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February 20, 2007

Identity theft victim feels forgotten

By Greg Grisolano

news@joplinglobe.com

PITTSBURG, Kan. — Six months after Pittsburg State University employee Rebecca Viney was the target of identity theft, she said she now feels as if her case has been forgotten.

“I was really hoping it wouldn’t drag on forever,” she said. “I can’t put it behind me and move on, because it’s really not over.”

Police say they have identified a suspect who has confessed, but the county attorney’s office said recently that it cannot locate any of the Police Department’s information, leaving Viney, an administrative assistant to the dean in the Kelce College of Business, frustrated.

“I feel forgotten by the system at this point,” she said. “You’d think they would have chosen to move ahead with it.”

According to Lt. Henry Krantz, Pittsburg police assigned a detective to the case after Viney learned that she had been the victim of identity theft.

“He came up with a possible suspect,” Krantz said. “They called him in, and he confessed.”

Because the suspect has not been arrested or formally charged, his identity is not part of the public record.

After concluding the investigation, Krantz said, his office sent its findings to the Crawford County attorney’s office.

But, the county attorney’s office had been unable to locate its copy of the report through last week. A spokesman was unavailable for comment Tuesday.

Razmi Tahirkheli, assistant county attorney, said last week that once the police send a report, it is entered into a computer database.

“I don’t know if that report has been turned in or not,” he said. “Once we get the reports, they all get entered into our system. So, even if we’re waiting to decide whether to charge the case or not, it should be in the system.”

Tahirkheli said that even if a victim decides not to press charges, the case still would be entered into the system.

Pittsburg police records indicate that a copy of the investigation report was sent to the county attorney’s office on Dec. 5. Records also show that additional information for the case was sent on Dec. 20.

“If they need another copy, we’ve got one right here,” Krantz said.

All the confusion surrounding the report has left the victim in the dark.

“I have no complaint whatsoever with the way Pittsburg police handled the case,” Viney said. “As far as what’s going on with the county attorney’s office, I have no comment, because they have not been in contact with me.”

Viney said she intends to press civil charges if the county attorney decides not file criminal charges.

Viney began receiving telephone and e-mail solicitations from credit card and mortgage companies last September.

“It was clearly harassment,” she said. “As far as I know, the suspect didn’t get away with any goods in my name.”

Viney said the bulk of the harassment has stopped, but her e-mail still is inundated with spam on a daily basis.

“The spam I get has quadrupled, probably 200 or more every day,” she said. “I’ve spent literally months sending registered letters to close all these inquiries on my credit report. As far as I know, that’s all taken care of.”





Harassment

Pittsburg police Lt. Henry Krantz said identity theft also can be prosecuted as harassment via telecommunications.

Rather than using a person’s identity for financial gain, the suspect in the incident involving Rebecca Viney set her up to be hounded by mortgage and credit card companies, as well as adult magazines and Web sites.

“Once we discovered (that the correspondence was going to Viney’s home), it does change it to harassment,” Krantz said.

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