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Boulder City Magazine® December '05 / January '06 Issue
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BCPD Informer
by John Chase
Boulder City Police Department
Identity Theft - Protect Yourself
Last month I provided the Identity Theft Quiz created by the Privacy Right Clearing House, (www.privacyrights.org) for your review and consideration. While identity theft can strike anyone of us at anytime, I want to talk briefly about financial exploitation crimes we are experienc-ing both here in Boulder City as well as throughout the State of Nevada.
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The Identity Theft Quiz provided many questions and examples as it relates to common methods of taking one’s identity. One of the most common methods includes stealing your mail, which contains a plethora of personal information about you and your family. A criminal is able to learn a lot about where you bank, shop, spend leisure time as well as information about travel plans simply from checking your trash. So always be aware of what you toss in the garbage.
“Phishing” is another common scam sent via e-mail. This e-mail will contain a hyperlink to what appears to be a legitimate web site, i.e., E-bay, PayPal and Washington Mutual - all reputable companies you may do business with. However, the hyperlink enclosed in the e-mail actually leads you to a false site that is intended to obtain your bank account numbers, social security numbers as well as user names and passwords. Once this important personal data has been captured, the con artist has all of the information they need to go on a shopping spree – on your account.
No one is immune from identity theft; we have had two Boulder City Police Officers fall victim to similar crimes in recent years. As we attempt to be creative and proactive in our approach to crimes involving identity theft, the old, but true adage of “preventing crime before it occurs” could not be truer. The Boulder City Police Department, CCOPS and the Nevada State Attorney General’s Office have more recently joined forces in this effort. I will be providing information about that program in this column in the months to come.
John can be reached via his e-mail address at Jchasebcnv@earthlink.net |
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