The Secret Lives Of Identity Thieves

from the not-particularly-encouraging dept

The NY Times is running a fascinating profile of a big identity theft operation that was busted a few years back. It mostly involved dumpster-diving activities, rather than getting info off the internet - but was quickly followed up with using the internet to sign up for a variety of credit cards. The operation was spearheaded by two people, both of whom went to jail for short periods of time. One has disappeared and is apparently back to doing identity theft, while the other claims to have turned her life around. The article, like all others on identity theft, does not paint an encouraging picture that this is likely to stop any time soon. While some blame the criminals, others blame companies that don't do enough to protect our private info. Of course, I'd go even further and say the credit companies have something to do with this, in pushing to give out "instant credit", making it difficult for people to realize their identity has been stolen, and being so resistant to any effort to clean these messes up.

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