Snow Melt

Opinion Thursday: Aggravated Identity Theft

The March 7, 2013 prompt for "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS"  is
Write about your opinions regarding something currently in the news.
Please provide a link to the story or a brief summary of the article before stating your opinions on it.

http://www.lvrj.com/news/mail-sorter-gets-two-years-for-stealing-mail-195659671....

An Associated Press Article posted on the Las Vegas Review-Journal website in March 6, 2013 proclaimed "Former Postal Service worker sentenced for stealing mail". The man charged with aggravated identity theft was a not a mail carrier, but a mail sorter. The article stated that he was charged with "aggravated identify theft", but I suspect the identify was the results of a typo and lack of proof reading. Not only do we have to worry about clerks in retail establishments stealing our identities, but now we have to worry about mail sorter stealing our identities. As the result of a plea agreement, the guy pleaded guilty to "one count of aggravated identify theft" plus the judge ordered him to pay $6,000.00 to his twelve victims.

I have no problem with the peal agreement because they are used all the time. My main issue is with the security risk posed by this event. I thought the postal service did background checks; obviously a background check has its limits. Since this is the case, how do we protect ourselves against identity theft when something like this can happen. People need to be away and check their credit reports three times a year. There are three credit reporting agencies and a person can get a free credit report from each agency once a year. Just make sure you do not request them all at the same time, maybe once every three or four months.

Identity theft
I look at customers walking into a store
I wonder
if they are who the say they are
or has one of them stolen
someone else's identity.

Food for Thought: "According to the Privacy Rights Center, up to 10 million Americans are victims of ID theft each year. They have a right to be notified when their most sensitive health data is stolen." - Luis Gutierrez