The next are highlights from a Reddit “Ask Me Something” Q&A with The Instances’ Jessica Roy, evenly edited for type and readability. These questions had been all posed by Reddit customers. You’ll be able to learn the unique AMA publish right here.

My title is Jessica Roy, and I’m an editor on the utility journalism staff on the L.A. Instances. In 2018, my pockets was stolen out of my purse at a bar. A number of weeks later, I discovered I used to be the sufferer of a hoop of persistent serial id thieves — and that banks, credit score bureaus and police weren’t going to do something to assist me.

I write a private finance publication for the L.A. Instances. I exploit free credit score monitoring. I’ve distinctive passwords and two-factor authentication on all my monetary accounts. The one personally figuring out piece of information in my pockets was my driver’s license. I by no means would have thought that this might occur to me.

What I discovered, first as a sufferer after which as a reporter writing about it, was that id theft occurs to hundreds of thousands of individuals yearly and little or no is being accomplished to forestall it. Each sufferer, like me, is on the hook to wash up after the thieves who stole our identities and the establishments that permit them do it.

I wrote a front-page story about what occurred when my monetary id was taken from me and the way I fought again. I additionally wrote about reduce the probabilities of it occurring to you and what to do in case your id is compromised. Lastly, I proposed a collection of options that may make it more durable for id thieves to tug off this crime within the first place.

AMA!

How did you first notice your id had been stolen, and is there something you possibly can have accomplished, in hindsight, to have stopped it occurring?

My pockets was stolen in late November. I first realized one thing was happening in mid-January, after I bought a bunch of mail congratulating me on my new checking and financial savings accounts with Financial institution of America and Wells Fargo, and alerts from my free credit score monitoring that there have been new inquiries on my report.

Looking back, I ought to have frozen my credit score when my pockets was stolen. Actually, I ought to have left it frozen on a regular basis (and so do you have to, and everybody else studying this). However I had no concept what folks might do with a pockets that had solely my driver’s license, a few bank cards and a few reward playing cards and a few bucks in money in it. I didn’t notice how weak I used to be, and that though I’m financially conscientious and tech-savvy, anybody generally is a sufferer with the way in which our methods exist now.

If I had frozen my credit score earlier than the thieves bought their fingers on my pockets, they in all probability would have had bother opening these checking accounts. As a result of I used free credit score monitoring and acted shortly as soon as I noticed what was happening, they weren’t in a position to take out any bank cards in my title. (Although they positive tried! Loads!) They nonetheless would have been ready to make use of my driver’s license to steal a automobile and [commit] numerous different crimes, as a result of California doesn’t flag licenses which have been reported stolen to banks or regulation enforcement. There was no single factor I personally might have accomplished to cease all the things they did.

In your opinion, if my pockets goes lacking like yours, what’s the absolute first step I ought to take?

Freeze your credit score! I used to be actually shocked at how straightforward it was to try this. It took me quarter-hour to arrange accounts and freeze my credit score with all three [major] bureaus.

And, if doable, report your stolen pockets to the police. They in all probability aren’t going to do something about it, however having that report was very important after I was coping with debt collectors and investigators. I principally needed to mount a courtroom case in protection of my innocence over and over. The police report in regards to the stolen pockets confirmed the way it all had began.

What’s the good thing about freezing your credit score? Is there any draw back?

The profit is that nobody can open a brand new line of credit score utilizing your id. The draw back is that if you wish to do one thing like apply for a mortgage or a automobile mortgage, or get a retailer bank card someplace, you must unfreeze it. However you possibly can obtain the apps for the credit score bureaus and try this in seconds out of your telephone.

The credit score bureaus don’t need you to freeze your credit score as a result of they generate income by making your data out there to collectors. You’re much less priceless to them in case your credit score is frozen. To me, that could be a good factor.

One attention-grabbing factor I discovered whereas reporting this: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion are the most important gamers, however there are greater than 100 associated bureaus that monitor your monetary exercise, together with ones for checking accounts, payday loans, telephone strains, utilities, and so forth. There isn’t a strategy to utterly “freeze” your monetary id with all of them directly. Irritating!

Consumer chickenwater replied: Don’t they every cost a payment for freezing and unfreezing an account?

The credit score bureaus used to cost for this, however they don’t anymore. It needs to be free. They’ll attempt to upsell you on extra merchandise that price cash, which it’s best to say no to.

Your financial institution appeared completely unhelpful. In case your id is stolen, is there a strategy to get your financial institution to do one thing that may assist shield you?

Yeah, the banks appear remarkably cavalier about all of this. To them, fraudulent accounts are a price of doing enterprise. It looks like they’d moderately write off 100 unhealthy prices than probably forestall one individual from turning into their buyer.

I believe should you use smaller banks and/or credit score unions, you usually tend to get good customer support. I’ve my checking and financial savings by way of a smaller financial institution, and so they had been nice — the thieves had been by no means in a position to entry these accounts, though they tried repeatedly. However the main banks concerned (Financial institution of America, Wells Fargo and others) had been wildly unhelpful.

Say you report an ID theft through police report — as I not too long ago needed to — and the police by no means contact you. Have been you ever assigned a detective, and did you discover that you just wanted to badger them to take a look at your case? It’s been a month for me and I don’t know if the cops will probably be any assist.

Oh, you completely must observe up. I did. A number of occasions. I referred to as the station repeatedly and requested for the title of the detective assigned to my case, and I repeatedly left him voicemails and emailed him. He was not notably useful. The one cause I do know who stole my id is as a result of they had been caught doing different crimes.

Actually, the advantage of reporting id theft to the police is having that police report as proof when debt collectors begin calling you. It’s statistically extraordinarily unlikely that police will do a lot that can assist you.

Which was the only most irritating bureaucratic entity you needed to take care of throughout all this?

The credit score bureaus. They’re personal companies, however you possibly can’t decide out of collaborating if you would like a checking account in America. They keep tons of details about you, however they don’t appear to care in any respect about defending that data, or serving to you when the knowledge they’ve is unhealthy.

Once I was finalizing reporting on this story in September, I appeared by way of my credit score stories with all three bureaus. All three of them nonetheless had incorrect details about me, just like the thieves’ addresses. I filed disputes with all three of them, and every of their websites was damaged in a roundabout way. As a client, it doesn’t really feel like they’re accountable to anybody.

Right here’s what occurred after I tried to dispute that stuff in September: I submitted disputes to TransUnion and bought an error message a few technical situation the place I won’t be notified after my dispute was resolved. I attempted to submit disputes to Experian and bought an error message that mentioned id theft disputes couldn’t be processed on-line. I used to be in a position to submit my disputes to Equifax, and acquired a discover that the disputes had been resolved, however each time I attempted to click on the PDF with the outcomes, I bought an error message.

I made a decision to verify in on these disputes simply now. Right here’s what occurred:

• Equifax: Labored advantageous, disputed data is gone (hurray!)
• Experian: The login display resets each time I enter my information.
• TransUnion: It says “view my report,” however after I click on that I get a clean display.

Once more, these corporations monitor your each monetary transfer, but appear to have zero curiosity in sustaining their methods. Superior. Love this for us, as a society.
Consumer shogunreaper replied: “I hate Equifax a lot. Earlier this yr I locked my credit score and proper afterwards I couldn’t even go browsing to the account, I nonetheless can’t to today.”

Completely wild that the FBI doesn’t monitor what is clearly a serious sort of crime. Why doesn’t the federal authorities appear to care, and what could possibly be accomplished to incentivize extra assist there?

So, this story was about twice as lengthy after I first filed it. For house causes, and in addition to maintain the narrative flowing, we needed to reduce rather a lot out.

I had initially written much more about my dialog with Shima Baughman, notably her work on what she calls “the police fantasy”: the assumption that regulation enforcement exists to regulate and clear up crime. Statistically talking, it doesn’t. Actually not for cybercrime, but additionally probably not for conventional crime. Her work on clearance charges confirmed 97% of people that commit housebreaking are usually not held liable for their crime by police.

I believe id theft and different cybercrimes are newer forms of crime, and regulation enforcement — from the FBI all the way down to native police — appear to be extra invested in violent and property crime. In my piece about potential options for id theft, I wrote about how monitoring cybercrimes like these different forms of crime could be begin.

Folks must make extra noise about this. Plenty of victims of id theft and different cybercrimes — stalking and harassment, scams, revenge porn, and so forth. — are ashamed. They blame themselves. Don’t. Reaching out to your representatives (by e mail, and even by simply tagging them on Twitter) and asking why the FBI doesn’t monitor cybercrime is an effective place to start out.

Consumer seccocular replied: The FTC does monitor that and FBI has entry to those numbers, when folks take the time to report it. They’re principally in information-gathering mode, and gained’t open investigations into particular person instances except they contain different crimes like cash laundering.

Proper, however that data doesn’t go into NIBRS, which is what most police departments, establishments and journalists consult with for crime reporting and demographics. You’ll be able to search for violent and property crime charges by way of the FBI’s crime information explorer, however you possibly can’t search for cybercrimes.

Do you assume the Social Safety quantity system will go away or change in some unspecified time in the future sooner or later?

Sure, however solely on the level that the whole system is nugatory. Ultimately, you’ll in all probability be capable of Google Social Safety numbers similar to you possibly can seek for folks’s telephone numbers and residential addresses proper now. When you assume your Social Safety quantity doesn’t exist someplace on the darkish net (and, more and more, with “mild net” information brokers), you might be mistaken.

So sure, in some unspecified time in the future, we might want to transfer past static information like Social Safety numbers and the tiny picture in your driver’s license. I believe we’ll see extra monetary and authorities establishments including the choice for issues like Face ID or fingerprints for identification. That tech isn’t good both, nevertheless it’s rather a lot higher than a nine-digit quantity.

Consumer RockStrongo replied: “With the variety of locations you must enter your full SS# and the quantity of individuals it passes by way of, principally everyone seems to be compromised. As soon as it’s on the market there’s nothing you are able to do about it however hope you aren’t randomly chosen by a thief. Not like you possibly can request a brand new one.”

Consumer secoccular replied: Are you sure about that? It’s actually one of many causes you will get a brand new quantity.

The bar could be very, very excessive to get assigned a brand new Social Safety quantity. Figuring out yours is compromised from an information breach just isn’t sufficient. Even being a sufferer of id theft just isn’t sufficient, except you proceed to expertise points after taking quite a lot of steps to combat it.

Consumer secoccular replied: With so many transactions being accomplished on-line, how would Face ID or fingerprints even work?

Nicely, you don’t present your driver’s license for on-line transactions, both. It’s extra about including layers of identification for opening new accounts. As an illustration, after I was getting [Family and Medical Leave Act] advantages earlier this yr after I had a child, I needed to take a face scan video and ship it in.

However on-line transactions could possibly be safer. Extra playing cards might add two-factor authentication for on-line purchases. It’s only a steadiness between comfort and safety, and proper now most establishments lean towards comfort.

Consumer Eizah replied: In Sweden, we have now a system referred to as BankID that’s used for identification on numerous platforms whenever you log in utilizing your SSN. The identical system permits you to approve transactions, which you are able to do both through a private code solely you realize or by utilizing your fingerprint.

Consumer mata_dan replied: A face or fingerprint can also be static and may by no means be modified, ever — bear in mind, digitally they’re nonetheless information being despatched over no matter protocol. We even have AIs that may regenerate your face, in numerous poses and animated, and they’re getting higher always. That’s worse than a Social Safety quantity.

I disagree that facial identification is much less safe than a string of 9 digits, however I agree that we don’t have an ideal technique but.

Consumer mata_dan replied: 9 digits could be modified to 9 different digits. Undecided I need a face swap if my facial information is stolen.

Consumer nerd4code replied: Talking as any individual with much less fingers than he began out with, no, fingerprints aren’t static.

What ought to I be doing now as a father or mother to assist shield my little one’s id from ever being stolen?

Nice query! In case your little one is beneath 16, you possibly can ask the three main credit score bureaus to put a freeze on their credit score. (It’s plenty of paperwork, which the credit score bureaus love, apparently.) Be sure any paperwork with private data, like their start certificates and Social Safety card, are saved safely in your house. Wipe telephones and computer systems earlier than trashing, promoting or donating them.

And be considerate in regards to the data you share about your little one. Locations love asking me what my child’s Social Safety quantity is. Does his pediatrician really want to know that? Does his daycare? I don’t assume so. I depart that subject clean wherever doable.

Did you get a brand new Social Safety quantity and California driver’s license quantity? Once I had my ID stolen within the ‘90s, that was the response from federal and state entities.

I debated it, however finally determined in opposition to it for each. I used to be so overwhelmed with these things in early 2019, I simply couldn’t add any extra bureaucratic paperwork to my plate. I used to be (and am!) livid at how a lot work I used to be anticipated to do to wash up after another person’s mess, and stepping into individual to appointments with the Social Safety workplace and the DMV seemed like a brand new circle of hell.

The bar could be very, very excessive to get a brand new SSN. Whilst a sufferer of id theft, I’m undecided I’d qualify. Leaving my credit score completely frozen and locking down my id in different methods is enough for me, for now.

Consumer notfreefood replied: “It must be simpler to get a brand new Social Safety quantity, particularly for the way many individuals now who’ve had theirs disclosed as a result of mishandled information. As soon as yours will get on the web, there’s nothing you are able to do to reverse that, and you must dwell with the likelihood that at any time, somebody could resolve to attempt to use your quantity, and freezing your credit score just isn’t an ideal resolution.”