Enterprise woman nabbed for identity theft

A 60-year-old Enterprise woman was arrested Tuesday for allegedly stealing another woman’s identity to obtain thousands of dollars in loans.

Enterprise police arrested Karen Houston, who lives on Rucker Boulevard in Dale County, and charged her with two counts of felony identity theft, two counts of second-degree felony forgery and one count of misdemeanor negotiating a worthless check.

Houston used the social security number, birthdate and other information of Polly Waters, whom Houston is related to by marriage, to take out various loans, write checks and even attempted to secure a mortgage on Waters’ house. Investigator Chris Hurley said the total theft amount is about $4,100.

“(Houston) was familiar with the victim so she had access to the other woman’s home and property,” said Hurley. “She obtained payday loans from Speedy Cash, went to First American Mortgage and forged the victim’s checks. She has prior convictions of fraud in Ohio and wrote bad checks in Houston County.”

Hurley said reports of identity theft are becoming more common because the means and technology used by thieves has grown and developed.

“We get at least three reports of this kind of thing every week, but we caught this one pretty quick,” he said. “They’ve changed the statute of limitations from three to seven years, because depending on the severity of the crime, it can take up to seven years to clear up your credit history.”

According to the non-profit Identity Theft Resource Center, a victim’s credit score can be negatively affected until they are able to successfully dispute the fraudulent accounts and have them removed from their record.

While many would-be thieves still pickpocket, steal mail and rummage through the garbage, they are becoming much more advanced in their techniques, Hurley said. Some may observe ATM transactions to obtain personal data, research about the victim on Internet public records searches, browse social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, or impersonate a trusted institution by email to persuade someone to reveal personal information, a practice also known as “phishing”. Some have even been so bold as to infiltrate a business that stores personal financial information, such as a restaurant.

“We arrested a woman a while back who was using a card reader (at a fast food restaurant) to steal credit card numbers,” said Hurley.

It is important to catch identity theft early, Hurley said. He recommends all citizens look at bank statements regularly, never give personal information over the phone or email, and check their credit history annually with the three major credit institutions, Equifax, Esperion and Trans Union. For information on Enterprise police-offered courses on ID theft prevention and Internet safety, call 334-347-1211 extension 2218.