ConsumerWatch: Convicted Identity Thieves Reveal Secrets
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) -- Cheryl Thrasher did it for a small crime ring. Tiffany Andra did it to get drugs. They are just two of the more than 1,400 California inmates currently behind bars for identity theft crimes.
Recently they agreed to reveal the tricks of the trade to CBS 5 ConsumerWatch, by analyzing the case of Bonnie Hoag, one of last year's 8 million identity theft victims.
"I contacted every single bank," said Hoag, "let them know I had identity theft, made sure they closed my accounts, and put any kind of alert they could."
Thrasher said those methods don't matter and she is not surprised that even though the banks were notified this happened. After her wallet was stolen, bank tellers said a woman used Hoag's ID to clean out her accounts at two different banks.
"You basically try to find a teller that looks young," explained Thrasher when asked how this could happen. "You know, just starting or whatever."
Thrasher said the secret is distracting those tellers with friendly conversation. It's something she said every identity theft knows.
"Like 'Oh yeah, I'm gonna go purchase this car' or 'Put a down payment on this,'" Thrasher said, giving some examples. "If you go towards the end of the day, you know they're not really paying attention. They're just doing the transaction to hurry up and get it done."
Thrasher said that is something that identity thieves count on. It's likely something the woman who stole Hoag's identity knew. Bank tellers say she used that exact strategy when trying to steal money out of Hoag's third account.
"The teller called me one day," said Hoag, "and she was like, 'Were you just in here?' I said, 'Absolutely not. You need to go catch her.' She said, 'Oh, we just closed.' She said, 'The woman came in two minutes before closing and when we tried to ask her another question, she got skittish and ran out.'"
"I think [the banks] make it a bit too easy," Andra said.
Andra believes the guards should have detained the woman with Hoag's ID, but said thieves know that's unlikely, even when tellers suspect fraud. She feels the banks are too worried they could offend a customer in the event they happen to be wrong.
Thrasher points out thieves aren't always working alone. When she was stealing money, Thrasher said she often got help from the inside.
"They had told me who to go to," said Thrasher, "so that's who I went to."
When she didn't have an inside man, she said she was taught well-known workarounds for everything from passwords to fingerprints.
"They would use like super glue, liquid bandage," said Thrasher. "They would put it on their fingers and wait for it to dry just a little bit and then like put it to somebody else. That's how they would get a new set of fingerprints."
Thrasher offered her thoughts on how to make banks more secure.
"Make sure they're asked a more stringent amount of questions before letting them take out a large amount," she suggested.
"I don't think there is enough security there in place," added Andra.
The two women also suggest real-time fingerprint verification along with employee background and drug tests. But what they say is more important than how thieves steal your money is how they steal your identity in the first place.
"People dig in dumpsters or they may break into houses or cars," says Andra, "and they may know somebody. 'Hey, this looks like so and so."
But Thrasher said the most common place to have your identity stolen is in your front yard.
"Don't put your outgoing mail in the mailbox ever," warned Thrasher. "You know if they see the flag up, it's gone."
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