I.D. theft brings more jail time
A new federal law helps send a Hawaii man to prison for two years for credit card fraud
IN January, Ricardo Rodrigues used a credit card he obtained using personal information stolen in a burglary and ran up $17,000 worth of fraudulent charges.
Yesterday, he was the first person in Hawaii sentenced under the new federal aggravated identity theft law that tacks an additional two years to whatever prison term he receives for any related felonies.
Rodrigues, 35, received just two years.
Without the new law, Rodrigues might not have received any prison time, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Wes Porter.
Porter's boss, U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo, announced the establishment of the Hawaii Identity Theft and Fraud Task Force or "HIT Fraud" to target identity thieves.
"Anyone who steals another's identity in Hawaii will now do so at their own risk," Kubo said.
In addition to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the task force includes representatives from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, FBI, Secret Service, Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Marshals Service, Hawaii Attorney General, state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and local police departments and county prosecutors' offices.
Ten other defendants have been charged under the law, including two sisters who stole personal and financial information from people's mail boxes, two men who were caught making fake identifications in several Waikiki hotel rooms and a bouncer at a Waikiki bar who sold more than 300 stolen or confiscated ID cards.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, Hawaii had the 18th-lowest rate of identity theft among the nation's 50 states last year but had the fifth-highest rate of consumer fraud complaints involving someone else's personal information.
Many victims of identity theft are senior citizens who don't report they have been victimized because they are embarrassed, and the rate of recovery is low, said Barbara Kim Stanton, AARP Hawaii state director.
She said AARP will be launching an educational campaign to help people age 50 and older protect themselves, and encourage them to file reports when they are victimized.
