LifeLock Command Center Searches Records for Evidence of Criminal ID Theft
Most people think of ruined credit when they hear the words “identity theft.” Financial identity theft can be devastating, but criminal identity theft can rob you of your reputation, your home, your family—even your freedom. That is why LifeLock Command Center digs deep into legal records for any indication their members’ personal or financial information may have been stolen.
Criminal identity theft is the use of a stolen identity to evade criminal prosecution. The crime often comes to light when the ID theft victim is denied a job or stopped for a minor traffic violation but quickly finds himself handcuffed accused of drug trafficking or worse.
LifeLock Command Center searches the records of country courts, departments of correction, administrative courts and other legal agencies for any appearance of members’ names, Social Security numbers and birth dates. If LifeLock finds evidence of members’ stolen information, they notify them immediately and help them navigate through the recovery process.
Identity theft is more common than you might think. According to those who participated in the 2008 Aftermath Survey conducted by the Identity Theft Resource Center:
- 56% said a warrant had been issued in their names for crimes committed by their impostors
- 56% said their impostors were arrested, booked or arraigned using their victims’ names
- 33% said their impostors were prosecuted using their names, resulting in their having criminal records.
There are a number of high-profile cases that illustrate how damaging and humiliating criminal identity theft can be.
- As of this writing, the military wing of Palestinian organization Hamas says there are 26 suspects involved in the January 20 killing of the group’s founder. The suspects used fraudulent passports bearing the stolen information of 26 citizens of England, Ireland, France, Germany and Australia.
Melvyn Adam Mildiner, a British Israeli and one of the ID theft victims, was sick with pneumonia at the time of the killing.
“I have no idea how to clear my name. Interpol has a warrant out for my arrest. I don’t know how I will travel. I went to bed with pneumonia and woke up a ‘murderer,” Mildiner told The Jerusalem Post. - Jose Guadalupe Ramirez Ortiz, a drug trafficker from Mexico, used a U.S. citizen’s identification when agents arrested him at the Texas border in 2003. He was tried, served prison time and was re-arrested under the same name in March 2009 before he revealed his real identity.
- Simon Bunce was arrested in 2003 when he was implicated in an international child pornography sting. He lost his $250,000 a year job and his house, and his family disowned him. It took him six years to prove he was in a London restaurant at the time of the crime.
- Linda Norris spent five hours in jail last July when she was arrested in Florida on prostitution charges. Her former roommate, Colleen Wehunt, was arrested in 1993 on theft charges and again on prostitution charges in 2004.Both times Wehunt produced a driver’s license with her photo but Norris’ personally identifying information on it.
“It’s very embarrassing—very embarrassing. I want it to stop,” Norris said, though she knows it is likely to happen again.
Tags: LifeLock Command Center
