KEEP CLOSE EYE ON YOUR ID THIEVES HITTING LOCAL RESIDENTS IN VARIETY OF SCHEMES.

Byline: ERIC LEACH

Staff Writer

SIMI VALLEY -- They send you checks for thousands of dollars, exclaiming you've won the Canadian lottery, only to steal your own cash.

They rob you of your identity so they can get $9,000 worth of work done on their body.

And they use your personal information to accuse you of crimes that never happened.

They are perpetrators of identity theft, and they are committing one of the fastest-growing crimes in the nation, with local residents being hit with a mind-boggling variety of schemes to steal their good names and their money.

At a recent seminar on identity theft held by the Simi Valley Police Department, half the people in the audience of about 50 said they were either victims themselves or knew someone who was.

Although identity-theft victims come in all ages, most at the Simi Valley seminar were elderly, and authorities say criminals sometimes focus on senior citizens because they have been saving money all their lives and are more trusting and less alert to new types of fraud.

Seniors have received e-mails that appear to be from the Internal Revenue Service or the Social Security Administration, but are actually from criminals trying to obtain money or financial records.

Other victims have received thousands of dollars in bogus sweepstakes checks, and some have been falsely notified that warrants are out for their arrest.

Prosecutors say one 85-year-old Ventura County resident was blamed for a hit-and-run traffic accident that never occurred.

"We work a lifetime to accumulate our nest eggs," said Ventura County District Attorney Greg Totten, explaining why some criminals go after older people. "It's like the criminals who rob banks because that's where the money is. Seniors are lonely and they are vulnerable."

Totten is assisting Senior Concerns in Thousand Oaks to educate the county's elderly by distributing a DVD called Fighting Financial Fraud. He is also working with Community West Bank to help educate the public on how to guard against becoming a victim.

His office has filed 48 new identity-theft cases during the first three months of 2007 and has assigned a full-time investigator to handle those types of case.

In his introduction to the Fighting Financial Fraud video, Totten cites estimates by the California Department of Corporations that Californians over 50 have lost $3.8 billion to fraudulent-investment schemes. He also says 70 percent of Californians over 50 have been solicited by people intent on defrauding them.

Some of the cases Totten's office prosecuted recently include the conviction of former county employee Esther Torres-Anaya of Oxnard, who was sentenced to more than five years in prison in December after pleading guilty to felony theft from an elder, tax fraud and embezzlement by a public officer.

Torres-Anaya was a former employee of the Ventura County Human Services Agency who was working in the Ventura County Public Guardian's Office when she intercepted and cashed checks designated for six clients, resulting in a loss of more than $93,000.

In another case, Maria Lucille Velarde of Moorpark was sentenced to more than four years in prison in January for her role in two scams that victimized elders she cared for at Leisure Village in Camarillo.

And also at Leisure Village, Totten's office in March filed charges of elder abuse and auto insurance fraud against an Arizona woman who allegedly claimed an 85-year-old man who lives there caused a hit-and-run accident near his home, although investigators determined it never happened.

Simi Valley police Detective Keith Eisenhour, who specializes in investigating identity theft and other financial crimes, said nearly everyone will eventually be targeted.

"It's not a matter of if it happens to you, but when it happens," he said at this month's seminar, at which one Simi Valley man said someone used his name to get $9,000 in plastic surgery from a Beverly Hills physician.

Identity thieves get their information from stealing mail and purses, "Dumpster diving," eavesdropping on wireless Internet connections, scanning credit cards at restaurants and sending out bogus e-mail inquiries from what appear to be legitimate banks, Eisenhour said.

One of the most common frauds involves sending out hundreds of notices telling people they have won a sweepstakes, then asking them for financial information or asking them to send back part of the winnings for taxes.

The criminals use fake identities and are sometimes operating out of foreign countries beyond the reach of American law enforcement.

A 70-year-old Westlake Village woman who attended Eisenhour's seminar said she has received three checks in the past year totaling $12,464, all apparently part of schemes to steal her own money.

One of the checks came with a letter telling her she had won $150,000 in a Canadian lottery and asking her to cash the enclosed check for $4,900 and use $2,980 of the money to send back in payment of a government service tax.

"This is getting ridiculous," said the woman, who was told by her bank that all the checks were bogus. She asked that her name not be printed.

"Wouldn't it be wonderful if these checks were valid?" she said. "I framed the first check to remind myself not to be stupid. I'm sure a lot of seniors would run to the bank and cash it immediately. It's kind of sad, but that is what is happening."

Peggy Osborn, elder-abuse program manager for the state Attorney General's Office, said the schemes are astonishing.

"These individuals are coming up with a new scam every day," Osborn said. "It's difficult to keep track of them."

Joan Virginia Allen, coordinator of the county's Financial Abuse Specialist Team, said new state legislation might help prevent so many older people from being victimized.

"One of our biggest problems has been the lottery scams with bogus checks, or people who go into banks with senior citizens and get them to withdraw their money," Allen said.

California's Financial Abuse Reporting Act, which went into effect this year, requires bank employees to report suspected financial scams against the elderly as soon as possible.

"The banks are taking the initiative to train their personnel to recognize these schemes and report them," Allen said. "I think it's going to be a big help."

Some local seniors have received bogus e-mails supposedly from the Social Security Administration telling them they must provide personal financial information to receive cost- of-living payment increases, she said.

Another scam involves telling people a warrant has been issued for their arrest because they did not show up for jury duty. When the victims complain they never got summoned, the caller asks them to provide their Social Security numbers and other information.

Some victims have received e-mails notifying them of tax refunds or telling them they are being audited and urging them to click on links where they are asked for their Social Security and credit card numbers, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

Some criminals ask to borrow the victims' Social Security numbers to obtain refunds, and some even come to the victim's door posing as IRS agents collecting money.

"You have to be careful who you allow in your home," said Laurie Reid, owner of Home Instead Senior Care in Simi Valley, who said some people are victimized by people posing as friends or caregivers, as in the cases Totten is prosecuting.

"You have to ask for references and check on criminal backgrounds," Reid said, adding that honest caregivers and friends can provide a line of defense for vulnerable senior citizens.

"Our caregivers are another set of eyes," she said. "If someone sees something that looks wrong, we can follow up with the family, or adult protective services."

But all those eyes might not be enough. As Eisenhour said, "People fall for this stuff all the time. You put all these lines in the water, and somebody's going to bite."

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Get it shredded 

Ventura County residents can bring up to two boxes of personal documents for shredding and pick up information from the Ventura County District Attorney's Office on how to protect themselves against identity theft from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at two Community West Bank branches, one on Thursday and the other Friday.

The Thursday event is at the Westlake Village branch at 951 S. Westlake Blvd., and the Friday event is at the Ventura branch at 1463 S. Victoria Ave.

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