I wonder how many people using check-cashing services or walk-in tax preparer services ever consider whether the person they’re doing business with might be an ID thief who’s using the business as a lucrative source of identity information. Consider this case in Georgia:
Duluth police arrested a woman who they said could be a link to a major identity theft ring stretching across the country.
Detectives said they found stacks of documents containing names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers inside the home of Annette Ford.
[…]
“This paperwork, these mounds of documents, were just laid out all over the house,” said Foster. “Treasury checks, Social Security checks, refund checks, income tax returns.” Foster said the paperwork also included mortgage documents, bankruptcy filings and billing information from a local hospital.
Ford owned a check-cashing business called E-Pro Tax Service, police said. The business was registered with the secretary of state’s office and police said they had received no prior complaints about the business or Ford.
Detectives said they were in the process of contacting 5,779 potential identity theft victims, but there could be more. Police said some of the people listed on the notepads were deceased.
Read more on WSB-TV. So far, I haven’t seen any mention of the name of the hospital whose billing information was found in Ford’s possession.