Take steps to protect identity

SUTHERLIN — Jan Margosian asked for a show of hands as she probed the crowd at the Sutherlin Community Center on Thursday evening.

The consumer information coordinator for the Oregon Department of Justice said she likes to get to know her audience a bit before she speaks to them.

Margosian asked which age groups people fit into; whether they drive SUVs or pickup trucks; whether they earn $50,000 a year or more; whether they have credit cards from Visa, Mastercard and American Express; whether they have a cell phone; whether they eat out twice a week or more; and whether they use a debit card more than once a day.

After she was finishing querying the audience of about 65 people, Margosian scolded them.

“Why in the world would you tell me all that stuff? It’s none of my business. That’s a real problem that we’ve got,” she said.

Margosian was one of several speakers at a community forum on identity theft organized by Rep. Bruce Hanna, R-Winchester, and Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers. It followed a similar forum a year ago in Cottage Grove.

“We’ve been telling people, giving them personal information about us for the last 20 to 30 years. They just ask it and we give it to them. And it’s coming back to haunt us. And it’s coming back and forth in identity theft,” she said.

Identity theft, Margosian said, is the fastest-growing crime in the world. The proliferation of the Internet and electronic commerce has given consumers more choices, but it has also broadened the opportunities for scam artists.

“You could be scammed by somebody in Nigeria just as easily as somebody in Scio,” she said.

Oregon ranks 13th among states for identity theft, with 76.1 victims per 100,000 residents, according to a 2006 study by the Federal Trade Commisison. Much of it is tied to methamphetamine use, Myers said.

Margosian said people have been conditioned to answer personal questions, whether they come through phone calls, surveys sent through the mail, the information cards included with new appliances that have nothing to do with the warranty, and in-store surveys. People sign up for sweepstakes in which they have no chance of winning, while the collector of the information compiles the data and sells it to marketing companies.

Those are the same techniques that could be used to target people to steal their identities, she said.

Margosian told audience members the first thing they should do after getting home was to call or go online and have a freeze placed on their credit files so that they do not receive any pre-approved credit card or insurance offers in the mail.

Identity thieves target mailings from those offers to open fraudulent accounts in which they can charge thousands of dollars worth of merchandise that can be sold to obtain money for drugs. Many of those mailings also include convenience checks that could be used by anyone.

“Don’t you all have enough insurance and credit cards? If you want it, you know where to get it, right?” Margosian asked.

To opt out from those offers, the major credit reporting agencies operate a centralized request center. Call (888) 567-8688 or go online to www.optoutprescreen.com.

Margosian also recommended against the use of single-cut shredders to destroy documents containing sensitive personal information. Documents shredded with those machines can easily be pieced back together.

Cross-cut shredders provide adequate security by slicing paper both horizontally and vertically. Single-cut models only shred vertically.

Identity theft is a Class C felony punishable by five years in prison and a $125,000 fine. The 2007 Oregon Legislature created a new crime of aggravated identity theft for those involved in multiple cases. That crime is a Class B felony that starts with a sentence of 19 months, with additional time added for those with previous convictions.



• You can reach reporter John Sowell at 957-4209 or by e-mail at jsowell@newsreview.info.

Children likely to be approached online SUTHERLIN — The image of a man stopping a van near a playground and offering children candy or asking for help to find a lost puppy to entice them to go with him has given way to a much easier way to find targets for sexual abuse: the Internet. One in five children using the Internet is solicited for sex, Rep. Bruce Hanna, R-Winchester, told the audience at Thursday evening’s forum on identity theft. The forum also featured a presentation by Bill Carroll, the state’s chief criminal investigator for Internet crimes. He heads the state’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Many of the tips presented on preventing identity theft also apply to children going online, Carroll said. They should never give out their last names, ages, addresses or telephone numbers. Parents shouldn’t allow their children to chat or otherwise correspond to anyone they don’t know. “Don’t allow your children to talk to someone you can’t put a face to,” Carroll said. In 20 minutes, a skilled online predator can find out all the information he or she needs, including a child’s name, address, phone number, school, friends, parents’ names and when the youngster is likely to be home, Carroll said. Two-thirds of the sexual solicitations to children take place in chat rooms, Carroll said. Parents should monitor their children’s use of chat rooms and take steps to protect them, he said. Although much of the attention given to children exploited through Internet use has been focused on young girls, boys account for 30 percent of the victims, Carroll said. Parents should be aware that PC computers allow users to quickly change screens by pressing the “alt/tab” keys. Thus, children can shield their parents from the screen they were looking at right before their parents entered the room. Parents should also view the browser history to see what Internet sites their children are viewing. If that browser history has been deleted, it means their children are trying to keep that information a secret, he said. Additional information is available online at the Oregon Department of Justice Web site, at http://tinyurl.com/24zebz. • You can reach reporter John Sowell at 957-4209 or by e-mail at jsowell@newsreview.info.