Feds at Work: Helping victims of identity theft recover

Created an easy-to-use online resource to help victims of identity theft

Having your identity stolen is headache enough. But after the shock of discovering someone got a tax refund using your Social Security number or opened credit cards in your name and ordered champagne at the Ritz, the real frustration begins: wading through reports and records to reclaim your identity.

Nat Wood (Photo by Aaron Clamage)

Nat Wood and his team at the Federal Trade Commission designed IdentityTheft.gov, a one-stop, online resource where identity-theft victims can find all the information they need. They don’t have to trek to a police station to file a report, figure out on their own how to stop more fraudulent accounts from being opened or think up what to write in letters to creditors. By entering details on how their identity was stolen, users can get a complete plan for what to do next.

“Anything we can do to reassure people it’s going to be okay and they’ve got some control, makes a big difference.” ~ Nat Wood

“Identity theft is really damaging to people, both financially and emotionally,” said Wood, associate director of the Division of Consumer and Business Education in FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Anything we can do to improve that, to reassure people it’s going to be okay and they’ve got some control, makes a big difference.”

Although the FTC has long worked to address identity theft, Wood took a new approach: looking at the information from the consumer’s viewpoint. The website is in plain English and provides user-specific recovery plans. It’s also available in Spanish.

“It went from a system of good advice to a system of actual self-help,” said Monica Vaca, acting associate director of the FTC’s Division of Consumer Responsibility and Operations. And consumers give it good reviews.

The website has received more than 500,000 identity-theft reports since it went into operation in January 2016. The number is likely to grow substantially, given the estimated 15 million U.S. residents whose identities are used fraudulently each year, with financial losses totaling upward of $50 billion.

Information that FTC complaint victims file online is available to police and can be used as proof of identity theft, making separate police reports unnecessary, and enabling investigators to spend more time tracking down thieves instead of filing paperwork.

The site also provides links and phone numbers for credit-reporting companies and federal agencies. Consumers who answer online questions about their cases get a step-by-step guide on what to do next, including templates of letters to send credit card companies and debt collectors.

The site covers situations ranging from a child’s identity being stolen to a Social Security number being used to get a job to credit accounts being opened fraudulently.

“Anything that helps regular people get over this problem and cuts down the amount of time that bad people can be stealing from them…it feels good to be doing that,” Wood said.

He and his team now are assisting the International Association of Chiefs of Police to update a model policy, to help thousands of police departments serve identity theft victims better. They also are coordinating with state attorneys general, governors, libraries, the military, senior centers and other community-based organizations to help people avoid identity theft and use the FTC website if it happens.

To create the website, Wood, who has been with the FTC for 15 years, worked with a team from his office as well as members of the FTC divisions of Consumer Response and Operations, and Privacy and Identity Protection. The team interviewed more than 70 stakeholders, including victims, police and federal agencies.

Wood did a great job getting input and buy-in from consumer groups and law enforcement, said Kathleen Benway, chief of staff at the Bureau of Consumer Protection. He “let the people on his team who are talented and hard-working get out there, roll up their sleeves and do something great.”

Nat Wood and the IdentityTheft.gov Development Team are finalists for a 2017 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medal, or Sammies. Each year, the Partnership for Public Service honors federal employees whose remarkable accomplishments make our government and our nation stronger.

For the third year, we will also present the annual “People’s Choice” award. Please vote for the person or team you find most inspiring. (Voting closes at 11:59 p.m. EST on September 15, 2017.)

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Partnership for Public Service

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The Partnership works to revitalize our federal government by inspiring a new generation to serve and by transforming the way government works.

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