When she logged on to her account on April 28, the retiree, who asked that her name not be used, saw that her individual retirement account balance had a gaping hole of $85,000. Assuming it was an accounting error, she immediately called Fidelity Investments, with whom she had the account.
"The eternal optimist, I thought I would call and they could put the money right back in," she said. "I thought they could do it over the phone." No such luck.
A Fidelity representative informed her she was a victim of identity theft. Somebody had added a "special feature" to her account on April 18, allowing her retirement savings to be transferred to an account at The Bank of Illinois. As Fidelity froze her accounts over the phone, a representative told her somebody was attempting to steal even more money from her account.
Since then, she's been on the phone with Fidelity almost daily, asking how the investigation is going.
And the missing money?
Fidelity assured her they would credit the money to her account, but only after their investigation confirmed the withdrawals were fraudulent. She calls herself one of the "unlucky ones," one of more than eight million people who have their identities stolen every year -- one of 1,000 victims every hour.
"If I could help someone from going through this, I would," she said. "There seems to be no way to prevent it."
Identity theft is a growing problem on the North Fork. Riverhead and Southold police say they investigate more and more identity-theft cases each year. "Most of our cases occur from credit card theft," said Southold Town Police Capt. Martin Flatley "A lot of it has to do with bank accounts and thieves stealing numbers from credit cards, then racking up charges later."
The problem with investigating identity theft is that it's getting more and more sophisticated, Mr. Flatley said. "It's very hard to backtrack with an identity theft case," he said. It takes coordination with banks and credit card companies that are often reluctant to provide information or prefer to keep their own investigations internal.
"A detective handling a burglary can talk to people and track stolen property," he said. "But with an ID theft case, there's nothing traditional about it. For the most part, it's just reporting, then the credit card companies pick up the investigation."
Said Riverhead Town Police Det. Sgt. Joe Loggia: "Since identity theft became its own category, I've seen an increase, especially Internet-wise." Often the crime is traced to a location out of town, out of state, even out of the country. Mr. Loggia cited recent thefts originating in Syria and Nigeria as examples.
He said he approaches an identity theft case the same way as any theft. "You run down your leads, your tips, try to get suspects," he said. But trying to work with banks and credit card companies, who often do their own investigations, "is a pain in the neck," he said. Most of the cases are closed by the banks, who simply reimburse their customers and take the loss.
"We're trying to do the right thing," he said. "But everybody wants a subpoena. So when the bank closes the investigation and they won't return calls, quite frankly why get a subpoena for a closed case?" That's especially true because most victims are satisfied with having their money refunded.
Adam Banker, a spokesperson at Fidelity, declined to comment on investigation procedures. "I can say we take any concerns about potential security issues very seriously," he said. Fidelity makes "very significant investments in security," he added.
In the first identity theft case to be tried in Suffolk County Court, Assistant District Attorney Raphael Pearl subpoenaed banks, online merchants and Internet carriers for records, following a long paper trail in gathering evidence. As a result, Lamar Whitehead, 57, of New Jersey was convicted of 14 counts of first-degree identity theft, a class "D" felony punishable by 2 1/2 to seven years incarceration; three counts of third-degree identity theft, a misdemeanor; and one count of scheme to defraud, a felony punishable by a prison term of 1 1/3 to four years.
The DA's office is recommending that Mr. Whitehead be sentenced to 20 years, according to Bob Clifford, spokesperson for the office. Mr. Whitehead, who is being held at Suffolk County Jail on a $1 million cash bail, will be sentenced Friday, June 13.
Mr. Whitehead obtained nearly $2 million in bank loans and luxury automobiles, Mr. Clifford said.
And identity theft can happen to anyone.
As first reported in Newsday, Brookhaven Town Supervisor Brian Foley is thought to have been one of Whitehead's 50 or so victims, but Whitehead was never charged with applying for a $55,000 loan bearing Mr. Foley's Social Security number, date of birth, forged signature and incorrect home address and phone number, according to police.
Mr. Foley did not return phone calls or e-mails seeking comment, a common response of identity theft victims contacted by The North Shore Sun. The DA office's Mr. Pearl observes that identity theft victims are hesitant, even afraid, to share personal information.
Despite the costly best efforts of companies to continue updating security and implementing employee operating procedures to prevent client information from being compromised, "security will always be a challenge," Mr. Pearl said.
He added that not every identity theft case is the result of sophisticated computer hacking. He cited a 2004 case in which membership applications for a Bay Shore health and fitness club were taken from dumpsters behind the gym. Detectives later learned the information was being sold to identity thieves.
"The differences when contrasting ID theft cases with embezzlement, robbery, tax fraud and other kinds of 'traditional' criminal activity are fairly distinct," Mr. Pearl said. Identity theft cases are "paper driven," he said. Hundreds, even thousands, of documents must be subpoenaed, reviewed by detectives, forensic auditors and prosecutors. "These cases require a great deal of work to reconstruct and get ready for trial," Mr. Pearl said.
"You're not dealing with traditional methods," said Southold's Capt. Flatley. "It's so easy for somebody to mask themselves from prosecution."
As the problem continues to grow, so must awareness of how people can protect themselves. Mr. Pearl has noticed themes common to almost all identity-theft victims. They rarely check their credit reports, use easily guessed passwords and aren't careful about disposing of their mail. The Wading River retiree still worries.
"Fidelity says they'll put the money back in and I'm confident that they will," she said. "But then how do I know that it will be safe there?"