Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

Identity Theft Fastest-Growing Crime in America

Aired June 25, 2001 - 08:31   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Thieves have a new target now. It's not your car or your house, it is your identity. Reports of identity theft went up 50 percent from 1999 to the year 2000. We're talking about business and personal losses linked to identity theft, well, it topped $475 million back in 1997.

Seventy-five percent of identity thefts involved true name fraud. What's that? Well, that's when someone uses your Social Security number to open new accounts in your name, and it can take a long time to clear up messes like this. On average, about two years, and in the meantime, you're liable for all those losses.

So, to put a human face on this, from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, Congressman Clay Shaw and from Washington, Nicole Robinson. Good morning to both of you.

REP. CLAY SHAW (R), FLORIDA: Good morning.

NICOLE ROBINSON, IDENTITY THEFT VICTIM: Good morning.

LIN: Nicole, let me start with you. Your story is fascinating. You actually got a call from a jewelry store, and that's when your nightmare begins. Pick it up from there. What happened?

ROBINSON: The next Monday, I contacted the credit reporting agencies to see if any new accounts were open. There were no new accounts, but there were a lot of inquiries, and then I found out later that this individual had opened accounts totaling $36,000.

LIN: How is that possible?

ROBINSON: When she was arrested, she told the police that she worked at a place that maintained HMO databases, and she got my Social Security number from the database at her job.

LIN: And with your Social Security number, what else did she attempt to do? I understand she tried to apply for a mortgage?

ROBINSON: Yes, a couple of days after her arrest, she attempted to apply for a mortgage and she also shopped for a car last June.

LIN: Oh, my gosh. All right, so at the time, you said the police arrested a woman. Was she prosecuted? ROBINSON: She was not prosecuted with -- she was not charged with stealing my identity, she was charged with making a false statement to obtain goods, and that was theft from a jewelry store in April.

LIN: Representative Shaw, how can that happen? How can someone actually be apprehended with the evidenced and nothing to be done about it? I understand you're introducing a bill. Would that address the situation?

SHAW: Well, the bill hopefully will stop the spread of the identity theft to the extent that it is today. In looking at what has happened to this young lady as well as numerous other witnesses that we had before our committee, we found that government is part of the problem. People are relying on Social Security numbers. They're almost freely available, and people give them out freely.

And this is what we're trying to put a stop to. There's actually commerce going on, people buying and selling Social Security numbers. This is wrong. That's what the numbers are for.

LIN: So, what would your bill do?

SHAW: Well, it stops that, exactly. No longer can these numbers be distributed. Social Security numbers are for tracking employment for Social Security benefits. We also use it in the government as far as tracking income and those are the uses that it should be put.

Now, there are other types of institutions that are using it, banking institutions, and there are legitimate reasons for banks and other types of companies to acquire these numbers. But we've got to narrow the scope and once those numbers are given out for legitimate purposes, we've got to be sure that they are protected and that they're not just given out on a wholesale basis.

I even saw a check the other day where someone had his Social Security number put right next to his name on his checking account, which he gives as a check at the -- wherever he's cashing his checks and that means anybody in the store, the clerks, anyone in bank, anyone where the check happens to go now has this fellow's Social Security number.

LIN: So, you're saying that your bill would make your Social Security a confidential piece of information that would be protected by the federal government?

SHAW: Precisely, and that's what I am hopeful will happen. It's going before several committees of Congress, including the Banking Committee, the Judiciary Committee, the Commerce Committee. So the legislation will be scrubbed. It'll be scrubbed real good, and the public will have a chance to be heard from.

But when you find that the Social Security number is part of the problem, it's time for the government to act to restrict its use so that we are not responsible for the widespread increase of identity theft, which you noted is the fastest growing crime in United States today.

LIN: Nicole, do you think that this sort of legislation would be something that would prevent somebody from going through what you just went through?

ROBINSON: It would certainly have been helpful in my case, since the only way that she was able to obtain my information was through an HMO database, and I guess at some time in my life, I provided my Social Security as an ID number with an HMO, and it would have prevented that.

LIN: Do you find yourself using your Social Security number more often than -- you know, in situations that the congressman describing, you use it as a universal day ID number, really?

ROBINSON: Businesses use it as a universal ID number. I had never given my Social Security number over the phone. I don't provide it on my checks. There's nothing on my person that would give you my Social Security number. If someone stole my wallet today, my Social Security number is not in there, and it hadn't been before this crime happened to me.

LIN: Nicole, what did this do to your credit rating? How did this affect your life?

ROBINSON: OH, I couldn't refinance my home. I couldn't get a line of credit at my bank, and everybody looks at you with a skeptical eye like you are actually the thief, that you are the one committing the fraud.

LIN: Guilty until proven innocent.

ROBINSON: Exactly.

LIN: All right, Representative Shaw, we will track your legislation as it goes and talk to you about it again, I hope. And Nicole, good luck, I hope you get all that cleared up.

SHAW: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com