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In testimony before the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland
Security on June 25, 2002, the GAO (General Accounting Office) said that
in addition to using identity theft or identity fraud to 1) enter the
United States illegally and 2) seek job opportunities, some aliens have
used fraudulent documents in connection with serious crimes such as
narcotics trafficking and terrorist enterprises.
1) Illegal immigrants appropriating a US citizen's identity in order to enter the U.S. According to Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) officials, the use of fraudulent documents by aliens is extensive. At ports of entry, INS inspectors have intercepted tens of thousands of fraudulent documents in each of the last few years. These documents were presented by aliens attempting to enter the US to seek employment or obtain other immigration benefits such as naturalization or permanent residency status. The types of false documents most frequently intercepted by INS inspectors include border crossing cards, alien registration cards, nonimmigrant visas, and U.S. and foreign passports and citizenship documents, reentry permits, refugee travel documents and immigrant visas. 2) Illegal immigrants appropriating a US citizen's social security number in order to get a job. In an article titled "Hidden cost of illegal immigration: ID theft" written by Bob Sullivan for MNBC.com and posted on a Usenet group Friday, March 31, 2006, he claims that the dirty little secret of the immigration issue is that U.S. citizens are required to share their identities with undocumented immigrants in order to give corporate America a steady supply of cheap labor. Sullivan claims that one could argue that the origins of the identity theft epidemic can be traced directly to the immigration issue. That the U.S government encourages identity theft by not dealing directly with the undocumented worker situation, Illegal immigrants make up nearly one of every 20 workers in America, according to estimates by the Pew Hispanic Center, and most are working under fraudulent Social Security numbers, which can be bought in any immigrant community or in Mexico. With little cooperation among government agencies, and with tacit acceptance from some employers, this practice provides the backbone of some low-wage businesses and a boon to the Social Security trust fund. During the 1990s, such mismatches accounted for around $20 billion in Social Security taxes paid. Each year the Social Security Administration receives 8 million to 9 million earnings reports from the Internal Revenue Service filed under names that do not match the Social Security numbers. Since 1984, when the Social Security card employment verification requirement kicked in, nearly $500 billion in wages has ended up in limbo, what the Social Security and IRS call a "no-match" situation, placed in a file called the Earnings Suspense File. Legally, the Social Security Administration is prohibited from giving information to immigration or law enforcement agencies, or telling the rightful owner of a Social Security number that someone else is using it.. So victims have no way of finding out they are sharing their Social Security number although ANY agency that collects taxes has the information. Neither is the misuse revealed in personal credit reports. Sullivan says that "if somebody uses your number to get a credit card or car loan, the nation's credit bureaus create a new credit file instead of alerting you to the misuse." But lenders who buy this information to assess a consumer's credit risk also know of multiple names connected to Social Security numbers but are prevented from warning victims because of privacy laws. Therefore, do not assume that all the illegal immigrants who come to the US to work are being paid "under the table," that is "off the books" by companies who are aware of their illegal status. Every year, 8 to 9 million of them are being paid "on the books" through regular company payrolls because they have appropriated someone else's Social Security Number. Perhaps it's yours. Victims do find out however when, because of unpaid taxes and unpaid bills, debt collectors track them down. Sullivan says "This is what happens when an extra-legal system is in place. Today, there are no rules, which clearly encourages this sharing of Social Security numbers. It encourages the cottage industry that is document forgery. And ultimately, it encourages identity theft." 3) Thieves stealing someone's identity in order to steal their money and commit frauds against them. In most cases the victim does not know how their identity was stolen. Although most victims never learn who stole their identity, surveys done by the Federal Trade Commission and Javelin Strategy and Research, a private research firm, has found that half of those who do know say the thief was a family member, friend, neighbor or in-home employee. Otherwise, identity thieves get your information ...... : 1. By stealing your name, address and Social Security number from businesses, institutions or public agencies when they are employed there or by bribing or conning other employees and/or hacking sensitive company data. 2. By stealing your mail which will, at one time or another, include bank and credit card statements, boxes of new checks, credit card offers, tax information. 3. By "dumpster diving," searching through your trash or that of public agencies, institutions or businesses. 4. By impersonating an employer, landlord, lender or business to request a copy of your credit report. 5. By stealing your wallet or purse or information they find in your car or home. 6. By "skimming" your debit or credit card or ATM number by swiping the card at the time of an actual purchase or attaching a device to an ATM machine. 7. By getting personal information from you by pretending to be a legitimate business and claiming there is a problem with your account. On line by emails, this practice is known as "phishing" (and the new one "pharming") and by phone it's called "pretexting." 8. By completing a "change of address" at the post office and diverting your mail to another address. 9. By creating a fraudulent email or website on which a surreptitious Trojan installs a keylogger program (spyware) on your personal computer that records your keystrokes and sends your personal data back to the thief. Or it may install a program that searches your hard drive for banking information, account numbers and passwords. 10. By by-passing security and hacking into the networks of retailers, banks and other financial institutions thieves steal customer's account and pin numbers and passwords. Or by acquiring this data when the institutions themselves either lose, or have stolen, their back up tapes and laptop computers. 11. By reading obituary notices in the newspaper. Typically, obituaries list details like the deceased's birth date and address. AARP recommends the family publish the year of birth only and not give the address at all. 12. By purchasing all sorts of personal, sensitive information available on almost everyone on the internet. ID theft: Why is this crime growing so fast? Why is it so hard to recover from this crime? ![[workbook]](img/cmw-pic-indx.jpg) Self-help for victims of ID theft and fraud |