As identity theft soars past 11 million victims and $48 billion in losses a year, law enforcement is trying to keep up with the changing ways in which thieves steal information.
About 100 Utah officers gathered Thursday to learn how best to help victims and prevent identity crime.
“Our identity thieves are becoming more sophisticated. The computer gives them access to a larger percentage of the population,” said Carol Frederick, a special agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, who gives the lectures as an off-duty job. “For some of the officers in attendance today, this is brand-new information. For others, it’s providing new techniques to combat this crime.”
She says 11 million people yearly are victims of identity theft, which leads to $48 billion in losses nationwide.
Detective Scottie Sorensen, of the Weber County Sheriff’s Office, has been investigating financial crimes for the past year. He said while the training about scams was a review for him, he did learn new investigative tools.
“It’s helped me better understand financial crime and better investigate them so I can put more criminals in jail,” he said.
In Weber County, illegal use of credit cards is one of the most prevalent financial crimes, and thieves get cards from vehicle break-ins or by stealing numbers online.
Tami Nealy, spokeswoman for LifeLock, which hosted the free training Thursday in West Valley City, said a person can buy a credit card skimmer online for about $800, and a waiter can slip it into his apron easily and steal a person’s credit card information and then sell it.
“There needs to be stronger penalties for crimes like this,” Nealy said.
Jennifer Johnson, an attendee who works for the U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services, said the losses her office investigates tally in the millions of dollars.
“Identity theft is definitely the crime of the future,” Johnson said. “Few law enforcement officials know how to track them or know how to pursue the crimes. Trainings like this teach us the new ways people are stealing identities and how to stop them.”
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