Alamance County and Durham police have charged Alexis Brooke Faison with 10 counts of identity theft. Durham detectives believe Faison may be connected to at least 30 more cases of identity theft in the Durham area, according to a press release mentioned in a Times-News story on June 25th. The Herald-Sun subsequently reported that two people have been charged by Durham police in ID thefts “that allegedly relied on information they obtained from a 3-year-old list of city employees.” Although the two reports may be linked, the Herald-Sun’s report does not mention any names and is not available online without registration. No press release could be found on either Alamance County’s web site or Durham’s web site.
This post will likely be updated as more information becomes available.
Update: Ok, the two news reports were related, as suspected. WRAL is now reporting:
Floyd McSwain, 23, of Amber Ridge Lane in Raleigh, was charged with 72 counts of identity theft involving more than 200 victims and 18 counts of trafficking in stolen identities. Alexis Faison, 26, of 1028 Slateworth Drive in Durham, was charged with 13 counts of identity theft, which involved more than 35 victims.
Since the names of city employees are generally a matter of public record, I’m not “scoring” this one as a breach of the government sector. The article does not indicate how or where they stole personal information that might not have been included on the list and that was used for ID theft.
Update of July 8: The Herald-Sun reports that 8 current and former city employees were victims of identity theft. The list was a 2006 list of 216 city workers
“Since the names of city employees are generally a matter of public record”
Its kinda scary to hear that. It seems like its almost too easy to steal people’s identities. Something drastic must be done to combat this problem.
If you think that’s scary, you should see the story I’m preparing for PogoWasRight.org. Check the site later for a report on a bombshell study.