Stolen checks and credit card statements can add up to major
losses
Gilroy – Identity theft conjures up images of Internet scams, of high-tech con men hoodwinking victims. But in South County, the crime can be low tech, too, as thieves swipe mail from unlocked boxes. Using credit card statements, blank checks and other information-packed mail, criminals scam unsuspecting victims, who often don’t know until it’s too late.
A week ago, sheriff’s deputies arrested two Hayward men, Mario Acosta, 26, and Efren Hernandez, 27, when a car stop revealed 133 pieces of stolen mail, belonging to four South County victims. Catching thieves red-handed is relatively rare: Detective Joffre Longoria estimates that one or two are caught with mail each month. Another two-person team went to trial last week, he said, and was sentenced to three years in state prison for bilking 22 San Martin victims.
But in the past six months, Longoria said, an average of one new case has surfaced every day, each with 30, 40, sometimes 100 victims. As of Nov. 1, he said, 12 cases were reported and are currently under investigation by the sheriff’s office.
“We spend a lot more time on this type of crime than in the past,” he said. Probation searches for convicted thieves may yield suspects, but “if your mail is taken from your mailbox, and you have no suspect information, it’s going to be really tough to investigate.”
Nationwide, a mere sliver of identity thefts are made by stealing mail: 4 percent, according to the United States Postal Service. With an estimated 15 million identity theft victims in the U.S. every year, that means 600,000 people lose their identities to stolen mail each year. Far fewer cases are prosecuted: in fiscal year 2005, the FTC reported 6,788 arrests and 5,544 convictions for mail theft.
Meanwhile, the results are costly. A single piece of missing mail could cost a victim thousands of dollars, depending on how soon the theft is discovered. Low-income and less-educated victims are often slower to spot the crime, the FTC reports, adding up to major debts. In 2003, victims suffered a total of $5 billion in losses.
It’s not cheap for law enforcement, either: police and sheriffs spend $15,000 to $25,000 to investigate each case, according to John McCullough of the Minnesota Financial Crimes Task Force.
Mail theft occurs everywhere, said Longoria, even on locked mailboxes. Some thieves peel back metal from apartment mailboxes, and harvest the mail inside. Others drive down rural roads and scoop letters out of unattended boxes.
“It’s easy access,” said rural crime deputy Gabe Sandoval. “The mailboxes are far from the homes, and the houses are spread out.”
As awareness rises, however, Sandoval is fielding more and more calls from rural residents, reporting drivers peering into neighbors’ mailboxes. Last week, in unincorporated Morgan Hill, Sandoval got a call when someone who stole mail deposited it in another mailbox and split.
Ten years ago, opening mailboxes might have seemed odd, but not suspicious. Identity theft didn’t become a federal crime until 1998, when Congress passed the Identity Theft Assumption and Deterrence Act.
“It’s always happened – we just didn’t have a term for it,” said Sheila Gordon, director of victim services at the Identity Theft Resource Center in San Diego. She should know: Gordon herself was victimized, before legislators named the crime. “It wasn’t widely known.”
But with victims taking serious losses from identity thieves, it’s becoming better known – and more feared.
