We recently posted an article about leaving your purse in your car and how one woman became a victim when her purse was stolen. This leads into another national headline about Federal Chairman, Ben Bernanke. Blogs and news sites everywhere have picked up on this identity theft story, which has caught the attention of many viewers.

The purse of Anna Bernanke, wife of Mr. Ben Bernanke, was stolen from her chair while in a Starbucks coffee shop back in August 2008. (This is reported to have been a random purse snatching, she was not being specifically targeted.) Imagining how concerned they both must have been, this was just the beginning of their story. Her purse contained checks, credit cards and her id. The couple did report the stolen purse to the police and they also notified their financial institution immediately. However, as can be expected, identity theft resulted and money was taken from the couple’s checking account, although they were able to recover it.

The Bernanke’s found out that they were one of 500 individual occurrences of identity theft in the same crime ring. The ring that their case is tied to has led to the federal indictment of 22 people so far and is reported to have stolen over $2 million! One of the indicted persons of interest in this ring is George Reid, who is said to have used the Bernanke’s financial information to create fraudulent financial transactions. As of the date of this article, it is not yet clear whether or not authorities have George Reid in custody.

It is important for anyone who loses a purse or wallet to take caution, as the Bernanke’s did. They carefully followed the advice that is often given to “immediately protect yourself and alert your financial institution.” It is also important to report theft to the police, you will need the police report to help you if someone begins stealing money from your bank accounts, credit cards, etc.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 4th, 2009 at 7:56 am and is filed under Articles Concerning Identity Theft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.