Published: December 02, 2008 12:19 pm         

Area ID theft cases show increase

By NATALIA JONES

Register Staff Writer



At 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, a man reported his credit card had been stolen in Grayson County and $158.53 had been taken from his account.

Shortly afterwards at 10:10 a.m., another man reported to police that several checks from his bank account had been passed without his permission.

At 1:03 p.m. a woman reported someone had made numerous charges to her mother’s debit card without her consent. The charges were made in Florida.

Two other identity theft cases were reported by the end of the day. One man claimed his identity had been stolen and two charges (one for $85.63 and another for $38.46) were made to his debit card without his permission, while another man reported $9,011.08 had been taken out of his bank account in which he did not authorize.

On Monday, Dec. 1 three other individuals came forward to the police department to report that their check card numbers had been used without their consent, one of which claimed $911 had been taken from her account.

Currently Gainesville Police Chief Steve Fleming said it is difficult to determine whether or not these incidents are connected.

“It’s hard for me to say because we’ve had so many identification thefts over the past couple of weeks,” said Fleming. “There’s just been so many for us and we’re looking into each one separately. Right now we’re just trying to determine how the identification was taken and that could be pretty difficult to determine.”

What police officers do know, added Fleming, is that in most cases reported the numbers were stolen from the bank cards, not the actual cards themselves. Also, many of the charges have been made out of state typically either in California or Florida.

“The sad thing is when you’re using any type of check or debit card, (people) can obtain the number which makes it kind of difficult to keep that safe when you’re using that as a form of payment,” said Fleming. “The best thing to do is just to make sure you watch your bank account and to be mindful of what you actually spent and if there are any other transactions listed that you did not make.”

Fraudulent use or possession of identifying is a state jail felony, said Fleming.

The Texas Identity Theft Statute (Texas Penal Code 32.51) defines the fraudulent use or possession of identifying information. A person commits this offense if he or she obtains, possesses, transfers, or uses the identifying information of another person without the other person's consent and with intent to harm or defraud that person. This is a felony crime, with a conviction carrying a penalty of up to 2 years in the state jail and 5 years maximum probation time, along with up to a $10,000 fine.

If you think you have been a victim of identity theft, please contact the Gainesville Police at 668-7777.

Although officers have received an influx of identity theft cases, Fleming said he and his officers are more than glad to meet with individuals either at their home or in the lobby of the police station, 200 S Rusk Street.