LifeLock

The risk of identity theft has made us all a little paranoid, right? We shred our mail, and look nervously over our shoulders at the ATM. We’ve been versed in the importance of safeguarding our computer passwords at home and at work. You can never be too careful.

Imagine this: You’re busy at work (or at least, you’re trying to look that way) when a stranger approaches, introduces himself as a marketing researcher, and starts chatting you up. One thing leads to another, and before long he’s offering you a chocolate bar…in exchange for your computer password.

Or maybe you’re killing time around the coffee machine with some coworkers, when a stranger slides into the conversation, and says “Give me your name, date of birth and home telephone number, and you’ll be entered into a drawing for a free trip to Paris.”

Now, conventional wisdom is that we’re all too smart for fall for something this stupid, right? Well, so much for conventional wisdom.More…

Infosecurity Europe tried the chocolate bar lure on 576 office workers in London earlier this year, and found that 45% of women gave up their passwords for the yummy, chocolatey morsel. Only 10% of the men indulged. Overall, 21% of the respondents caved.

Before you bemoan all the wasted time and money of those corporate employee security training seminars, despite evidence to the contrary, progress is being made — in 2007, 64% of those surveyed made the trade off.

On the other hand, when they raised the ante, and offered a chance to win the Paris trip, 60% of the men and 62% of the women happily gave the “market researcher” their personal information.

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Here we have the most common images of the identity thief:

• There’s the adolescent computer geek with pale skin and greasy hair. Empty pizza boxes and Red Bull cans litter the dimly-lit room.

• Then there’s the skinny, meth-addicted identity thief with bad teeth, strung out and desperately sifting through dumpsters, praying for the pay dirt of a pre-approved credit card offer.

• Then there’s the Russian mafia, with their organized attacks on major corporations that yield information on millions of consumers. Dmitriy is a slightly-built, weaselly-looking man, surrounded by bulky, silent thugs.

Now meet Jocelyn Kirsch and Edward Anderton.

• She: 22-year-old Drexel University student. Attractive, petite, augmented daughter of plastic surgeon.

• He: Athletic, 2005 graduate of University of Pennsylvania. Formerly employed at Philadelphia real estate finance firm. Entry-level salary: $60K.

 
They met as students, became lovers, shared a $3,000 a month condo in a great Philadelphia neighborhood. The marketing tag for the Belgravia condos is “…a chic home, a location to envy, a life to live up to.” But while they lived there it was a high-crime neighborhood.

Kirsch and Anderton somehow obtained or manufactured keys to their neighbors’ homes and mailboxes. Before it was over, they’d acquired over $100,000 in goods and services on other peoples’ credit.

They don’t really fit the image of identity thieves, do they? But the police found plenty of digital images on their computer; now they’re evidence of the lifestyle their crimes afforded them. In one, they’re smooching in front of the Eiffel Tower. In another, they’re lounging on a beach in the Caribbean. In all of them, they look pretty darned pleased with themselves and their fairy-tale lives.

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If you know anything about identity theft, you know that it can ruin your credit. What most people don’t know is that it can also strain relationships.

• You’ll fight with your spouse about who’s to blame. Financial stress is the most common cause of divorce.
• You’ll be extremely stressed because the clean up never goes smoothly, and your credit will be damaged, and bill collectors will hound you.
• You’ll suspect friends, family, and that nice kid you always talk to at the convenience store.

Even your credit can be repaired eventually — sometimes it takes years — but your relationships may never be the same.

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