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Last updated on Thursday, September 25, 2008
(INDIANAPOLIS) - A four-member state team investigating identity theft has recovered more than $415,000 since its formation six months ago.
Attorney General Steve Carter's tally of the money saved for consumers includes both thefts and improper credit card charges wiped off the books.
Nearly a third of the money comes from a single case: a thief who took out a mortgage in the name of a Marion County resident.
Excluding that case and two five-digit credit-card scams, the ID theft unit has averaged about $1,300 per case. The unit of two lawyers, an investigator and a paralegal has resolved 151 cases and has another 128 pending.
The team has played a role in three arrests, in Plainfield, Terre Haute, and Orange County, California. Carter says carving the ID theft unit out of the office's consumer-protection division allows those staffers to focus exclusively on identity theft, and to become experts in the latest scams and countermeasures.
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