Photo by Chelsea Garza

Identity theft can strangle your finances and is often achieve through debit or credit card hacks. 2312 identity thefts claims were made in Oklahoma to the Federal Trade Commission in 2007. Photo Illustration by Chelsea Garza and Lilly Chapa

A new generation of criminals called identity thieves have caused some consumers to pay more attention to their bank accounts.

There were 2,312 identity theft complaints made with the Federal Trade Commission in Oklahoma in 2007. The FTC received 800,000 identity theft complaints in 2007, making up 32 percent of all complaints received by the commission, said Gary Kennedy, senior litigation counsel for the Southwest region of the FTC.

Kennedy said the Oklahoma numbers mimic the national numbers. The numbers for 2008 are not available yet, but he said he imagines they will be much greater.

There are several ways an identity thief can steal money from consumers, Kennedy said. The most common form of identity theft in Oklahoma is credit card fraud. The second most common form is telephone or utility fraud, he said. Identity thieves can set up utilities or open up a cell phone account with someone else’s information. A third form of identity theft is bank fraud, which is when an identity thief poses as someone else and withdraws money from a bank account, or opens a credit card in someone else’s name, Kennedy said.

Companies are somewhat to blame for their customers’ personal information being stolen. Volumes of information are sometimes thrown away, giving anyone access to it, Kennedy said. Companies also need to be sure to have the latest software to prevent hacking, he said.

Ryan Collins, music technology senior, said he received a chilling wake-up call saying his information had been stolen.

“My bank called me at 8 in the morning and asked me if I had been in Georgia,” Collins said. “I had a purchase at a Kroger’s [grocery store] in Georgia and a $600 purchase at a Wal-Mart in Georgia.”

Thieves have become more creative with the information they steal.

Fake credit cards can be manufactured with the stolen information, said Bob Manista, President of the Better Business Bureau in Oklahoma City.

“You can manufacture and duplicate cards if you have the right hardware to do it,” Manista said. “You can even program the magnetic strips, and if you go to the self-serve lane in the grocery store, there will be no questions asked.”

A number of identity thefts in Oklahoma and the rest of the country have been caused by an increasing amount of “phishing” and hacking over the Internet, Manista said. Phishing is when someone tries to get personal information through false e-mail messages, he said. Companies who have customers’ personal information can also get hacked into, he said.

Fortunately, banks are fast and eager to respond, Manista said.

“Banks have a pretty good system of alerts,” he said. “But it doesn’t mean you should be reckless with handing out your information.”

Collins said Arvest bank was very responsive to his money being stolen. The bank cancelled his debit card right away, and he had his money back within a week.

“I got the call the day after my birthday,” he said. “I was really frustrated and very upset about it. As uncomfortable as it was, the bank made me feel a lot better about the situation. I was kind of surprised with how helpful they were.”

Manista said the best thing a consumer can do is to recognize all the charges being made to their account and to continually check everything.

“I’m not going to stop using a debit card,” Collins said. “I don’t really feel like I was singled out. I feel like I just got unlucky.”