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New York Identity Theft Up 50 Percent, Says Manhattan D.A.
By Colby Adams and Brian Orsak
printInstances of cybercrime and identity theft in New York City rose 50 percent over the past five years, while some municipal precincts are citing the violations more than any other crime. Overall, the crimes have grown at an "alarming rate" in New York, according to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, who cited the figures during a speech at the 16th Annual International Anti-Money Laundering Conference. The Manhattan office reviews 200 to 300 cases per month, he said, in his comments. "The threat is growing and it's real," said Vance, during the speech. The office, which launched a unit to fight...
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The Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigations division is shifting resources to better investigate the "alarming" growth of stolen tax refunds, according to a senior IRS official.
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Reports of check fraud tied to identity theft rose in 2009 even as instances of related loan and credit fraud fell, according to a study released Friday by the Identity Theft Resource Center.
As many as 85 percent of banks have implemented adequate compliance systems aimed at rooting out identity thieves and limiting the number of data breaches, according to analysts.
The Federal Trade Commission Wednesday again pushed back the enforcement deadline of a controversial rule requiring financial institutions and "creditors" to take steps to prevent identity theft-related data breaches.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has given financial institutions an additional six months to develop programs to prevent identity theft due to confusion in the industry over the scope of the agency's rules.
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Financial regulatory examiners will be checking that banks are not overly relying on their existing monitoring systems to comply with new federal rules meant to curb identity theft, say consultants.
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Charges made to fraudulent accounts in the victims' names ranged between $50 and $500,000 and, in aggregate, increased 78 percent from 2004 to 2006, according to a study by the Identity Theft Resource Center.
A report issued by San Diego, Calif.-based ID Analytics, which makes ID theft software, looked at about a dozen data breaches involving Social Security numbers and other identifying information.
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