FBI'S REDUCED ROLE IN INVESTIGATING IDENTITY THEFT

Following 9/11 the FBI saw a major change to its priorities and one of the unintended consequences of these changes was a de-emphasizing of its role in white collar crime investigation including identity theft crimes. Some analysts have commented that the FBI lost all interest in these crimes, and others assert that the Secret Service is now responsible for identity theft frauds. The FBI following 9/11 transferred 500 agents from traditional crime areas to terrorism related programs.

The US Justice Department has reported a 38% reduction in the overall number of white collar crimes (including identity theft crimes) that the FBI has referred for prosecution, as well as a 37% reduction in organized crime referrals.

The actual commitment of the FBI to identity theft crimes is difficult to ascertain. Our contacts within major metropolitan police departments indicate that the FBI was rarely involved in day to day identity theft investigation and that their efforts were focused on high impact and high visibility major fraud.

Published on the FBI website are its top ten priorities. These are:

1. Protect the United States from terrorist attack.
2. Protect the United States against foreign intelligence operations and espionage.
3. Protect the United States against cyber-based attacks and high technology crimes.
4. Combat public corruption at all levels.
5. Protect civil rights.
6. Combat transnational and national criminal organizations and enterprises.
7. Combat major white collar crime.
8. Combat significant violent crime.
9. Support federal, state, county, municipal, and international partners.
10. Upgrade technology to successfully perform the FBI’s mission.

With respect to the many crimes of identity theft, including credit fraud, impersonation crimes, and criminal identity theft, the FBI priority list clearly delineates where the FBI places resources regarding this crime.

Identity theft to facilitate terrorism, foreign intelligence, espionage, public corruption, trans-national crime, significant or major white collar crime and violent crime are stated objectives. Effectively this means that for the FBI to take an interest in identity theft crimes affecting consumers the impact must be very large indeed.

By implication these priorities leave the vast majority of identity theft crimes to local police authorities with one notable exception – organized international criminal id theft rings.

At KnightsBridge Castle we believe that consumers and individuals are increasingly “on their own” when it comes to preventing, detecting, and recovering from these crimes. The U.S. Department of Justice statistics, as well as the new FBI priorities seem to lend credence to this conclusion.