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| Prepared Witness
Testimony The Committee on Energy and Commerce W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, Chairman Identity Theft:
Assessing the Problem and Efforts to Combat It. Ms. Milissa J. Lenahan
My name is Milissa J. Lenahan, I
have been employed by The First National Bank and Trust Company
of Newtown for 20 years. My current position is Assistant Vice
President, Assistant Operations Officer, Security Officer and
Custodian of Records. One of my primary functions as a Security
Officer is researching and responding to fraud. I am currently
working 20 cases of fraud that involve some form of Identity
Theft. 20 cases may not seem like a large number however, First
National Bank is a Community Bank with our service area being
within Central and Lower Bucks County. To us one fraud is too
many.
Identity Theft is on the rise and no one is exempt from the
possibilities of having their identity compromised. Identity
Theft takes several forms from a stolen piece of mail to a
wealth of counterfeit documents with unknowing victims information.
My definition of Identity Theft is any time a persons information
is used by someone other than them self. You don't have to
have a fake Drivers License to impersonate someone and purchase
something online with their stolen credit card. It has been
my experience that retail locations rarely check the signature
on the back of a credit card. Our bank takes pride in it customer
service and we will use our abilities and resources to assist
our customers who have been victimized by Identity Theft. We
provide what ever assistance is necessary to stop any further
damage to our customers good name. The following is a summary
of the steps we take: Once notified by the customer, a hold
is placed on all accounts . Notification is broadcasted to
every computer, tellers as well as back offices as an alert
throughout the bank. It is our practice to close the customers
account and open new to prevent any further loss. We work with
the customer in making sure legitimate payments are honored.
We assist our customers with the paperwork necessary to credit
back any funds missing as a result of the fraud. In addition
we provide the customer with information on each credit reporting
agency with the appropriate phone numbers so that they can
have an alert placed on their credit report. We recommend that
the customer file a police report. We will cooperate with police
in an attempt to catch the "Fraudster" and bring
them to justice. Training and education is a large part of
what we do. It is an on going process and we will pull any
and all resources available to us that is put out by organizations
such as American Bankers Association. We will use these resources
in training as well as providing them to our customers in their
monthly statement. We post security alerts on our web site
as another type of warming to our customers, and will speak
to organizations and schools when asked. The tellers on the
front line are the most vulnerable to a perpetrator of Identity
Theft, split deposit fraud is one of the more common ways to
pass yourself off as a customer by using a counterfeit or stolen
check and presenting a portion for deposit and receiving a
larger portion in cash back.
The "Fraudster" is usually prepared to present identification. The
problem is there is no way for the teller to know if this identification is legitimate
or not.
Our new accounts people are also at risk. Technology has
broadened the spectrum for someone intent on committing fraud.
The only equipment you need is a home computer and a printer.
A fake ID on the street would cost maybe $50.00. Check stock
is readily available at stores that sell office supplies. All
you need now is to take information off of someone's check.
That check alone is a wealth of information, name, address,
phone number, bank name, bank routing number and account number.
When I started my career in banking in 1983, the only way you
could get a supply of checks was by submitting your order to
your bank. A bank would have the tools necessary to determine
if this order is fraudulent as would the check printing company
they
contracted their business with. One example of this I had recently was our customer had to
file a report in three separate municipalities after being
turned away by his home municipality. The consumer is depending
on the Police to help. Identity Theft leaves consumers with
the feeling of total personal violation regardless of the dollar
amount. The consumer spends countless hours trying to repair
the damage. That is why we depend on organizations such as
the ABA, FBI, FTC and local Law Enforcement to communicate
and provide new tools to assist us in educating not only ourselves
but consumer as well.
Identity Theft is one form of fraud that is extremely hard
to prevent without access to certain tools only available to
Law Enforcement. We can't call the Police every time someone
presents us with a drivers license to verify the validity of
the document and the picture to the person in front of the
teller. New technology is being made available in some States
for this type of
verification, unfortunately not in all States.
New regulations and policies such as the Patriot Act and
Customer Identification Program will help in the prevention
of new account Identity Theft but for how long? If the people
responsible for the crime are not punished for their actions
regardless of the dollar amount, it is only a matter time before
a new type of fraud surfaces. Government, Organizations, Law
Enforcement, Financial Institutions and Consumers all need
to
work together to stop this growing fraud trend. |