Post by iceman on Mar 31, 2008 4:31:28 GMT -5
Here it is straight out of the goverments mouth. Corporate bustouts and minimum level to prosecute 1 million dollars.
IDENTITY THEFT: THE BUST-OUT SCHEME
Identity thieve are using the "bust-out" scheme to steal your business identity. The criminal rents space in the same building as your company and then applies for corporate credit cards using your firm's name. The application passes a credit check because the company name and address match, but the cards are delivered to the criminal's mailbox. He sells them on the street and is long gone before you discover your firm's identity has been stolen. This is one way sophisticated criminals steals business’s identities across the country. Identity thieves increasingly target businesses instead of individuals because many state statutes don't consider business identity theft a crime. That's because most of identity theft laws passed in the last decade apply only to individual consumers.
Business identity theft can often be prosecuted under other statutes, like mail fraud or wire fraud, businesses victimized lose many of the protections afforded to consumers under identity theft laws, like access to information about their credit. Some studies indicated that there were as many as 8.9 million individual victims nationwide last year and estimated annual losses approaching $50 billion. It's difficult to say how many businesses have been victims of identity theft. But the most sophisticated identity thieves increasingly are targeting businesses because business accounts generally have higher credit limits and make larger purchases than consumers, so large purchases by thieves are less likely to be questioned. For these thieve, it is far more cost-effective to target a business rather than a consumer. On July 19th, 2007, the Justice Department requested Congress explicitly to include businesses and organizations in the federal identity theft statute.
Small businesses in particular are targeted because they may be less aware how to protect sensitive information. Business owners should protect themselves by keeping sensitive files under lock and key and by restricting access only to employees who need it. Unfortunately, if the loss is relatively small, under $10,000, law enforcement may be reluctant to investigate it and many U.S. attorneys have thresholds of $1 million at the federal level to prosecute. Brought to you by the white collar crime writer
The Iceman
IDENTITY THEFT: THE BUST-OUT SCHEME
Identity thieve are using the "bust-out" scheme to steal your business identity. The criminal rents space in the same building as your company and then applies for corporate credit cards using your firm's name. The application passes a credit check because the company name and address match, but the cards are delivered to the criminal's mailbox. He sells them on the street and is long gone before you discover your firm's identity has been stolen. This is one way sophisticated criminals steals business’s identities across the country. Identity thieves increasingly target businesses instead of individuals because many state statutes don't consider business identity theft a crime. That's because most of identity theft laws passed in the last decade apply only to individual consumers.
Business identity theft can often be prosecuted under other statutes, like mail fraud or wire fraud, businesses victimized lose many of the protections afforded to consumers under identity theft laws, like access to information about their credit. Some studies indicated that there were as many as 8.9 million individual victims nationwide last year and estimated annual losses approaching $50 billion. It's difficult to say how many businesses have been victims of identity theft. But the most sophisticated identity thieves increasingly are targeting businesses because business accounts generally have higher credit limits and make larger purchases than consumers, so large purchases by thieves are less likely to be questioned. For these thieve, it is far more cost-effective to target a business rather than a consumer. On July 19th, 2007, the Justice Department requested Congress explicitly to include businesses and organizations in the federal identity theft statute.
Small businesses in particular are targeted because they may be less aware how to protect sensitive information. Business owners should protect themselves by keeping sensitive files under lock and key and by restricting access only to employees who need it. Unfortunately, if the loss is relatively small, under $10,000, law enforcement may be reluctant to investigate it and many U.S. attorneys have thresholds of $1 million at the federal level to prosecute. Brought to you by the white collar crime writer
The Iceman