Law Enforcement Spend Day Learning How to Fight Identity Theft and Investigate Cases
Though eight states rank worse than Maryland when it comes to identity theft, residents turn to law enforcement every day to answer questions, investigate cases and make arrests. However, Maryland law enforcement, like other state enforcement units, is close to overwhelmed by the number of cases, new forms of technology and methods used by criminals to steal personal information. Conducted by the FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development Association (FBI-LEEDA) and LifeLock, nearly 90 law enforcement agents from Maryland and the surrounding states attended a free day of training on identity theft methods and investigative techniques on Thursday in Hunt Valley, MD.
Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler and U.S. Attorney Harvey E. Eisenburg welcomed the law enforcement agents and stressed how important training like the FBI-LEEDA/LifeLock program is and how committed the offices of the Attorney General and U.S. Attorney were to battling this crime.
"Today was about laying a foundation, opening eyes and starting dialog between agencies," said FBI-LEEDA Executive Director Tom Stone. "Any time you get the state Attorney General and a U.S. Attorney participate in a training program, it demonstrates the importance of the training and commitment by these very busy individuals."
During the full day of training, participants were presented with the latest investigative techniques being used by other law enforcement agents throughout the U.S., spent time using everyday tools criminals use to commit identity theft and identity fraud, including credit card skimmers and share ideas that could help other agents.
U.S. consumers paid the price for identity theft in 2010, to the tune of $37 billion, according to a 2011 report issued by Javelin Strategy & Research, which also estimated more than 8 million new victims of the crime in the report. Just last week, the U.S. Department of Justice reported that seven percent of U.S. households (8.6 million) had at least one person who had become identity theft victims - an increase of 2.2 million over the last five years.
"While our programs provide a deep look into the overall problem, they also start with the basics since our class has a variety of experience represented," said Carol Frederick, course instructor and veteran law enforcement official. "We provide hands-on experiences when demonstrating the actual technology criminals are using to steal information, as well as the strategies and techniques needed by anyone in this class to be more efficient and possibly make more arrests."
The free training for law enforcement is part of an ongoing initiative presented by FBI-LEEDA and LifeLock. In just over three years, the training has reached almost 7,000 law enforcement officers in more than 70 cities in the US.
About LifeLock
LifeLock, Inc. is an industry leader in identity theft protection. Since 2005, LifeLock has been relentlessly protecting identities by providing consumers with the tools and confidence they need to help protect themselves from identity theft and manage their credit. The company has a strong focus on educating consumers and working with law enforcement and elected officials to better understand the increasing threats of identity theft. A multiple award-winning organization for two consecutive years, LifeLock has been recognized by Inc. magazine on their annual list of top 500 fastest growing privately held businesses in the United States and by the American Business Awards as having the 2011 Customer Service Team of the Year. In August 2011, Javelin Strategy & Research named LifeLock Command Center and LifeLock Credit Score Manager as “Best in Prevention” in their annual Identity Protection Vendor Report. As of March 2012, ID Analytics, Inc., a leader in enterprise identity risk management — with advanced science — that provides unprecedented visibility into identity risk and credit worthiness, is a wholly owned subsidiary of LifeLock, Inc.
