| Prepared
Witness Testimony The Committee on Energy and Commerce W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, Chairman Identity Theft: Assessing the Problem and Efforts to Combat It. Ms. Milissa J. Lenahan
My name is Milissa J. Lenahan, I have been employed by The First National
Bank and Trust
Company of Newtown for 20 years. My current position is Assistant Vice
President, Assistant
Operations Officer, Security Officer and Custodian of Records. One of my
primary functions
as a Security Officer is researching and responding to fraud. I am currently
working 20 cases of
fraud that involve some form of Identity Theft. 20 cases may not seem like a
large number
however, First National Bank is a Community Bank with our service area being
within Central
and Lower Bucks County. To us one fraud is too many.
Identity Theft is on the rise and no one is exempt from the possibilities of
having their identity
compromised. Identity Theft takes several forms from a stolen piece of mail
to a wealth of
counterfeit documents with unknowing victims information. My definition of
Identity Theft is
any time a persons information is used by someone other than them self. You don't have to have
a fake Drivers License to impersonate someone and purchase something online
with their stolen
credit card. It has been my experience that retail locations rarely check the
signature on the back
of a credit card. Our bank takes pride in it customer service and we will use
our abilities and
resources to assist our customers who have been victimized by Identity Theft.
We provide what
ever assistance is necessary to stop any further damage to our customers good
name. The
following is a summary of the steps we take: Once notified by the customer, a
hold is placed on
all accounts . Notification is broadcasted to every computer, tellers as well
as back offices as an
alert throughout the bank. It is our practice to close the customers account
and open new to
prevent any further loss. We work with the customer in making sure legitimate
payments are
honored. We assist our customers with the paperwork necessary to credit back
any funds missing
as a result of the fraud. In addition we provide the customer with
information on each credit reporting agency with the appropriate phone numbers
so that they can have an alert placed on their credit report. We recommend that
the customer file a police report. We will cooperate with police in an attempt to catch the
"Fraudster" and bring them to justice.
Training and education is a large part of what we do. It is an on going
process and we will pull
any and all resources available to us that is put out by organizations such
as American Bankers
Association. We will use these resources in training as well as providing
them to our customers
in their monthly statement. We post security alerts on our web site as
another type of
warming to our customers, and will speak to organizations and schools when
asked.
The tellers on the front line are the most vulnerable to a perpetrator of
Identity Theft, split deposit
fraud is one of the more common ways to pass yourself off as a customer by
using a counterfeit
or stolen check and presenting a portion for deposit and receiving a larger
portion in cash back.
The "Fraudster" is usually prepared to present identification. The problem is
there is no way for
the teller to know if this identification is legitimate or not.
Our new accounts people are also at risk. Technology has broadened the
spectrum for someone
intent on committing fraud. The only equipment you need is a home computer
and a printer.
A fake ID on the street would cost maybe $50.00. Check stock is readily
available at stores that
sell office supplies. All you need now is to take information off of someone's check. That check
alone is a wealth of information, name, address, phone number, bank name,
bank routing number
and account number. When I started my career in banking in 1983, the only way
you could get a
supply of checks was by submitting your order to your bank. A bank would have
the tools
necessary to determine if this order is fraudulent as would the check
printing company they
contracted their business with.
One example of this I had recently was our customer had to file a report in
three separate
municipalities after being turned away by his home municipality. The consumer
is depending on
the Police to help. Identity Theft leaves consumers with the feeling of total
personal violation
regardless of the dollar amount. The consumer spends countless hours trying
to repair the
damage. That is why we depend on organizations such as the ABA, FBI, FTC and
local Law
Enforcement to communicate and provide new tools to assist us in educating
not only ourselves
but consumer as well.
Identity Theft is one form of fraud that is extremely hard to prevent without
access to certain
tools only available to Law Enforcement. We can't call the Police every time
someone presents
us with a drivers license to verify the validity of the document and the
picture to the person in
front of the teller. New technology is being made available in some States
for this type of
verification, unfortunately not in all States.
New regulations and policies such as the Patriot Act and Customer
Identification Program will
help in the prevention of new account Identity Theft but for how long? If the
people responsible
for the crime are not punished for their actions regardless of the dollar
amount, it is only a matter time before a new type of fraud surfaces.
Government, Organizations, Law Enforcement, Financial Institutions and
Consumers all need to
work together to stop this growing fraud trend. The
Committee on Energy and Commerce |
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