Local 12 WEEKEND EDITION, APRIL 12-13, 2008 A newspaper with issues Debunking myths about forensics
Editor’s note: For the next five weeks, Editor in Chief Kevin Herrera will be writing a first-person account of what it’s like to be enrolled in the Santa Monica Police Department’s Citizen Police Academy, which is intended to foster better communication between Santa Monicans and police officers, while giving residents a better understanding of what it takes to preserve the peace.
PUBLIC SAFETY FACILITY Cash only. That’s going to be my new motto thanks to Santa Monica Police Department Detective Maury Sumlin, who gave an eye-opening presentation this week on the fastest growing type of crime in history — fraud/identity theft.
Sumlin, a veteran who works robbery/homicide, showed my fellow classmates in the SMPD’s Citizen Police Academy how easy it is for crooks to get your personal information without you even knowing you’ve been compromised.
He spoke of waiters being bribed by tech-savvy thieves looking for credit card numbers that can easily be stored in a cell phone or other device with a simple swipe. Some pay as little as $20 per American Express card number and $10 for a MasterCard or Visa. Sumlin showed photos of devices as small as an inch that can be placed inside a kiosk at a gas station and can record thousands of numbers in a single week, resulting in the loss of billions of dollars for banks, which in turn charge customers higher rates.
Identity theft “is every criminal’s dream,” Sumlin said, because they can do it from the comfort of their own home and less than 10 percent of the perpetrators face charges, and those that do are mostly given light punishments, such as probation.
“It’s frustrating,” Sumlin said of the slaps on the wrist most criminals get. “We’re the one’s who lose here.”
In Los Angeles the rate of identity theft is twice as high as anywhere else in the nation, much of which has to do with the size of our population and the fact that many illegal immigrants use someone else’s Social Security numbers to gain employment, Sumlin said.
Even if you think you are doing everything you can to protect yourself, you still aren’t safe. That’s because dump-ster divers will scrounge around alleys looking for trash tossed out by local businesses to see if there is any customer information amongst the garbage. That’s right, it’s not just you who has to be careful with your 411, your favorite bakery, dry cleaner, liquor store and bar have to as well.
Some employees being paid minimum wage will take the risk of getting caught in exchange for being paid good money for handing over credit card information. Some will not be on the take, but will just be careless, exposing your vitals.
Which brings me back to my new motto — cash only. Paying in cash is pretty much the only way to protect yourself, kind of like how abstinence is the only sure way of protecting yourself from contracting a sexually transmitted disease. But who is really going to spend the rest of their lives without the use of their debit and credit cards? It seems nearly impossible given the popularity of paying with plastic. It’s easy, convenient and no one really thinks twice about it. I know I don’t. But I will now.
That doesn’t mean I’ll go walking around with wads of cash on me, because that isn’t smart either, but I will make an effort to shred all my receipts, stay up on the latest scams and always carry $20 just in case — something my grandma always told me to do, but naturally I didn’t since it’s what she told me to do.
Speaking of relatives, Sumlin told the class about the story of Samuel Jackson, a gay man from the other side of the country who pretended to be the son of the famous actor of the same name. Over the span of three months, Jackson the con man was able to get roughly $300,000 in goods and services that included clothes from top designers like Louis Vuitton and plane tickets from United Airlines.
The scam was pretty simple. Jackson would walk into major hotels and ask for a suite. When he went to pay, his card would naturally be declined. He would throw a fit — “Don’t you know who my father is?” — and then would call his buddies, who would pretend to be a bank. These buddies would give the hotel clerk a series of numbers that would be entered into a computer and than authorize Jackson for any credit amount he wanted, or something like that. The one thing that was fascinating was that Jackson’s buddies came up with a series of numbers that would override any machine, giving Jackson unlimited amounts of money.
That is until he went to Loews. A clerk there remembered reading a bulletin about a man pretending to be Samuel Jackson’s son who was running up bills all over the country. This clerk called the SMPD and a sting was set up. Jackson was apprehended after a long foot chase by Sumlin and proceeded to tell him how he scammed so many people.
Basically a con man (which stands for confidence man) has to dress the part, drive the right car and make a stink, hence the Louis Vuitton, Escalades and BMWs, and the “Don’t you know who my father is?” rap.
Jackson ended up spilling the beans and is serving three years in prison and faces federal charges in Florida.
“There’s a special place in hell for people like that,” Sumlin said of thieves who target the elderly and unsuspecting.
Following the identity theft presentation, the class moved down stairs to the forensics crime lab where the SMPD’s version of “CSI” takes place. Nick Harrison, Jennifer Kapala, and Mecy Dye talked about their duties as crime scene investigators, which includes dusting for fingerprints, making molds of footprints and taking photographs — stupid one-liners not included.
They immediately tackled the “CSI Effect,” which is basically the public’s demand for immediate results when in fact forensics is often hit and miss. After dusting for my own prints it became clear that these investigators have a tough job. Getting a good, clean print is hard.
Kapala said shows like “CSI” give the public the wrong impression of their work. They don’t get to carry guns nor do they make arrests. They work behind the scenes in a lab. They don’t wear short skirts or low-cut tops and high heels. Instead, they dress in baggy black cargo pants and polos with their hair pulled back. It’s not glamorous, but definitely important to police work. The smallest print can lead to a major arrest. They are the unsung heroes of the SMPD.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 12, 2008. Read the original PDF.