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Monday April 15 07:06 PM EDT 6 People Indicted In Identity-Theft Scam NewsNet5 (Cleveland) It's a frightening thought that someone could be walking around using your name and your good credit, but according to police, there has been an explosion in identity theft cases in northern Ohio. NewsChannel5's Debora Lee reported on the latest scam, where at least six people have been indicted. The scam made its way into four Cleveland-area car dealerships between October 2000 and April 2001. Investigators said that a man named Rodney Houston (pictured, left) obtained the names, birth dates and Social Security (news - web sites) numbers of three unsuspecting out-of-state residents, and then allegedly purchased 10 vehicles with those stolen identities. "He did that by recruiting other individuals to pose as the victims of the identity theft," said James Gutierrez, assistant prosecutor for Cuyahoga County. "They walked into dealerships and walked out with cars." One of the women indicted with Houston has a fraudulent ID, using the name of one of the identity theft victims. The scheme began to fall apart at the Garfield Heights License Bureau, where an alert deputy registrar became suspicious after two suspects tried to buy temporary tags for one of the vehicles. "We've located four of them and returned them to their rightful owners," said Sgt. John Paskan of the Ohio State Highway Patrol. "We have six other vehicles floating out there in the continental U.S. or Canada." Investigators aren't sure how the names and Social Security numbers of the out-of-state victims were obtained, but they said such identity theft is happening more and more and that consumers and the people who handle credit information need to be careful. In this case, the banks that financed the 20 cars had the most to lose. However, Gutierrez said that with identify theft, everyone loses. "Insurance companies, retailers, vendors all jack up their prices to compensate for the theft that occurs," he said. To keep from becoming the victim of identity theft, guard your Social Security number, and don't give it to anyone if you can help it. Also, guard your credit card receipts and credit applications. If you don't need them, destroy them, and don't leave them lying around. Finally, check your personal credit report at least twice a year, and be careful about with whom you do business. |