Workshop offers tips to avoid identity theft

Karen Leonard knows identity theft can happen to anyone. The Brockton native used to get as many as three calls a night from collection agencies after someone stole her Social Security number in 2003, opened five credit card accounts, and ran up over $45,000 in charges.

''I felt very frustrated," Leonard said of her two-year struggle to clear her credit records. ''It always felt to me like a full-time job."

Recent headlines about other identity theft cases have fueled consumer worry, particularly among senior citizens, according to Plymouth Council on Aging director Kim Manion and Senior Center outreach worker DeLorez Knight. In response, the Plymouth Library is hosting a program Aug. 25 on how to prevent identity theft. Denise Barton, an assistant attorney general who deals with corruption, fraud, and computer crime, will speak on types of identity theft and how people can protect themselves. The talk is from 2 to 4 p.m. at Plymouth Public Library on South Street.

Sharon LaRosa, the senior services librarian who set up the program, says identity theft, in which someone steals your personal information to establish credit, purchase items, or borrow money in your name, is a crime seniors feel particularly vulnerable to. Seniors who use the town's senior center have become concerned about giving out their Social Security number, said Knight, the center's outreach worker -- even to senior center staff.

''We tell them we're secure here," Knight said.

Fears over the theft of personal information have been aggravated by recent reports of security breaches in major companies, such as the consumer data company ChoicePoint, Barton said last week, and by recent cases showing how easily identity theft can happen. Barton cited the recent case of an older Massachusetts man who was taken advantage by neighbors he regarded as friends. The neighbors persuaded him to use his credit card to make a purchase for them, wrote down his numbers, then used that information to acquire another card and made numerous purchases charged to him before anyone caught on.

But Barton says there are some common sense guidelines to help lower the odds of becoming a victim.

''It's not a safe practice to give out any personal information on a computer or over the phone to anyone you haven't confirmed they are who they say are," she said. If you're unsure, she said, call the business back on a phone number you know to be correct.

Don't respond to e-mail or phone requests to ''confirm" information from your ''bank," she advises. A common scam, called ''phishing," involves the thief sending an e-mail that appears to be from a legitimate business such as a customer's bank asking for personal information. Legitimate businesses don't make these requests, Barton said.

She also advises people to shred or otherwise destroy papers such as ATM and credit card receipts. Identity theft, Barton warned, is not simply computer crime. Lots of cases begin with paper copies. Avoid putting receipts in your wallet, she urges: ''Things fall out of wallets."

Another preventive step is to examine your credit records frequently. In Massachusetts, state law entitles you to one free credit report a year from each of the three major credit agencies (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion). A flurry of inquiries about your credit appearing on a credit report may be an indication that someone is trying to open credit card accounts in your name.

The identity theft nightmare began for Leonard, a 32-year-old lawyer now living in Cambridge, two years ago at exactly the wrong moment for the West Point graduate. She was getting out of the Army and starting law school, and had lived at four addresses in a brief period. As a result, bills the thief ran up in her name did not even reach her working mailbox for about six months. By then the collection agencies had found her.

''I thought they were telemarketers," Leonard said. ''I would say, stop calling me. I don't have an account."

After a Sears account had been opened in her name and thousands of dollars in purchases charge, she then realized that somebody had her Social Security number. She contacted federal agencies, but they had few solutions to offer. Leonard filed a police report and contacted the major credit agencies. But the calls kept coming while she studied for the bar, and started a new job.

In the course of trying to clear her credit record, she faced being ''laughed at," she recalls, by mortgage companies when she tried to get a loan to buy a condo. Then she had the good luck, Leonard said, to find a Chase Manhattan mortgage officer who told her exactly what documents and letters were needed, and where they should be sent in order to clear her name.

Leonard testified in June on Beacon Hill when the Legislature held hearings on identity theft. Her advice is ''always check your credit." Leonard also says she supports a proposed law that would require companies in Massachusetts to notify all their customers if a security breach occurs in their records.

Robert Knox can be reached at rc.knox@gmail.com.