Sheriff offers advice on protecting your identity

NORWICH – Law enforcement and business are coming together to help fight-off a costly and very popular crime: identity theft.

The Sidney Federal Credit Union, Commerce Chenango and the Sheriff’s Office came together to sponsor a class last week teaching people the precautions they can take to protect their identities.

Sheriff Thomas Loughren hosted the seminar, offering statistics and preventative measures the average layman can take.

“I hate to say it folks, but if you really wanted to focus on someone, you could get their identity,” said Loughren.

Identity theft is fast becoming one of the most popular crimes committed; nearly one in every 50 people falls victim every year, said the Sheriff. According to national statistics, one in every five people will become a victim of identity theft or will know someone who has been.

According to the National Child Safety Council, the average victim typically suffers an average loss of about $1,000 and it requires over a hundred hours of paper work before the ordeal is finished.

“There are three basic kinds of people who’ll commit these crimes. The first fifty percent are people you know, family members. Two are the unsophisticated who’ll usually commit the crime because the opportunity presented itself, and third which is far more uncommon, are the professional thieves. They have been known to steal thousands of identities at a time,” said the Sheriff.