MOUNT PLEASANT - It's bad enough that Russian mobsters and American thieves would love to snare your personal information and use it to separate you from your money.

But even the U.S. legislative branch has made life easier for the world's scam artists, according to consumer advocate Remar Sutton. Sutton, who has been featured in and quoted by numerous national media outlets, talked to audiences at Roma Lodge last week about identity theft and other consumer matters.

He is working with Educators Credit Union and four other credit unions nationwide to provide ongoing consumer education.

"I am going to depress you," Sutton warned his audience at the start of one talk, "… and I hope I make you angry, too."

The extent of identity theft has been called "epidemic." The Javelin Strategy and Research/Better Business Bureau "2006 Identity Fraud Survey Report" indicates there were 8.9 million adult victims in the U.S. in 2005, with losses totaling $56.6 billion.

"All scam artists want from you is a really simply thing," Sutton said. "They want information."

They will happily gobble up pieces from a wide spectrum of information, he said. For example, "They want people's pets' names. Because they know a lot of people use them for passwords."

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How to protect yourself

Learn more about protecting yourself from identity theft at Remar Sutton's IQ Web site. It's available to anyone at the Educators Credit Union home page: https://ecu.com

Much more information about protecting your privacy is available from Privacy Rights Clearinghouse: http://www.privacyrights.org

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Unfortunately for us, federal law makes it very easy for our personal financial information to be spread around. Sutton warned about the annual enclosures from financial institutions that begin, "We value your privacy," or similar words. Below that is a large chunk of very small text.

"The message could have been 40 words long," Sutton said. Instead, it's about 7,000 words. "They hired marketing firms to design forms you would not read," he said.

"Everyone in this room gave permission for their information to be sold," he said, "when you threw it away." That's because the law requires people to opt out - not opt in to have their information shared.

And that shared information, Sutton said, can include your name, address, bank balances, who you write checks to, "anything but account numbers."

"It's a terrible law," agreed Privacy Rights Clearinghouse Director Beth Givens. Sutton, she said, was referring to the Financial Services Modernization Act.

"They can share all kinds of information with all kinds of entities referred to as "joint marketing partners."

"That is a humongous loophole, absolutely humongous," Givens said.

Systematic scamming

Sutton showed a slide of a Russian Web site he called "the eBay of crime." It's where one can learn various types of scams targeted at certain groups of people.

Sutton said selling bits of information about individuals is big business. A driver's license number or copy of a birth certificate will fetch $150 each, for example. "You can buy lists of anything these days," Sutton said.

Identity crime is too far-flung for law enforcement here to stop it. Around the world, Sutton said, there are "hundreds of crime syndicates," and the number is growing.

Anyone who uses a computer has seen "phishing" scams, so-named because they cast a wide net that's bound to find people who do business with the

impersonated institution or company.

Phishing - which has evolved beyond e-mail, to pop-ups - usually offers a link to click or phone number to call. The link usually goes to a fake Web site that mimics a legitimate site.

One way or another, you will be asked to provide some critical piece of financial information - and a thief will be off and running with it.

"Believe it or not, (phishing) is becoming more successful," Sutton said, "because they're becoming more sophisticated."

In another type of scam, the victim receives a certified check in the mail - perhaps for $50,000 - from a foreign country. The victim deposits the check and soon afterward is contacted, demanding that he or she quickly pay the "tax" of $10,000 demanded by law of the foreign country.

"And, of course, the check you deposit is no good," Sutton said. "Whatever the theft, your pocketbook and credit are ruined. And the credit bureaus will have no sympathy with you."

Taking control

Fortunately, Sutton said, people can greatly minimize their exposure and risk of identity theft. His first piece of advice: Slow down. "Do not respond quickly to people who want information quickly."

Sutton advised monitoring one's financial accounts online. "Open every account and look at all the transactions."

He counsels consumers not to provide ZIP codes, driver's license numbers and other information with every request at the cash register. "If I'm paying cash, I don't owe them anything," he said.

He advised opting out of most databases (which can be done at his IQ site; see box on Page 1C). He wants people to remove their driver's license number and Social Security number - even their address - from their checks.

"If your Social Security number is on your checks, that information is already out there," he warned.

Despite the risks, we can make sure we're not sitting ducks for identity thieves, Sutton said. "You are in control."

The most common identity theft crimes

According to consumer advocate Remar Sutton, these are some of the most common forms of identity theft:

* Opening new credit card accounts in your name but with a different address, then running up as high a balance as possible on the card.

* Changing the address on your current credit card accounts then running up charges on your account before you can find out.

* Establishing new cellular phone or utility accounts using your identity and running up charges.

* Opening banking accounts using your identity and writing bad checks.

* Obtaining the numbers of checking, savings or other financial accounts and stealing the money.

* Getting a loan in your name.

* Buying a car by getting the auto loan using your name and credit information.