LifeLock

A press release from the Maricopa County attorney’s office describing the arrest and sentencing of Christopher McKay Cantrell should be saved as a template to be minimally modified for future ID theft incidents.

The arrest took place after Cantrell tried to make a $1,500 purchase using a forged credit card at Best Buy.

• Expensive electronics seems to be a favorite of identity thieves. Those big LCD televisions, clever PDAs and thin-as-paper laptops are too good to resist, especially if someone else’s money is paying for them.

Cantrell was carrying three different ID cards, representing three different people.

• Identity thieves seldom steal only one identity. If they get away with it once, it becomes easier to repeat the crime.

Cantrell was in possession of methamphetamine.

• Identity theft involves many repetitive actions that are especially well suited to identity thieves, e.g., sorting stolen mail, manufacturing fraudulent documents or credit cards, sorting through trash, etc.

Police discovered several outstanding arrest warrants for Cantrell.

• In the Identity Theft Resource Center’s Aftermath Survey, 52% of the identity thieves who were known by the victims were said to have committed other crimes.

There were 8.4 million identity theft victims in America last year, costing a total of $49.3 billion. LifeLock provides the most comprehensive identity theft protection service available, and is the service of choice for nearly 1.5 million Americans.

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