Minna Sugimoto reports:
A Kailua woman accused of going on shopping sprees after stealing the identities of nearly 50 people pleaded guilty to 140 financial fraud charges Wednesday.
With sunglasses hanging from her prison jumpsuit, a former beauty queen took center stage to admit that she led a lavish lifestyle at the expense of nearly 50 strangers who suffered financial turmoil as a result.
“Many of them had mortgage applications denied, loans denied, damage to their credit,” Chris Van Marter, deputy prosecutor, said. “They’re still trying to un-do all of the damage.”
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While the Hawaii legislature grapples with infosecurity and revising its statutes, it seems worth noting that these 50 cases of ID theft represent 50 more cases than have ever been linked to any large data breach by state agencies or the University of Hawaii. Could some of those large breaches ever result in fraud or ID theft? Theoretically, yes, but so far, there have been no confirmed reports that any of the high-profile breaches did result in ID theft.
While it’s sexy and media-grabbing to focus on the big-number breaches, it’s often the smaller-number breaches that have the most impact on individuals.