Identity Theft
Law Enforcement is powerless against Identity Theft because they CHOOSE to not investigate it. The time and effort required to solve your little identity theft problem would cost more than local police department budgets can afford.
In my case, I have all of the details of those responsible. But that doesn't matter at all... (see the details below)
Why is it no one ever gets prosecuted for Identity Theft?
"Identity Theft is our nations fastest growing crime -- and one that can do incredible damage to your finances, your credit and your peace of mind. We created this website to help you prevent, detect and respond to identity theft." - www.identitytheftactionplan.com
Did you read that... PREVENT, DETECT and RESPOND.... Do you see the word PROSECUTE? And you won't see it... even when they get caught.
Credit Card Holders
It's YOUR problem: Yes, you are the one who is going to be inconvenienced. You are going to have to scrutinize your bill and financial paperwork regularly. Or hire a service to handle that for you. You are the one who is going to pay the cost if you don't look for fraud. And you might even be paying interest on that additional amount too! Guess who profits from those interest charges?
It's YOUR Credit rating: When you go to obtain a mortgage or a car or any type of loan. You are responsible for everything that show up on your credit report. You are the one who will have to spend the hours responsible to review the values and get the information corrected otherwise you don't get the loan. The loan which you want or need.
The Lending institution is only interested in getting you the loan: Time is money - they do not have the insentive to help you clear up your credit information and your credit rating. It would not be cost effective for them to do this.
Credit Card Issuers
It costs them nothing: If you think that you are paying high interest rates because the Credit Card Companies are getting stuck with all these fraudulent charges you are greatly mistaken. On a bad transaction they not only pay nothing, but frequently get a percentage of the transaction back in fees. (I know - this is unbelievable. Ask any merchant.)
In order for them to maintain the appearance that they are working for you they produce flyers, commercials and more junk mail than you can imagine.
The one thing that credit card companies DO is deny charges to your account on a regular basis. BUT, they don't tell you how many times they have denied a charge on your account. Likely the information would be too alarming to the general public. The only times you may experience this is when it really is you making the charge and they deny it or ask questions.
The Merchants - the small stores and the large ones
THEY WANT YOUR BUSINESS - THEY PAY: When a merchant takes a credit card it is processed through a bank. Often the funds are transferred directly between bank accounts and all is well.
- They pay their monthly service fees which allows them to accept and process the credit card.
- They pay a percentage of each transaction to the credit card company. (This is why on larger transactions if you offer to pay cash, they will often offer a discount.) For example a $20 cd might cost them $0.35 for the transaction and 2.5% of the total. You pay $20. Their costs went up by 85 cents because you paid with your credit card. If you had paid cash, their profits would have been 85 cents more. That's on a $20 cd.
- If that same transaction is determined to be fraud, the credit card company will charge back the merchant. Again charging them the transaction fee (35 cents) and percentage (50 cents) on the chargeback amount. The merchant loses the merchandise, the upfront transaction fees, and pays a penalty because of the chargeback fee.
- Now it looks like it's not so unreasonable for them to charge a ridiculous amount for a cd, eh? Imagine how much they lose.
- Even though they are required to have the transaction approved through the bank, the bank assumes no responsibility for that transaction. They hit the merchant back for the full amount.
The cost to the Credit Card issuer??? A profit of $ 1.70
The $ 1.70 that it cost the merchant pays for those funny commercials and all those mailers etc....
But in order for a merchant to remain competitive, they need to accept credit cards. It's the way the business works. So they have to suck it up and just accept the occasional losses. Imagine the time it would take to report and investigate all of the bad credit card transactions.
Law Enforcement doesn't do anything... unless... nah, not even then.
November 2007, Philly's Bonnie & Clyde: These two figured out that you can use software to hack into all of your apartment neighbors computers invisibly. It provided everything they ever entered ion the computer to them. They had a great life for quite a while at the expense of all of their neighbors. And they only paid maybe $100 for the software to do it. And much of what they bought was shipped right to their apartment doorstep. And even after they were caught, they were released on bail and went home to their families. While I am not saying they are still enjoying a great life. Their victims will be picking up the pieces of the financial disaster and will likely have to deal with it for years whenever they try to obtain financing.
Here's how you too can play the home game....
Bear in mind that Identity Theft is possibly illegal and I do not condone using these tools to harass or destroy anyone. But it would seem that those who have done it to me have gotten away with it. If anything goes wrong, just file a false charge with federal authorities against the person who caught you.
There are 5 target areas that you need to infiltrate, control and
disrupt.
1. Computer / Internet / Email
2. Cell Phone
3. Telephone
4. Mail
5. Family & Friends
1. Computer / Internet / Email
WebWatcher by Awareness Technologies of Marina Del Rey,
California is available for purchase from their many web sites.
It can be downloaded and prepped for install in minutes.
With the right help you can even install via email - though this
is an unadvertised special service - because imagine how
damaging it could be to be able to hack onto any computer which
receives email. AND YOU CAN.
If you have any problems with their software Awareness Technologies Technical Support Staff are available 24 / 7 to assist you in your surveillance.
If you get caught Awareness Technologies will deny any involvement or connection. Even if proven.
This type of software is invisible to anti-virus, anti-spyware programs. This is by design. They are pretending to be the simple computer monitoring program that parents use to protect their kids from the bad people on the web. Yes, pretending, because no monitoring program woul dinclude the confusiion and redirection tools available through WebWatcher.
Web Watcher is a NetNanny of the same kind that Rebecca DeMornay played in THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE.
Once installed you have secured your surveillance and FULL CONTROL of all computer communications and web site access. This includes the ability to block and and all email if you so choose.
2. Cell Phone
One more thing you need to secure is the phone communications.
You have to make sure you secure all of the communications.
There may be help available to the target over the phone somewhere.
It is important to NEVER
let the same person be contacted twice and you will be guaranteed
generating frustration and confusion for your target.
This frustration and confusion is not just for your target because
the target is
going to start to explain his communication difficulties and then
even the support folks will think he is losing it. Hee hee,
but you are doing it, and as an extra bonus you can record all of
these phone calls via a cute little $150 program called FlexiSpy.
The govt seems to prefer to put everything back into the first
channel. When you are being intercepted by the govt
surveillance, they will always suggest you email the problem to the
second level support team to get assistance. They will never
receive it and never respond and never admit to telling you that in
the first place because their real support people do not do that.
3. Telephone
The tools to confuse the land line telephones can be purchased from
just about any 'spy' tools web sites. You can find tiny
devices which can redirect calls, cancel calls, interfere with calls
etc... The big time tools are used by the govt. They
include the ones which record every call - but do so as a third
party call - but sometimes this system results in a ring-back when
the call disconnects improperly. In my case I was able to
track the phone number to a building. Track the phone number
to a piece of equipment which uses the same phrase. Find the
User Manual for the Equipment and download the manual. When I
downloaded the manual, the 'fourth wall' was broken and I received a
call from the phone number which had been ringing back for months
with a ridiculous explanation about why that phone was calling me.
Yea, right, your phone that you used to make soccer calls a few
years ago calls me back immediately after I finish any phone call.
And it only started after my wife put in place her plan for divorce
and got caught.
4. Mail
The US Mail can be redirected using forwarding orders. And
while they have the best intentions and are doing an amazing job of
getting the mail to the right person there are a few holes.
Those holes can result in cyclical redirection in my case the cycle
was about every 3 months, i would get the misdirected mail.
The other 2 months it was likely forwarded and never seen again.
This is problematic as they are often bills for services like water,
electricity, gas, credit cards, cable television/internet,
telephone, cell phone. And while you know to expect to pay
these bills monthly to spend the time it takes to contact each of
the suppliers for your balance can take up to 30 minutes each by the
time you survive their phone systems.
In my case, my wife filed 3 different forwarding orders. Each was done in a different month and last for a year. Most of the mail forwarding takes place automatically so when the computer sees the name, it forwards that mail to the new address. When it forwards mail, it puts a sticker on it that it was forwarded. If Address correction is requested by the sender, the automatic system sends a card to the sender to indicate the change to the address. So the person who put the forwarding order on didn't change the address the US Post Office has taken care of it. But the mail was redirected to your ex-wife and she didn't get it to you? Now why would she not deliver your mail to you or forward the misdirected mail back to you? Perhaps the same reason that she keeps contacting the Mortgage company and redirecting the statement to a variety of addresses and denies each contact with them.
Once you have these 4 items in place you need an emergency exit. The Federal Government will provide the emergency exit for you, and your attorney, and your private investigator. Be specific in your branch of government and the jurisdiction. It is important because everything is on a need to know basis and no one will tell anyone anything if the charge is specific. DEA, FBI, Secret Service, Local Police, Local Detectives - they do not even trust each other enough to share the information which would permit them to see the big picture. So in them keeping information from each other the target's activities seem even more suspicious. And when the target is contacting them reporting crimes, break-ins, etc... Well, the target becomes a diabolical mastermind that is trying to cover up the largest criminal event in the history of the universe, and is just taunting the authorities. Even though the target has been upfront and offered to answer any questions anyone may have in any regard. The confusion generated by the target having any knowledge about what is going on will only serve to generate more confusion. If the target survives the situation, you may be in trouble... but it will likely drive him over the edge.
The one thing that may help him is the critical 5th element of the plan.
5. Family & Friends
This step is tricky and you need to be absolutely certain that you
are not revealing yourself and your plan to anyone. In any
case any communications in this regard should be done at a whisper
(I'm letting you in on a secret.) level. If you add that if
the person repeats the claim to the target, they will be interfering
with a federal investigation and would face charges themselves if
they say anything, it will likely be enough to keep them at a
distance far enough to prevent your exposure.. The whisper
should be remarkably effective, because there is nothing more fun
than telling someone else you know a secret. And the fear of
revealing yourself and the person who told you will generate a cone
of silence around your target. And everyone will be able to
tell who is 'in' on the secret because they will know if anyone says
they talked to or contacted the target that they are not 'in'.
Because the fear of talking to the target and actually revealing the
secret is far too great to carry on any type of meaningful
conversation.
In my case, the 'in' crowd is everyone and everywhere. After hosting hundreds of parties over the past 20 years of my marriage... After celebrating life's event with them for the last 20 years... They are GONE. NOT ONE CALL. NOT ONE CARD. GONE. WHERE DID EVERYONE GO?
There are less than 10 people who have not turned their backs. I refer to them collectively as my heroes. Their support has been appreciated more than they could ever imagine. It has been more necessary to survival than any other thing in the universe. I'll never forget their support. You definitely learn to recognize who your friends are when something like this happens. And a very surprising thing is that you find that the ones who shouted the loudest that they were your friend aren't there anymore, but the ones who were always there for you are still right there trying to help you cope with everything else.
Last point - Don't do this to anyone because if you do I will gladly testify to have you locked up and put away for using the most cruel and inhumane form of torture and harassment I have ever discovered. The destruction of a person's spirit.
[And if you have read this web page, I have your IP address and some other identifying information about you collected in my web reports. I'll gladly make them available to prosecute your evil ass and lock you up.]
My Identity Theft Story
A web page was copied and updated to include my private information - to make it appear as if I had created it. I have Web Statistics to prove their activity and where it came from.
My wife contacted me about the page, which her attorney had told her about on Wednesday February 6, 2008. I told her the files were simply stored on a server, and as they were not linked to any web page they were reasonably safe from publication. In any event, I renamed files and directories to prevent anyone from accessing the data. The data was being stored on the web because it has been the only place where I could maintain the data reliably. When I attempted to organize data in 2007 on my computers, they were regularly crashed and required rebuilds and starting the reassembly of all the data all over again. (And it also offered a way to track who was accessing my data because of the web statistics that was available through the hosting company. Something they didn't realize or consider.)
My personal information was made public on February 7, 2008 by Alex Eckelberry, the CEO of Sunbelt Software. (Yes, he knows better than to do this.) He posted it to his blog, which was updated to Google almost immediately. I heard from someone in Wales, UK that there was information posted to a blog that I would not want in the public domainc. I then heard from Alex himself, saying that "I'm not sure you want to publish sensitive data like this." I found out the next morning that it was Alex who released my data to the world. (You may read all of the emails exchanged, and watch me go from trusting Alex, and suspecting the other person, to the complete opposite when Alex's actions are revealed.)
I lost hours tracking anyone who had read the data and republished a link to it. It was removed by everyone upon requestOn Saturday February 9, 2008, I called my wife to fill her in about the data that had been released inadvertently to the world. I was in the process of offering to pay for an Identity Theft Service for her when she indicated she had already reported the crime to Upper Gwynedd Township Police on Saturday February 2, 2008. What? What?? What??? She went to the police 4 days before letting me know that the data was available? And her lawyer instructed her to do that? ( OH, another setup! Get ready for the next false allegation...) I rescinded my offer for Identity Theft Protection. And told her that I had the statistics for the site, and knew everyone's IP addresses that had visited the pages, and what they looked at and how long they looked and how often. I believe I also mentioned that her lawyer and her friends had been spending way too much time on my site - on a page that no one would know about UNLESS THEY HAD BEEN SPYING ON MY COMPUTER!
When I came home I immediately re-checked my web statistics and created a backup of the entire site. Within an hour or so, the site statistics crashed. They could no longer be updated. And the site was crashing hard. As it is the primary domain, I was concerned that the 3 clients who have remained with me and endured the damage to their careers were about to face a complete interruption at their web sites. They didn't deserve it, and I wasn't about to let their sites crash. So I locked my site up so tight even I couldn't get to it - unless I used a backdoor. Basically my site was not going to be collecting stats anyway, so the downtime was ok. Funny they attacked the stats program as soon as it had been revealed that the information was available on the web site to reveal them. The support at my hosting company was remarkably incompetent... but not their fault. It was more redirection and obfuscation, so I'm not listing the provider. Whenever I had gotten through to their actual support folks, their support had ALWAYS been responsive immediately. Whenever I was being redirected, the script was the same. "Please send an email to Support@BlahBlah.com and they will get to it immediately." I fell for that in the summer of 2007, but have recognized the tactic being used to stall my progress in getting help in just about any area. Though I still sent the emails because I have to give the people I believe to be helping me the benefit of the doubt, the emails were never responded to and the hosting company had no record of ever receiving them.
In reviewing the statistics, I saw that all of the people who are not "investigating" the case, and who "do not have me under surveillance" had paid a visit to my web site in the days following her report to Upper Gwynedd Police. And her lawyer was a frequent visitor to the web site.
After I crashed my web site I kept trying to get support to help. They didn't. I did keep explain why the site was down and they couldn't resolve the issue. The REAL Hosting Support would have known exactly how to get to the data. I kept up the impression that I was completely unable to get to the data and it was critical that the data be preserved. Creatively crashing my site to prevent any access to the data or the control panels instead of suspending or cancelling it allowed my clients sites to remain up and running. My remaining clients are not billable clients. They have stuck by me and their businesses have suffered because of their loyalty. (Something I'll never forget.) They also allow me to showcase what my company can do (or could do when allowed to work.)
I waited a few days and brought my site back up myself. Then contacted the support folks (the REAL ONES!) and they assisted a bit. However, they indicated that they had no record of any requests, or downtime, or anything of the sort. Redirection is so effective sometimes. It could shoot holes in anyone's credibility. But when you experienc it for a year, I have learned methods for identifying the REAL from the fake. the REAL ones have a harder time understanding the big picture, BUT they are always willing to assist and help. (I've planned a full page on the ridiculous things that the fake support people told me to do that totally identified them as fake.)
In early March, the crime of Identity Theft had occurred. But only to me? Isn't that a strange thing? So when I told the county major crimes detective about it as he was aware of the earlier February exchange, he told me to contact the local police. Ugh! I did so on Monday, and on Tuesday I spoke for 53 minutes with Chief Brady. During the conversation, I indicated to him that while I was unhappy with his decision to continue to protect the person or persons behind my torture, I respected that he hadn't lied to me. He told me I'll never get the police report for August 8, 2007 and he meant it. It holds the answer! Chief Brady indicated he would have an officer come by to get the Identity Theft report on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, I was contacted by telephone by Officer Jim Reape. I explained that I had been the victim of Identity Theft and knew the people who caused it or at least enabled it to happen. He said he needed the credit card statements. The Credit Card company would not provide me with that information. He further indicated that they would not investigate anything which was not local. I had one transaction that I had been called about from a merchant in New Jersey. He indicated he didn't choose to investigate the people who enabled the identity theft. He would only go after those who used my information to make purchases. Well, as the credit card company was not giving me the list of transactions. I was then to contact the list of merchants to get the transaction data - which they were going to protect. And we're talking about at least 20 merchants that I knew about. So let's think with a 30 minute phone call to each to attempt to get the data - (10 hours). Only to find out that half of them are in Asia and can;t be prosecuted and the merchants all cancelled the transactions when I contacted them. MERCHANTS WILL GLADLY CANCELL ANY QUESTIONABLE TRANSACTION BECAUSE IT IS THE MERCHANT THAT PAYS FOR IDENTITY THEFT - NOT THE CREDIT CARD COMPANIES. But merchants are nervous about their customers security so are reluctant to provide information about the purchase.
BUT WAIT, I have already assembled the information about those who perpetrated the act of publishing my data to the internet. THEY ENABLED THE CRIME at the very least. Ofc Reape told me that he would do nothing and was completely uninterested in that part of the investigation. What? What?? What??? So the part of the investigation that would simply involve me turning over the emails and the data. The part that was done and immediately available, was inconsequential. I pressed that issue with him and he indicated that I was being non-cooperative and he was going to end the call. What? What?? What??? I remembered that I should not expect any assistance from law enforcement. And that whenever anyone was acting irresponsibly or 'crazy' that they were doing it to cover up or protect something else. I told him I wasn't really surprised that there was not going to be any investigation and I hung up.
So was he saying that I could publish the personal information of anyone and get away with it? Hmmm.... Something tells me that while I can't have someone prosecuted for openly doing it to me, I'd be picked up in a heartbeat if I were to publish their info.