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.

 

 

This entry was posted on Monday, July 28th, 2008 at 5:08 pm and is filed under images of identity thieves. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.