Here's an economic indicator we could all live without: Incidents of identity theft and credit card fraud are apparently on the rise as bad economic times bring out the worst in some people.
And you can add me to the list of folk who've been victimized. All my cash and credit cards and my driver's license were stolen last week. Within an hour of the theft, bogus purchases were being made or attempted at Best Buy, Target and Toys R Us locations throughout the area.
I'll offer some tips in a moment about what you can do to protect yourself. But first, it's instructive to see how fast you can lose control of your finances.
I went to the gym last Sunday. The gym records say I checked in at 1 p.m. I put all my gear in a locker and locked it, as I always do, with my own combination lock.
About a half-hour later -- it was a short workout -- I retrieved my stuff and walked to a nearby restaurant. That's where I discovered that my cash, plastic and license were gone.
Right around the same time, I later learned, somebody was using my Chase MasterCard to purchase $432.99 worth of goodies at the Toys R Us branch in West Los Angeles, about a 10-minute drive from my gym.
The thief then jumped into his car and high-tailed it to Glendale, where, shortly after 2:30 p.m., he used my American Express card for a $1,350.80 purchase at Best Buy.
Tim Fisher, Best Buy's director of loss prevention, said the thief bought an Apple laptop. He said security tapes showed a tall, white man who was "large in frame, athletic in nature."
The thief next drove to a Toys R Us in Glendale, where this time he used my Bank of America debit card to buy $497.98 worth of stuff. Then, with considerable moxie, he returned to the same Best Buy where he'd been a half-hour earlier and used my Chase card to buy a Canon digital camera for $1,298.97.
He then drove to a nearby Target and tried to use my AmEx, Chase and BofA cards for a $575.40 purchase. This time, each bank's computer system sensed something was amiss and declined the transaction. The spending spree ended there.
The thief clearly knew what he was doing. He took what he needed for a little economic stimulus but left everything else in my locker as he'd found it, rightly guessing this would prevent me from immediately spotting that I'd been ripped off.
The police officer who took my report said it could have been a gym employee who'd spotted my combination on an earlier visit and was simply waiting for an opportunity to strike.
