Trunk lines that mask their real phone numbers give identity thieves a sense of comfort as they operate overseas, calling Americans they see as potential "marks" for their scams. Weston Police Chief John Troxell and Det. Carl Filsinger have heard stories from residents lodging an increasing number of complaints over the years.
The Weston Police Department strives to educate the public to avoid falling victim to these crimes.
Filsinger remembers one criminal audacious enough to seek his help in getting an elderly Weston man to talk to him.
The man had been traveling and was contacted by the con artist, who claimed to be the consulate of Jamaica. He asked the resident for his information so he could put together an international task force to protect people from identity theft, Filsinger said.
Suspicious of the call, the town resident came to Filsinger for guidance.
"I called the guy and said, 'If this is a federal task force, tell me who you're working with from the United States,'" the detective recalled. "He wanted me to say it was okay for the person to talk to him," Filsinger added incredulously.
When Filsinger refused, he said the identity thief "started blasting me."
One popular scam of late is when someone pretends to be from the IRS calling to verify information due to a breach in security.
"Never give out personal information over the phone, I don't care who they say they are," Filsinger warns. "Call the IRS yourself."
Change Your Passwords
Filsinger said criminals often target senior citizens and have a way of prying information out of them, which they use to convince them they are grandchildren in trouble in another country — whether they were arrested, robbed or in a car accident — and need money wired to them fast.
A version of this scam is done over email. Filsinger says a criminal will entice someone to open an attachment, which installs a computer virus that allows them to access your email account and download all of your contracts. Then emails go out to family and friends saying you were robbed in another country and need financial help.
"Everybody should change the password of their email account on a regular basis," Filsinger said.
In "the olden days" Filsinger said identity thieves stole information from mailboxes and Dumpsters, but he added the majority of those crimes are now done over the Internet.
"Why rob a bank for $3,000 when you can get millions on the Internet?" he asked.
After Damage is Done
Never giving out personal information over the phone unless you initiate the call to a bank or government agency and not believing a letter saying you won a lottery you never entered are ways to avoid becoming a victim, but there are times when the criminals do succeed.
When someone falls victim to a scam, Filsinger said police take a report with a local case number and advise the person to contact the three major credit bureaus, to have a temporary alert placed on their credit report and to get a free copy of their credit report.
Unless the criminal is local, Chief John Troxell said identity theft cases can be nearly impossible to solve — especially when the criminal is out of state or overseas.
"If we get a lead, and it's something local, we're all over it," Troxell said. "We can get the IP addresses. We can do our own forensics. We can I.D. somebody. But it's usually bigger than that."
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