CHP student falls victim to identity theft
You may not know Buffie Bell, but thanks to an identity thief, a lot of creditors do.
Buffie
Bell
Bell, president of the College of Health Professions Student Government Association, was the victim of identity fraud, committed when someone apparently obtained Bell's credit information from an Internet organization offering free credit reports.
Using Bell's Social Security number, the thief ran up approximately $12,000 in bills, opening a cellular phone account and buying clothing, computers and equipment with credit cards and accounts opened under Bell's name. Bell said authorities have a suspect but, according to the State Law Enforcement Division, no charges have been filed as yet.
The suspect, according to Bell, had no computer training, but was able to obtain Bell's Social Security number by randomly typing in numbers at an Internet site offering free credit reports and by chance typed in Bell's. Armed with that information, the suspect began a spending spree.
Bell's trek through credit hell began one day in January 2001 when she received a phone call from Discover Card.
“They said they wanted some more information for my credit application,” she said. “I told them I never applied for a Discover Card, but they had all this information about me.”
After that call, Bell posted a fraud alert with one of the major credit bureaus, but despite that action, 11 more accounts were opened under her name. Some accounts would be spent to the credit limit with the bills going to another address.
“I knew nothing,” Bell said.
She also called the Social Security Administration and the Federal Trade
Commission.
Within weeks, the calls began coming in from creditors wanting
payment.
“Every other week a debt collector was calling me,” she said. ”I would try and explain my case and I even offered to fax them a copy of my police report, but they'd just say, ‘We will get our money from you.’”
This only added to the stress that Bell, a December 2000 Clemson graduate, felt as a first-year MUSC student, attempting to master “Gray's Anatomy” between harassing phone calls.
Bell contacted her local police department for assistance and also the police department of a nearby town where she believed a suspect lived. It was MUSC's Department of Public Safety, however, that Bell said gave her the most assistance. Bell said Capt. Jeffrey Hample was “extremely helpful” in helping to organize her case and eventually getting a State Law Enforcement Division agent assigned to it due to the widespread nature of the fraud.
“Everything he could do, he did for me,” she said.
Lt. Chip Johnson, special agent in charge of SLED's Computer Crime Center, said computer-based crime is increasing dramatically.
“Identity theft, Internet theft, hacking, denial of service—all of these are on the increase,” Johnson said, “and the more traditional crimes—narcotics, white collar and prostitution—are moving into the high-tech area.”
Now more than ever, Johnson said, people must be extremely careful in giving out sensitive information.
“How often do you pass out personal information over the phone, over the Internet, or filling out forms?” Johnson said.
“When someone asks you for your Social Security number, you need to think to yourself, ‘Do I really need to give that out?’ If you stay at a hotel and pay with a credit card, they collect that information in a database. The next time you call that hotel, they may say, ‘We see you've stayed here before and paid with a credit card, would you like to keep the charges on the same card? How secure is that database? Who has access to it? Can that information be compromised?”
The Computer Crime Center is a recent innovation for SLED, combining its resources with those of the FBI and Secret Service to combat this growing trend. Johnson said the center is available to assist local enforcement in investigating computer-based crimes.
Although the case may be nearing its conclusion from a law enforcement standpoint, Bell said it would take some time to repair her credit standing.
If she applied for credit now, she said, “they'd laugh me out of the
room.”
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