Political Notebook: ID theft made easy on the Web

Becoming a victim of one of the nation’s fastest-growing crimes - identity theft - can be a pain.

Del. Robert H. Brink, D-Arlington, found out first-hand how easy it could be for someone hundreds of miles away to steal his name and other personal information.

Using the information obtained from an Internet site, someone in New Eng-land took the Arlington delegate’s information, opened an American Express card in his name and proceeded to start buying more than $1,000 worth of stuff under the fictitious Robert H. Brink’s new account.

Brink’s Social Security number was thrown up on the Web site of an Internet crusader, Betty “BJ” Ostergren, who took personal information about various public officials and posted the numbers on her watchdog site as a demonstration of how easy it is to get private information.

Legislators noticed.

So did crooks, thieves and other individuals with less than honorable intent.

Ostergren provided visitors to her watchdog site with the Social Security numbers of three Fairfax County state senators as well as those of a few county delegates and supervisors and the SSNs of former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former Flor-ida Gov. John Ellis “Jeb” Bush, former Virginia Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore and his twin brother, Del. Terry G. Kilgore, R-Gate City.

Former Sen. Jeannemarie Devolites Davis, a Fairfax Republican, said she finds Ostergren’s actions reprehensible and she sympathizes with Brink, who has a letter from a federal prosecutor saying that the man who stole his identity took the information from Ostergren’s Web site.

Part of the identity theft problem is that Virginia officials and those in other states have made individuals’ SSNs all too easy to find. Correcting that problem has been time-consuming and expensive.

Davis headed a state effort to take full SSNs out of public records posted on the Internet, just as Ostergren had been crusading to accomplish through shaming and exposing officials by posting their private identification numbers from public records.

Ostergren acted faster than Virginia officials did.

This July 1, a new state law is scheduled to take effect that could slow down crusaders’ raw bits of posted data that could be carrots to criminals.

The General Assembly passed legislation assessing civil liability for sharing SSNs as Ostergren did, even if the posted information was legally obtained.

Davis would have gone further.

“I think that her actions were negligent,“ Davis said. “She took those actions in order to make a point, but she put these individuals in a position where it was very easy to make them a victim of identity theft. There are better ways to make a point.“

The former senator, whose name and SSN also were provided on the crusading woman’s Web site, said her tactics “were amazing” and that such actions should be made criminal.

“I carried legislation to make it a felony to put Social Security numbers on a Web site because it would make it so easy for identity theft,“ but the Senate Courts of Justice Committee shot down the bill, Davis said.

Brink is not alone in being a victim of the crusader’s misplaced zeal.

Charges have been filed against a Connecticut man, he was told in a March 5 letter from a U.S. attorney in New Haven. According to the letter, “The main charge is categorized as Financial Institution Fraud. … Attached is your copy of the indictment filed [against the man who] used a Website to gain access to your name and SSN.“

The federal prosecutor’s letter states that the defendant used Ostergren’s site, where “a link on the homepage gives several examples of SSN in court/public documents. Most of the victims can be found there.“

Davis said she was not made a victim, but she wonders if other victims of identity theft included former Central Intelligence Agency director Porter Goss, U.S. Sen. C. William Nelson, D-Fla., or former Rep. Tom Delay, R-Texas, whose SSNs were placed on the Internet by Ostergren.She said she wanted to call the former CIA director, but resisted the urge.

Brink said he had to waste many hours trying to protect his credit ratings and undo the damage done by the identity theft in his case.

“I have spent a good deal of time tracking it down,“ he said last week.

The U.S. attorney wrote him that the Connecticut man who was indicted “opened an American Express card in your name. American Express has assumed the losses to that credit card, and although you have not lost any money, the United States Attorney’s Office would like you to be aware that your name and SSN were used” and that the letter can help in checking credit ratings.

Brink was assigned a federal victim identification number, informed of his rights as a crime victim and told he can seek the advice of an attorney.

He has not chosen to pursue any legal action against Ostergren.

“I just hope that if the law [about to take effect] is found to be valid, and she is brought under it, that she doesn’t have as much disruption as my [ex-]wife and I have been through” from the posting of their SSNs on the Web site from public records of deeds of trust, Brink said.

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