Postal plundering: Crooks using mail to steal IDs

By Matt Augustine

May 08, 2013 at 5:36 am EDT

By Matt Augustine

May 08, 2013 at 5:36 am EDT

Crooks could be using your mailbox to get into your bank account.

Tommy Hammond tells our partner Action News criminals got more than $3,700 from his account and stole his wife's identity.

"The bank called me and said 'Mr. Hammond, we've got some strange activity on your account.' And I told them, I said 'That can't be, I don't even have the checks yet.'"

Private investigator David Hodges says thieves are temporarily forwarding mail from victims' homes to their own homes and canceling the request after getting their hands on bank statements. Hodges recently uncovered a huge identity theft ring with hundreds of victims and federal charges on suspects as far away as Boston and Atlanta.

"Two weeks at a time, three weeks at a time -- divert your mail and then you get it again," he says.

A new Federal Trade Commission report shows Florida tops the list for I-D theft, with Georgia in second. Jacksonville ranks 17th among major metro areas for ID theft complaints.

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