RVANews

Identity theft on the rise in Virginia

Bryan Nolde — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:00:04 +0000

Shred all your documents displaying bank account and Social Security numbers. Be careful about sharing personal information on the Internet, and don’t respond to e-mails requesting it.

These are important ways to prevent your identity from being stolen, said Chip Muir, who prosecutes computer crimes in Virginia.

If your personal and financial information is stolen, somebody can make fraudulent charges with your credit card or drain your bank account.

“It’s not actually the identity that’s been stolen that’s going to be your first alert. It’s going to be that something’s wrong with your financial accounts,” said Muir, an assistant attorney general for the state.

Ryan Foray, a Virginia Commonwealth University student, experienced this firsthand.

“I received a letter and a phone call one day saying that my bank account was put on hold due to weird transactions that didn't seem to match up. There were a few small purchases in cities out West, but there was one major purchase [from] a local store in Hawaii,” he said.

Identity theft is a growing problem in Virginia. The number of identity theft complaints in the state rose almost 20 percent last year, to 6,349, according to the Federal Trade Commission. That followed an increase of less than 4 percent the previous year.

The dramatic jump could be caused by a number of things, Muir said. “It could show that criminals are becoming more desperate and resorting to identity theft; it could show that people are just learning to report it… It’s hard to say what is pushing those numbers.”

Metropolitan areas in more rural parts of the state – southwest Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley, for example – experienced bigger increases in identity theft complaints than larger urban areas.

The spread of high-speed Internet access to more remote places, and that population’s inexperience with identity scams, could be behind the spike in complaints, Muir said.

“I just don’t think that there was the availability in these areas that there was in the [major] metropolitan areas that were wired quickly because of the population,” Muir said. In fact, he has cousins who live on a farm, and they are just now capable of accessing the World Wide Web at a higher speed than a regular telephone line.

Many identity thieves buy e-mail addresses and then target people with “phishing” ploys that attempt to trick individuals into divulging their passwords and sensitive financial information.

More experienced Internet users have been exposed to identity theft schemes and may be more vigilant in avoiding the thieves.

VCU student Ryan Foray was annoyed and surprised upon finding out about the fraudulent charges to his bank account. “It was like I had never deposited money into my account,” he said. Fortunately for him, the issue was resolved with a minimal amount of inconvenience. After ordering a new bankcard and changing his online passwords, Ryan’s money was refunded by the following weekend. But identity theft victims do not usually catch and resolve fraudulent charges so easily.

Through speaking events and other efforts, Muir is trying to educate the public about identity theft and other dangers lurking online.

So, where is your identity most likely to be stolen in Virginia?

In Danville last year, 136 identity theft complaints were filed for every 100,000 inhabitants. That was the highest complaint rate in the state and the 104th highest among the nation’s 380 metropolitan areas.

The Washington-Arlington-Alexandria area had the second highest complaint rate in Virginia – with 123 complaints for every 100,000 residents.

On the other end of the spectrum, your identity was least likely to be stolen in the Bluefield area straddling Virginia and West Virginia. It generated 64 complaints for every 100,000 people.

The Richmond metro area was in the middle, with 97 identity theft complaints per 100,000 population in 2008.

If you think your identity has been stolen you should:

Contact your bank and tell the officials there.
Have them speak with their loss management department and put a 90-day fraud alert on your credit accounts so that any new applications must be verified.
Try to have your losses restored by the bank.
Get new account numbers, passwords and log-ins for any online banking.
Make sure there is no connection between your new accounts and the ones that were compromised.
File a report with the appropriate law enforcement agencies.
Obtain an Identity Theft Passport from the Virginia Attorney General’s Office. It shows people you were a victim of identity theft and protects you from false imprisonment resulting from the thief’s actions.

Additional online information and resources:

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Who Can Help: An Overview of Richmond’s Resources for the Homeless

Bryan Nolde — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:00:20 +0000

Editor's note: The following feature is the latest in a seven-part series on homelessness in Richmond written by students taking part in "Reporting for Print and Web," an undergraduate journalism course led by by Jeff South, Associate Professor at VCU's School of Mass Communications. Check back weekly for future installments.

Homelessness does not have just one cause. It can be triggered by many different life circumstances – from mental illness and substance abuse to unemployment and divorce.

The Richmond area has many groups working to help the homeless: Some serve meals, others offer shelter and a number provide health care or counseling.

“There are a lot of agencies involved, but there are 10 to 12 core agencies,” said Kelly King Horne, executive director of the nonprofit group Homeward. “One thing that makes it work in Richmond is that we have some structure around the network of service providers, and they work really well together.”

Homeward is an umbrella agency that coordinates the efforts of the groups trying to help the homeless in the Richmond region. Homeward collects data about homeless people and develops plans for serving them.

“Every other month, there are meetings of the Executive Directors’ Network, where we share information, connect with one another and get updated on certain issues,” Horne said. “A smaller group comprised of representatives from the 12 largest agencies – the Service Provider Leadership Council – meets during the intervening months to give more direct input to Homeward.”

While Richmond’s system is good, Horne says it has some gaps:

The needs of un-sheltered individuals are hard to address.
Substance abuse services specifically for homeless women are lacking.
There are never enough mental health services for the homeless.
Private-sector groups are not connected to their counterparts in the public sector.

Homeward tries to make the voices of the homeless heard and see what services they need. The organization does this by gathering data twice a year as part of a point-in-time count and survey.

“It’s understanding what families with children need, what people with addiction need, what people as ex-criminal offenders need, and the list goes on,” Horne said. “Each nonprofit agency tends to have a board member who was formerly homeless, and a staff member who was hired during or after recovery, or maybe they have a resident council; different agencies have different ways of addressing that.”

As agencies better comprehend how to address homelessness, Horne said new questions arise: What is the best way to engage passionate individuals in the community with helping to solve the problem?

How do we as a community welcome former homeless people into our neighborhoods and provide the supportive network that they need to maintain stability?

Homeward and other homeless support agencies are trying to answer those questions for the Richmond area.

Navigating Richmond’s Homeless Support System

Many different agencies are trying to help homeless people in the Richmond area. So many, in fact, that the coordinating agency for the groups, Homeward, has created a “system map.”

The map categorizes the various agencies and shows how they work together. You can find a link to the map on the left side of Homeward’s home page, www.homewardva.org.

Here is an overview of the system map, including the agencies in each category:

Prevention – Agencies that directly help people maintain housing: William Byrd Community House, Capital Area Partnership Uplifting People, Area Congregations Together in Service, Senior Connections.

Emergency Shelter – Short-term shelter (30-90 days): Congregations Around Richmond Involved To Assure Shelter (CARITAS), HomeAgain (Espigh Family and Emergency Men’s Shelters), Salvation Army (Men’s and Family Shelters).

Specialty Shelter – Shelters designed for homeless people who meet additional criteria: The Healing Place (Overnight Shelter and Social Detox), Daily Planet (Medical Respite and Collaborative Treatment), Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) Domestic Violence Shelter, Safe Harbor.

Transitional Shelter – Longer-term shelters (up to 24 months) for homeless people: Daughters of Zelophehad (St Barnabus and Dill Houses), HomeAgain (Family INRICH, Veteran’s and Men’s Transitional), Freedom House Community Shelter, Second Chances Supportive Services, The Healing Place Recovery Program, Daily Planet (Safe Haven), Good Samaritan Inn.

Permanent Supportive Housing – Permanent housing for people who need long-term housing connected to on-going support services: Virginia Supportive Housing, New Clay House, James River Apartments, Stratford House, TBI Homes (Traumatic Brain Injury).

In addition to these categories, the map lists groups that identify or provide information to people who are homeless, are at risk of homelessness and those who need shelter:

Operation HOPE – Richmond Police Department, McGuire Veterans Hospital, Daily Planet, Local Departments of Social Services (Chesterfield, Hanover, Henrico, and Richmond), 211 Virginia (a hotline that can be called 24 hours a day providing information and referrals for health and human services).

For more information online, see:

Homeward
Volunteer Match (a list of organizations in the Richmond-Petersburg area helping the homeless)
Richmond Friends of the Homeless “Get Involved” page
Richmond Good Life list of homeless help volunteer opportunities

Previous features in this series:

All articles and photos featured in this series are being published with the permission of Jeffrey South, Associate Professor, School of Mass Communications, Virginia Commonwealth University.