Business the Victim of Identity Theft
It’s not just individuals that need to worry about identity theft…
Identity theft isn’t restricted to consumers; businesses are being victimized by a schemes to steal their identity as well. Identity thieves are increasingly targeting businesses instead of individuals because many states do not recognize business identity theft as a crime and have not inacted legislation to help protect them. Even though prosecution can be pursued under other statutes like mail or wire fraud, identity thieves are taking the opportunity at hand.
Here’s how one scheme works: A crook rents space in the same building as the target business and then applies for a corporate credit card in the business’ name. The application passes a credit check because the company name and address match, but the cards are delivered to the thief’s mailbox. The cards are then sold on the street and the thief hightales it before the business realizes their identity has been stolen.
It’s impossible to say how many business have been victims of identity theft. But the number is increasing with business accounts generally carrying a high credit limit for large purchases which are less likely to be questioned with a business account. Small businesses in particular are targeted because they may be less aware of how to protect their sensitive information.
In July 2007, the Justice Department requested Congress to explicitly include businesses and organizations in the federal identity theft statute. Unfortunately, if the loss is relatively small, under $10,000, law enforcement may be reluctant to investigate it and many U.S. attorneys have thresholds of $1 million at the federal level to prosecute.
