Protect yourself from identity theft and fraud: financial fraud is on the increase nationwide.

• Author: Orr, Vanessa

Everyone has heard the horror stories. A person buys something on the Internet and suddenly finds that he is being charged for hundreds of items that he didn't purchase. Or a person visits a bank ATM, only to find that all of the money in her account has disappeared. It's called financial fraud, and it's a growing concern not only for individuals, but also for businesses who need to protect their customers from this increasing threat.

According to the Federal Trade Commission's Consumer Sentinel Fraud Complaint report, between Jan. 1, 2003, and Dec. 31, 2003, more than 300,000 people nationwide reported that they were victims of fraud. While not everyone reported how much they had lost, the 78 percent of complainants who did paid more than $437 million, or roughly $1,868 per person.

In Alaska, 1,165 consumers complained of fraud during this same period. Eighty-three percent of them, or 968 people, reported that they had lost $950,570, or an average of $982 per person.

The top five areas of fraud were Internet auctions, shop-at-home/catalog sales, advance-fee loans and credit protection/repair, prizes/sweepstakes and lotteries, and Internet services and computer complaints. The top locations for fraud complaints were Anchorage with 355, Fairbanks with 71, Wasilla with 51, Juneau with 38 and Ketchikan with 29 frauds reported.

IDENTITY THEFT A GROWING CONCERN

For the past several years, identity theft also has become a problem in these locations, especially Anchorage, where 231 victims reported their identities stolen in 2003. Identity theft differs from fraud in that while fraud is usually limited to an isolated attempt to steal money from an existing account, identity theft is often used repeatedly to open new accounts or to initiate transactions in the victim's name.

One of the fastest growing crimes, the FTC reports that identity theft struck one out of eight Americans in the past five years. False identities are used to commit credit card fraud, phone and utilities fraud, bank fraud, employment-related fraud, government documents and benefits fraud, and loan fraud, among other crimes.

Some organizations, like Wells Fargo Bank and First National Bank Alaska, have developed procedures to help prevent these types of financial fraud from happening, and to protect their customers from becoming victims. "First and foremost, our goal at First National Bank Alaska is to safe-keep our depositors' money," explained Security Officer Don Krohn. "To this end, privacy has, since the bank's inception in 1922, been our top priority. Our bank, like many others, has multiple levels of procedures to help protect customer privacy and combat fraud."

According to Krohn, First National has one of the most specialized and intensive employee-training programs in the state. The bank also monitors and investigates losses and potential crime activity, and continuously trains employees on how to recognize potential...