The Fresno Police Department's Financial Crime Unit has released a list of their top five identity theft suspects.
Police are seeking Ophelia Chiles, 51; Paul Richard Lee, 34; Monica Macias, 31; Laurie Jean Packard, 35; and Maria Resendez, 37. All five suspects have outstanding warrants out for their arrest, according to Sgt. Sherree Flores with the Fresno Police Dept.
Identity theft is often called an invisible crime because these kinds of crimes fly under the radar, and victims don't see suspects coming. But Flores says these kinds of crimes are prevalent throughout Fresno County.
Spencer Hyer has been the victim of identity theft before and knows the kind of damage that can be done when sensitive information gets into the wrong hands.
"Once you throw something in the trash, that's not your property any more. Once they take it away, you've basically given that to whoever goes through it," Hyer says.
He owns Discount Shred, a mobile shredding company. Thursday, he provided his services at Fresno Medical Center.
The office has recently converted from paper to electronic records, and they're making sure thieves don't have the opportunity to do damage.
"We are supervising the box being carried in front of us to the shredding truck, which is in front of our building now," says Dr. Gurmej Dhillon, explaining how they are ensuring that all sensitive information is properly destroyed.
Flores says the Financial Crimes Unit receives 300 to 500 reports of identity theft per month.
"I hear it every day how much it personally affects them--and the amount of time and money that it costs to deal with this," Flores says.
Thieves look for anything with financial information, social security numbers and other sensitive information. Thieves will steal this information straight out of your mailbox, trashcan, or from the internet, says Blair Looney, CEO of the Central California Better Business Bureau (BBB).
"They turn it into a commodity that's resold up the feeding chain to build a database on you. And then they're going to contact you and clear out your bank account," Looney says.
He advises people to check their credit score at least once per year. This can be done for free once a year without it hurting people's credit score. Visit www.annualcreditreport.com.
Looney also advises people to set up alerts with their banks if changes occur to their accounts.
The BBB is sponsoring several free shredding events. The next event is March 22 at Selma High School from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, contact the CenCal BBB.
The Fresno Police Dept. encourages anyone with information about the top five suspected identity thieves to contact Crime Stoppers at 498-STOP.