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ID Theft Training For SD Law Enforcement

Kealey Bultena
/
SDPB

Law enforcement officers warn consumers repeatedly to staunchly guard their identifying information. Experts have lists of to-dos so people protect their finances from identity thieves. But that doesn’t mean people in law enforcement know it all. That's why they attend a training in Sioux Falls.

To delve into the complexities of identity theft crimes, a presenter shows law enforcement officers a video. A man snoozes in his lawn chair, when his buddy comes into the frame and ties something to the sleeping man’s leg. Then firecrackers explode. The man launches himself from the chair and runs away, the sharp cracks dragging nearby.

Experts say the connection between the video and this law enforcement training is obvious: family and friends are most likely to mess with you – whether it’s fireworks or fraud. Sioux Falls Police Sergeant Bob Harrison says he sees it all the time.

"A family member will steal a box of checks and go out and write them all over town. Or they’ll make checks using that person’s name," Harrison says. "You steal someone’s credit cards and then you call the credit card company and change the mailing address, so they don’t get the bill anymore so they don’t know what’s going on."

Harrison says he’s amazed by the ways criminals figure out how to rip people off, especially when addictions like drugs, alcohol and gambling are involved. The sergeant works in the investigative unit, so he focuses on white collar crime.

"You’d probably be surprised at how many people lose their credit cards, their checks their wallets, their driver’s licenses on a regular basis out of their cars, typically. And that stuff gets used regularly for people to buy merchandise in order to sell it.

That steal-to-sell strategy is a focal point during the day-long training for law enforcement.

Nearly 50 South Dakota law enforcement officers are revitalizing their investigative skills with representatives of the FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development Association and LifeLock.The experts take officers through techniques. Some are new, but others have been around for decades – like check-washing.

Men and women test out the method for getting ink off of checks so criminals can fill in whatever information and amounts they want. The officers scribble on scraps of paper and toss them into acetone. The writing doesn’t last long. The ink wafts off of the paper into the solution. Trainers say people – including the officers, themselves – should use gel ink instead of ball-point pens to stop the washing. But that may not be enough.

"If you’re used to using checks, maybe consider doing online banking or finding a different method of payment. Because, even though the check washing demo shows how easy it is to lift off anything that you’ve written, the account number and routing number is on the bottom of that. So, you can buy software or you can easily duplicate and make your own checks," trainer with LifeLock Paige Hanson says. 

Hanson says routine communication with law enforcement is the first line of defense to prevent a crime that’s hard to spot.

"Whether it’s a partrolman and they pull over someone and they have a stack of cards. Where, at first they make think well that’s just a bunch of hotel cards, no big deal," Hanson says. "After this class they’re going to be able to identify, more than likely those are credit cards put onto those hotel key cards or made it look like they’re something else, when really it’s just cloning of credit cards."

That’s a key point experts want people to remember: in a digital age, criminals don’t have to physically hold a credit card, a laptop, or a driver’s license to have all the information they need to steal identities. One travel document or form a person forgets to shred can make an entire financial legacy vulnerable.

Sergeant Bob Harrison with the Sioux Falls Police Department says it’s imperative people who find their identities in jeopardy contact local police. He says law enforcement offers tools to help people freeze their credit and prove new accounts and charges aren’t theirs to pay. Harrison also says filing a police report helps officers stop criminals from taking advantage of even more people.

"A lot of times identity thieves don’t have just one victim. And they’re looking for more victims all the time. It grows pretty rapidly," he says.

Harrison says identity thieves are constantly finding new ways to prey on people, and it’s part of officers’ responsibility of protecting and serving to be vigilant in investigating fraud.

LifeLock’s Hanson says South Dakotans have access to an excellent resource people in other state’s don’t. She says South Dakota’s Attorney General’s website has easy-to-find, comprehensive help for victims of identity theft.

Kealey Bultena grew up in South Dakota, where her grandparents took advantage of the state’s agriculture at nap time, tricking her into car rides to “go see cows.” Rarely did she stay awake long enough to see the livestock, but now she writes stories about the animals – and the legislature and education and much more. Kealey worked in television for four years while attending the University of South Dakota. She started interning with South Dakota Public Broadcasting in September 2010 and accepted a position with television in 2011. Now Kealey is the radio news producer stationed in Sioux Falls. As a multi-media journalist, Kealey prides herself on the diversity of the stories she tells and the impact her work has on people across the state. Kealey is always searching for new ideas. Let her know of a great story! Find her on Facebook and twitter (@KealeySDPB).