Investigating Identity Theft: A Guide for Businesses, Law Enforcement, and Victims »

Judith M. Collins, former associate professor at the School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University (MSU), is now employed by the State Department, Washington, D.C. and can be reached at jula@charter.net. Dr. Collins is a highly regarded expert on identity theft and has been a guest on National Public Radio and on local television and radio shows. She has also been quoted in various newspaper and magazine articles, is a frequent speaker on the subject, and conducts law enforcement training throughout the United States.

Are you equipped to investigate identity theft within your business?

If you run a business, chances are you have lost money to identity theft and business fraud. According to FBI statistics, identity theft is the nation's fastest growing crime, as well as the fastest growing category of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaints. Business employees who have access to sensitive business, customer, or other employee information perpetrate most identity theft fraud and cost organizations millions of dollars annually in lost productivity due to thefts of employee and customer identities. You need to know how you will respond when—not if—your business is victimized by identity theft and business fraud.

Written by Judith Collins, a highly regarded expert on identity theft, Investigating Identity Theft is informed by the author's years of proactive experience through all aspects of conducting an investigation, from when the crime has been discovered to persecution of the perpetrator. It is an invaluable resource that helps business managers, auditors, criminal justice teachers, investigators, law enforcement officials, and identity theft victims:

• Know the crime and understand the criminal
• Equip computer security for identity fraud investigations
• Configure the computer for online investigations
• Understand the victim, then prepare to launch the investigation
• Authenticate and then investigate
• Understand issues underlying identity theft investigations, using actual case examples
• Take a walk through the Internet sites used by perpetrators
• Trace e-mail addresses, IP addresses, and URLs across the Internet
• Learn cyber-search techniques for investigating frauds committed using stolen identities—over 1,000 Weblinks are provided to aid in fraud investigations

Investigating Identity Theft: A Guide for Businesses, Law Enforcement, and Victims gives readers a rare look at the process of conducting a successful identity theft investigation with practical, real-world guidance for each stage. The author's authentic examples of identity theft cases demonstrate how perpetrators can be brought to justice.

A Message to Investigators.

Acknowledgments.

Foreword.

Chapter 1. “Real World” Cases: Solved And Unsolved.

Chapter 2. Know The Crime And Understand The Criminal.

Chapter 3. Computer Security For Identity Fraud Investigations.

Chapter 4. Configuring The Computer And Introduction To Cyber-Searching.

Chapter 5. Understand The Victim: Then Prepare For The Investigation.

Chapter 6. Authenticate Then Investigate.

Chapter 7. Identity Fraud Investigation: A Case Example.

Chapter 8. A Walk Through The World Wide Web.

Chapter 9. Tracing IP Addresses And URLs Across The WWW.

Chapter 10. Tracing E-mail Addresses.

Chapter 11. searching and Seizing: The Investigator's Role.

Appendix: List of Web Sites for Identity Theft Searches.

Notes.

Index.