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Plano-based business helps veterans keep identity
By Jake Kemp, Staff writer
Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in America and Larry Wilson is doing his part to prevent more people from becoming victims of identity theft.
Wilson’s Plano-based group, Identity Theft Victims U.S., helps victims of ID theft get their lives back on track. They also attempt to educate and raise awareness of the crime by holding seminars and workshops.
In 2003, Wilson was working as a merchant banker helping small businesses in North Texas set up credit card and check-processing systems when he noticed a disturbing trend.
He started to focus his efforts on identity theft and financial fraud. Identity theft affects eight to 10 million Americans every year. According to the Federal Trade Commission’s “2006 Identity Theft Report,” 74 percent of all ID theft victims did not contact authorities; of the remaining 26 percent who reported the crime to police, 19 percent had no report taken by the police.
Since 2003, Wilson’s organization has helped more than 4,000 victims of identity theft. Identity Theft Victims U.S. offers services to victims for free and receives no outside financial support.
The organization raises money through the seminars and workshops that take place throughout the year.
“I try to teach people in a few hours what to do and what not to do,” he said. “A lot of [the things are] simple mistakes that you don’t think are a problem until someone points it out to you.”
For example, Wilson tells women to always carry their purse on their shoulder that is opposite of traffic flow in a parking lot.
“Women don’t think about this, but if your purse is on the side of traffic, someone can drive by and just grab it,” he said. “This happens all the time.”
Wilson also instructs people to be watchful of what they put their signature on. When signing a credit card receipt, it is important to make sure your signature is only on the copy the merchant is keeping.
If there is a carbon copy for you to keep, separate the two so that your signature is only on the white copy.
“If your signature is on that yellow copy, and someone steals your wallet with that in it, they now have your most recent signature,” he said. “That makes it a lot tougher to get your money back from the bank.”
Wilson’s support group has dealt with several types of identity theft cases, from smaller cases involving a single stolen debit card, to FEMA fraud, to a case that involved an “America’s Most Wanted.” But their biggest accomplishment, perhaps, came when the Veterans Administration suffered a massive security breach in May 2006.
Wilson, along with 26 million other veterans, was informed that their personal identification information had been lost as a result of a stolen laptop computer. Wilson is an Air Force veteran.
“When it happened, I was personally involved, and I was livid,” he said.
At the time, very few states had laws on the books allowing people to enact a credit “freeze” unless they had already been victims of identity theft. A credit freeze seals your credit reports and ensures that new lines of credit cannot be opened in your name.
Initially, all Wilson was able to get was a few pieces of legislation introduced and “a dog and pony show in Washington that didn’t actually do anything to protect the vets,” he said.
But after months of doing his best lawyer impersonation and working with various legislatures and the credit unions, Wilson was eventually able to get all three credit bureaus to make it possible for anyone to freeze their credit, regardless of state laws.
“A World War II vet that was affected by the breach said it best with this compliment, ‘Young man, this warms my heart, a vet helping other vets,’” Wilson said.
Sean Hannity and Hal Jay were so impressed with Wilson’s work to fight identity theft and his tireless advocacy on behalf of the vets, they featured him on their segment, “WBAP Great American Hero,” on WBAP 820, News Talk 820 AM.
“When they called I was shocked. It was a great honor that someone took the time to recognize my work,” he said. “I’m very passionate about what I do, and I’m trying to get the word out. No one is exempt from this. If I can protect one person from going through the nightmare of ID theft, then I’ve done my job.”
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