LifeLock Blog

A Colorado man has been arrested and indicted by a state grand jury for stealing the identities of nearly two-dozen individuals and using their personal information to pass more than $24,000 in forged checks in 10 Colorado counties.

In addition to stealing the identities of real people, Timothy Kuskowski is accused of committing what’s known as “synthetic identity theft,” which involves using some of a real person’s identifying information, and combining it with other entirely fabricated information. In other cases, synthetic identity theft may be committed with only fabricated identifying information.

Kuskowski passed “a plethora” of forged and fraudulent checks between December 2007 and June 2008. Delta Colorado police officers also found many forged checks and multiple ID cards when they arrested Kuskowski last June.

Additional evidence against the accused includes store-surveillance videos, fingerprints and forensic examination of identifying documents and checks.

Among the many checks allegedly passed by the defendant are several fraudulent payroll checks, some made out to the identity theft victims and others made out to fictional names.

Kuskowski, 45, has been charged with the following felonies:

• One count of theft in the amount of $20,000 or more
• 13 counts of identity theft
• 10 counts of forgery
• One count of criminal impersonation

There’s nothing in the 18-page indictment regarding how Kuskowski might have obtained the personal information of the many identity theft victims.

Because I write so much about identity theft I read a lot about it, too. And what I’m seeing lately is a lot of medical identity theft.

The story I saw today came from the Baltimore Sun: Christel Ebony Norwood stole the names, birth dates and Social Security numbers of at least 49 people from two medical facilities where she worked. She use it to get a fraudulent driver’s license and change the mailing address of her victims so she got their mail and they didn’t see the bills she was running up in their names. Among her purchases was a 2002 Mercedes-Benz she financed for $35,560.

Last week the big medical identity theft news from the LA Times was about a Cedars-Sinai Medical Center former employee who stole the personal information of at least 1,000 patients and parlayed it into fraudulent insurance claims worth at least $69,000. That’s a nice chunk of change, but he might have made additional money by selling that information to others.

One of the biggest identity theft stories of 2008 had to be the one about an extortion attempt involving Express Scripts and a few million of their customers. The extortionist added credibility to their ransom request by adding the details of 75 of the company’s members, including their names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and even some prescription info. The message was “Pay up, or we publish similar information on millions of your customers on the Internet.”

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Cars, furniture, a motorcycle and a personal watercraft were among the fraudulently-purchased big-ticket goodies Riverside, Cal. police found when they busted Miriam Macedo.

Macedo had apparently been living large until the day she drove her fraudulently-purchased, $40,000 2008 Chevy Tahoe to a Riverside motorsports dealership, and tried to fraudulently purchase two Sea-Doo watercrafts with fraudulent identification. A dealership sales associate spotted the ID for what it was and called the cops.

That’s when Macedo’s fraudulently-funded, identity theft-enriched life came to an end.

Police officers discovered that Macedo was carrying three other people’s identification, including their credit reports and fake California driver’s licenses. She had even more driver’s licenses bearing different men’s names but the same man’s picture.

The officers searched the fraudulently-financed Tahoe and found envelopes stuffed with credit card applications made out under the names printed on the fake driver’s licenses, and a receipt for $6,000 worth of new fraudulently-purchased furniture from Ashley Home Store. The receipt showed the furniture had been fraudulently financed under one of the men’s names and delivered to Macedo’s address in Moreno Valley.

Police found more loot before they even got inside the Macedo’s house: in the driveway was a fraudulently-purchased 2008 Nissan Altima, and a fraudulently-purchased Waverunner; in the garage sat a brand new, fraudulently-purchased Yamaha motorcycle. All three vehicles were registered to one of the fraudulent names.

It comes as no big surprise, but Macedo’s house was nicely furnished with $6,000 worth of fraudulently-purchased furniture from Ashley Home Store.

As you begin preparations for tax season you might not be feeling a lot of government love. In fact, with the economy the way it is right now, you might be feeling downright hostile. And as you review your household budget yet again for one more way to cut back on expenses, you might be dripping tears onto your keyboard.

Here’s some (sort of) good news from the Identity Theft Resource Center that might help you lighten up a little: Government agencies were responsible for only 16.7% of all data breaches in 2008.

And now the bad news (because when the subject is data breaches, there’s always going to be some bad news): There were 656 data breaches last year, representing a 47% increase in the number of data breaches that occurred in 2007.

Local, state and federal governments were to blame for a total of 110 information leaks last year. The causes for those data losses break down as follows:

• 28 resulted from the improper protection of information while traveling over the government network.
• 22 were attributed to insider theft.
• 20 occurred when employees accidentally exposed citizens’ information.
• 15 have been chalked up to subcontractors with sloppy systems security.
• 5 were the product of hackers.

Which federal agency wins the prize for the biggest bungling of data protection? The U.S. Army wins this dubious distinction for their inadvertent Internet posting of promotion selection lists that contained the names and Social Security numbers of more than 50,000 officers.

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Because I write so much about identity theft I read a lot about it, too. And what I’m seeing lately is a lot of medical identity theft.

The story I saw today came from the Baltimore Sun: Christel Ebony Norwood stole the names, birth dates and Social Security numbers of at least 49 people from two medical facilities where she worked. She use it to get a fraudulent driver’s license and change the mailing address of her victims so she got their mail and they didn’t see the bills she was running up in their names. Among her purchases was a 2002 Mercedes-Benz she financed for $35,560.

Last week the big medical identity theft news from the LA Times was about a Cedars-Sinai Medical Center former employee who stole the personal information of at least 1,000 patients and parlayed it into fraudulent insurance claims worth at least $69,000. That’s a nice chunk of change, but he might have made additional money by selling that information to others.

One of the biggest identity theft stories of 2008 had to be the one about an extortion attempt involving Express Scripts and a few million of their customers. The extortionist added credibility to their ransom request by adding the details of 75 of the company’s members, including their names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and even some prescription info. The message was “Pay up, or we publish similar information on millions of your customers on the Internet.”

Visit LifeLock.com for information on how they can protect your identity, your finances and your good name. Use the LifeLock discount code Defense and receive a discount on service.  You can cancel or enroll again with the same LifeLock discount code and pay just $9 a month for total protection.

Types of Identity Theft

There are several different types of identity theft, and any one of them could happen to you.

Synthetic Identity Theft

This first term describes the most common type of identity theft. Criminals steal or make up a Social Security number and then build a total identity with name, address, phone numbers, date of birth etc. If these identifiers even come close to matching your personal information, a subfile may be attached to your credit records. Of course the debts accrued by the perpetrators go unpaid and ultimately damage your credit.

Mailbox Identity Theft

Home mailboxes are a gold mine for identity thieves. The raised red flag notifies them that there’s probably a check for an outgoing bill in the box, and all the criminal has to do to reach in and help himself. Incoming mail is also a rich vein of information for thieves. Think of all the pre-approved credit offers you get in the mail every month; everything the thief needs to perpetrate identity theft is right there. If he’s especially lucky, he might even hit your mailbox on the day one of your creditors sends you those convenient blank checks.

Phishing and Identity Theft

You’ve probably already seen an attempt at this type of identity theft in your e-mail’s inbox. The object here is to trick you into divulging personal information by responding to an email purportedly from a credit card company, your bank or ebay. Commonly the email is sent in the guise of a security maintenance check, asking you to verify your account number or other personal information. The trickiest thing about phishing emails is that the phishers can cut and paste graphics from the authentic company website making distinguishing real from fake nearly impossible. Tip offs are spelling errors, poor grammar, or a general salutation, e.g., “Dear Customer.”

Data Breaches and Identity Theft

In the last few years, hundreds of millions of Americans have been compromised when their personal or financial information was lost, stolen or mishandled while in the hands of private, corporate or governmental entities. Very often this is the result of employees losing laptops, or administrators inadvertently placing information on the internet. The largest data breach to date is the TMX incident in which the data on 94 million TJ Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods or Bob’s Stores shoppers was hacked from their network. Though hacking seems to get the most media attention, it actually represents only a small number of data breaches. The largest governmental breach occurred when a data analyst for the US Department of Veterans Affairs took home a laptop containing the records of 26.5 million current and former military members. Unfortunately, his home was robbed and the burglar made off with the laptop.

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