Identify theft is now the top consumer complaint in this county.

The Federal Trade Commission tracks consumer complaints and, in 2002, 43 percent of all complaints dealt with identify theft, cases where someone uses electronic information to impersonate us, run up credit card bills and ruin our credit.

It’s a theft that’s exceedingly difficult to recover from because victims themselves are responsible for repairing their credit, proving purchases were made without their approval.

In 2001, the FTC received 220,000 complaints of identity theft. In 2002, the complaints jumped to 380,000, a 57 percent increase. Last year, the dollar loss was $343 million, more than twice the theft in 2001.

Following identity theft, the next most frequent complaint from consumers is getting bilked at an Internet auction site, followed by complaints about Internet services, credit protection pitches, catalog sales and foreign money offers. A staggering 62 percent of all consumer complaints are linked to the Internet.

It may be an information highway, but it’s also an open window to our finances and thieves are sneaking in.

We may consider ourselves relatively safe when it comes to physical burglary in Maine, but we are not safe from electronic thievery. Mainers made more complaints of electronic fraud per capita than New Yorkers, Texans or Georgians.

Mainers lodged 788 complaints of electronic fraud in 2002, and 306 complaints of identity theft. Nationwide, we rank 31st and 45th, respectively.

The average consumer loss from electronic fraud in Maine is $795, which is far less than the average $1,794 consumer loss in Maryland or the $1,415 loss in Massachusetts, so on this point we are fortunate.

Electronic fraud is defined as unpaid or undelivered Internet auction sales, Internet services, advance-fee loans, catalog sales and prizes or sweepstakes entries. By far, Portland registered the most complaints, which makes sense as the state’s largest city. But Liberty, a town of just 894 people in Waldo County, filed more complaints than the folks in Auburn or Augusta.

Identity theft is defined as credit card fraud, bank, loan, phone or utilities fraud, or government benefits or other employment-related fraud. Once again, the highest number of complaints originated in Portland, followed by Auburn, Biddeford, Brunswick, Kennebunk and Windham.

Consumers have to take some responsibility for their own protection.

The best defense is really paying attention to our credit cards.

Too many consumers simply pay the balance and don’t examine the line items. It’s easy for small purchases to get lost in the shuffle, particularly if the balance is high. And, if consumers miss a credit card bill in the mail they don’t usually get too upset. However, that could indicate that someone has changed the mailing address on the bill to avoid detection.

In Maine, misuse of identification is a Class D crime. That seems a pretty soft classification for such burdensome theft.

Identity theft is clearly a growing problem here and elsewhere. It’s a crime. Let’s treat it like one and adjust the criminal classification upward.
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