Interview with an Idiot who says Identity Theft is an Addiction ROTFLMFAO

[mandy]

Interview with an identity thief:

By the time of Shiva Brent Sharma's third arrest for identity theft, at the age of 20, he had taken in well over $150,000 in cash and merchandise in his brief career. After a certain point, investigators stopped counting...

But Mr. Sharma, now 22, says he never really kept track of his earnings...

"It's an addiction, no doubt about that," said Mr. Sharma, who inflected his words with the sort of street cadence adopted by smart kids trying to be cool. "I get scared that when I get out, I might have a problem and relapse because it would be so easy to take $300 and turn it into several thousand."

full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/04/us/04identity.html?ex=1309665600&en=0c5e1099b9e02825&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

[stardust]

"It's an addiction, no doubt about that,"

So is shoplifting.

[amy]

Addiction or not, I'd like to see the penalties for identity theft tripled because the damage identity thiefs inflict on their victims can last for years.

[stardust]

I didn't read the article.  As far as I am concerned, folks who *do* identify theft should be sentenced to life with hard labor, with their 'wages' going to pay back any losses by their victims.  >

[Anita]

This story is sorta related...

A newsman here had his eBay ID hacked into.  Made for an interesting news story.  He slammed eBay ever so politely explaining that basically eBay didn't give a rat's butt.  Go eBay!!

[DecorativeDishes]

I just logged onto my AMEX account and found $400 in charges that weren't mine  > (they registered a domain name, bought a web hosting package--actually looked like a good e-commerce package LOL netfirms.com--, and a bunch of anime stuff).

Amex said they'd reverse the charges and send me a new card. Who eats it in a case like that?? Won't they be caught if they opened a web site?? Kim

[Anita]

Kim,
I'm guessing here... but I think often the cc companies eat the charges because it is easier and a write off. 

[misteroriginal]

[quote author=DecorativeDishes link=topic=4306.msg17132#msg17132 date=1152145269]
Won't they be caught if they opened a web site?? Kim
[/quote]

Probably not. Maybe they live in Guatemala.

[iron_chick]

When I was the victim of identity theft, my bank credited my account immediately  - we caught it at about the $400 mark.  I think their insurance covered it?  I know I wasn't out of pocket.    (The dirty low life bastards were in Russia.) 

[misteroriginal]

The Mark of the Beast will fix it. We just all need to get the 666 barcode tattooed on our forehead, and buttcheeks.