Unfettered Letters

Identifying victims of ID theft

In The Star’s article “Know where your ID is now?” (A-1, 4/24), Judy Ancel, director of UMKC’s Institute for Labor Studies, stated how it was wrong to compare immigrant workers who assume someone’s identity to persons who fraudulently take our credit cards. Bull-hockey!

Stealing is stealing, whether it’s an identity or an automobile. Sure the immigrant’s family will suffer, but what about Amanda Bien, the ID theft victim in this article? Does not her suffering count? After all, she has done nothing wrong.

What about the local, county and state governments that suffer financially to deal with this mess? Some of that is my money. When will the federal government do what is right and not what is politically correct?

Their excuse is the same one we are getting for the price of gas or the price of rice: “supply and demand.” We’ve got too may illegals and not enough money, manpower or straight-thinking politicians to do anything about it.

As for Ms. Ancel, I can only hope her identity is never stolen. It may cause a conflict of interest to fight for her rights as an American citizen or cause some anguish in an illegal’s household.

Kris Kozak
Leavenworth

Identify theft

It’s happened to me — a woman stole my identity. It’s devastating. There are things you can do, but in the grand scheme of things, you are had. You are at the mercy of thieves.

Johnson County victim’s advocate Rita Sims helped a lot. She never rushed me and heard my story with helpfulness and kindness. I was under hospice care when my checks were stolen.

The whole ordeal is about trust. You never look at anyone the same again. They take more than money — they take away your faith in humanity.

Tamara Benberg
Lenexa

Identity theft

I am bombarded daily with requests for donations from politicians and others. They all want this money by credit card. We hear all the time about identity theft. So I will not use a credit card for donations.
I use a credit card in restaurants. Most bills show only the last four numbers. One place printed all the numbers on the bill. I will never go there again.
Maybe someone can figure a secure way to donate without fear of identity theft.
Abe Bucksner
Kansas City

Protecting our credit

In today’s modern times, a person’s credit history and rating is extremely important. People spend their entire lives doing the right things, building strong credit, so they can get lower-interest loans, purchase homes, finance their children’s education and so on. Try living without credit.

Your personal information is gold. Yet it’s the most vulnerable possession you own. I find it incredible and frustrating that I can do little to prevent someone from obtaining my personal information and ruining me financially.

Victims realize the systems are difficult to navigate once their credit has been used. It can take years to clean up the mess. This vital personal information is stored in thousands of electronic files and is being lost and stolen at an alarming rate.

Experts do have recommendations on how to minimize your exposure, but in reality, we have little control. We must develop a better system.

Phil Swayne
Kansas City

Voter ID plan

According to the Topeka Capital-Journal, state Sen. Tim Huelskamp plans to introduce a bill in the Kansas Legislature to require picture identification when registering to vote and casting ballots. A few of the acceptable forms of ID would be an “employee badge, a debit or credit card, a buyer’s club card, a student card, a retirement center badge or a neighborhood association badge.”

If the idea is to make sure that the people voting are the people they say they are, surely we should require more rigorous identification than a buyer’s club card. I think Sen. Huelskamp is more interested in discouraging registration and voting than he is in proving the right to vote.

Ken Leonard
Lenexa

Identity theft

Yet another article in the paper about not having one’s Social Security number on one’s driver’s license (2/7, A-3, “License change is going slowly”). Fine, I fixed mine some years ago.

But they don’t mention that if signed up for Medicare, one is required to carry that card, and the government says it would just cost too much to change those. So the lost wallet is still vulnerability for many.

Pat Bergman
Kansas City

Proof of what?

I had read the June 29, 2005, press release from the Missouri Department of Revenue. It said the department was “cracking down on identity theft” with its Show Me Proof program, “consistent with Gov. Matt Blunt’s charge to agency directors to make state government more accessible and responsive.”

I went to renew my driver’s license. I presented my legal documents.

The clerk explained:

I could no longer use my Social Security number on my license. She issued me a new system-generated number.

I could no longer use my post office box address. She typed my physical address.

I must give up the name I’d been using for the past 15 years. Her actual words: “Lots of women are having to give up their names.”

The clerk replaced my current middle name with the one on my birth certificate.

The name she’d just typed did not match the name on my Social Security card, my tax returns, my checking account, my credit cards, my voter card, my home business, or my published books.

The clerk firmly repeated that she was following procedures.

Then she took my picture without my glare-producing glasses. I haltingly signed my new, unfamiliar name.

I surrendered my old license and walked out, clutching my renewal. On it is the new identity I’ve been issued by the state.

Sheila Foard
Van Buren, Mo.