Identity theft hits Californians hard, protecting yourself can help

Californians are easy targets when it comes to identity theft. That’s according to a recent study by a major national credit reporting bureau. NewsChannel 5 is finding out it’s a big problem on the Central Coast and typically the victim is left with a huge mess.

Experian said it performed an online survey in September 2014. The study found 31 percent of Californians said they had their identity stolen within the past two years. There have been 90 breaches reported in California so far this year. So we want you to know how you can protect yourself from becoming the next victim.

Using a special crime mapping system, the Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Department can track exactly where identity theft hits.

“Identity theft really runs the course of the entire population and we’ve seen people who are deceased and their identities are then used for social security benefits,” said Santa Cruz County Sheriff-elect Jim Hart.

Emily Barnett was convicted of identity theft for stealing credit cards and racking up thousands of dollars. We spoke with her as she was finishing up her sentence

“Yea, it was easy to get a hold of different cards, whether they came from somebody else, who said, “Oh, I got these cards,” Barnett said.

Barnett also said no one is immune to being a target.

“I didn’t care about the cameras, I didn’t care about anything. I just went and kind of pretended like I was whoever,” Barnett said.

Central Coast investigators said identity theft ranking as one of the top three crimes and cases often go unsolved.

“What happens is cases that don’t have good leads, good solvable leads, the patrol officer or the front desk officers will take the report and then it’ll be basically filed away,” said Salinas Detective Byron Gansen.

Victims like Alan Smith said they’ve ended up doing a lot of the investigative leg work themselves.

“I had to take time off of work, away from my business to clean up whatever I knew was wrong,” Smith said.

The Experian report found 78 percent of people in California fail to log out of sensitive accounts before closing a web browser.

Technology experts said we’re more vulnerable online than ever before. But you can avoid becoming a victim by changing your passwords regularly, not sharing personal information on social media and checking your credit reports regularly.

“So the fear is that a lot of this information that we thought for literally years, because this vulnerability has been known for about two years, has been tapped into,” said Luis Alvarez, CEO of Alvarez Technology Group.

Information which used to be automatically protected online, isn’t any longer. Experian’s study also found Californians often fail to review notification letters from a business experiencing a data-breach.