailbox.”
Welcome to Colorado, the fifth-busiest state for identity thieves, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
Last year, there were 95.8 victims of identity theft per 100,000 people in Colorado (or 4,409 reported identity-theft victims in total), according to the FTC. Arizona ranked first with 142.5 victims per 100,000 people. Nevada came in second with 125.7, followed by California (122.1) and Texas (117.6).
“Colorado is a hotbed because we have a relatively young population who are Internet-savvy, or at least they think they are Internet-savvy,” Suthers said.
About 54 percent of all identity-fraud victims are between the ages of 18 and 39. The Internet is one of the top ways thieves steal personal information, according to the FTC.
Matthew Benson, 30, fits the victim profile. The information technology consultant last week learned from 9News reporter Chip Yost of an arrest record in his name thanks to an identity thief.
A 32-year-old man suspected in an international identity-theft ring gave Arapahoe County sheriff’s deputies a driver’s license with Benson’s name on it. Police later discovered that the man’s real name was William Gossett. They also discovered that Gossett had driver’s licenses with other names as well. But Benson’s name remained on the arrest report.
Benson said Arapahoe County authorities told him they will remove it, but there is a bit of bureaucracy involved.
Gossett was arrested after trying to open a credit-union account in Benson’s name. “I don’t know where he got my information from, but he knew my name, date of birth and Social Security number,” Benson said. “Thankfully, they nabbed him.”
Besides the mail and the Internet, identities are often stolen in traditional heists. Benson said he lost a personal- data device and his passport while traveling in Eastern Europe and wonders if the data somehow came to Gossett from there.
He also wonders if his information was stolen from a large corporate database.
“As of the beginning of this year, we are aware of 59 large-scale information breaches resulting in over 13 million citizens being exposed to identity theft,” said Jay Foley of the nonprofit Identity Theft Resource Center in San Diego.
Citigroup Inc. said last week that it lost computer tapes shipped via United Parcel Service with the personal information of 3.9 million customers. Time Warner Inc. last month said it lost tapes with information on 600,000 employees. Data brokers ChoicePoint Inc. and LexisNexis Group recently reported data breaches, as has DSW Shoe Warehouse.
These cases may not represent an increase in stolen data but an increase in reports of stolen data thanks to new laws, Foley said. “It’s nice to know that this has happened so we can deal with it,” he said.
Suthers said credit-card companies and law-enforcement authorities are getting better at catching identity thieves before they rack up serious bills.
Suthers, in fact, has been spared the ravages of this crime once before. Someone once tried to use his credit-card number on an online-auction website. His credit- card company found the transaction suspicious because Suthers had never made such a purchase. The company called Suthers and then refused the transaction.
“Where they got the (credit-card) number we have not a clue,” Suthers said.
Al Lewis’ column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Friday. Respond to Al at , 303-820-1967, or alewis@denverpost.com.
