December 2001. That’s when I found two unexpected credit cards in my mailbox and was abruptly introduced to identity theft. The credit cards from two large retailers had a total of $5,000 charged against them.

I called the police and thankfully they created a report documenting the theft. Some police departments were reluctant to provide a report in 2001. A police report establishes your status as a victim to get an extended fraud alert on your credit reports. It also supports your argument when disputing false credit charges. You can understand retailer suspicions when they hear, “You see that 65 inch plasma TV on my credit card statement? Uh, that’s not mine. Somebody else charged it against my account.”

The other me lives in Houston. He has a valid-looking Texas driver license with his picture and my personal information. He has my Social Security number, birth date, and home address. My thief has everything he needs to complete credit card applications and that’s what he loved to do. At one point, I supposedly owned a home building company with a contractor account at Home Depot. Lents Home Builders – sounds good, but it’s not my line of work.

A few days before Christmas 2001, I received a call from a jewelry store credit processing office because of the fraud alert on my credit reports. The other Danny Lents was busy again. He had a $6,500 ring on his finger he planned to buy with my credit. The credit office wanted my approval for the purchase! You can imagine my excitement. My call was transferred to Valerie, a jewelry store employee. I’m talking to Valerie and she’s looking at the other Danny Lents!

I asked Valerie to get a good video of him, call mall security and the local police. Valerie mentioned the thief was dressed in a very nice suit. I replied, “I know. He bought it a few days ago. It’s a $600 Perry Ellis.”

The other Danny Lents was not arrested that night. He finally suspected something was not right, put the ring down and left the store in the suit I bought him. That was the last activity from him that I know about. He did manage to spend $16,000 in his short-lived life as me.

That experience was a wake-up call for me about the fastest growing white-collar crime in America. I‘ve researched ID theft since 2001 to protect myself and help others. Raising awareness of lawmakers, businesses, and individuals has become a great passion. I've presented ID theft seminars to numerous groups around the country, made multiple TV and radio appearances, started www.IdTheftAwareness.com, and testified in the Texas Senate to raise awareness about identity theft.

I've heard testimonies from so many people about their ID theft experiences through my seminars and emails to IdTheftAwareness.com. Some victims experience endless battles with devastating consequences that are not limited to credit fraud. Thieves will use your identity to access medical treatment resulting in bills and false health information in your medical records. You didn't know you had your appendix removed? A false criminal record is possible too. Your thief can get arrested as you and get released on bail. Will your thief show up for your court date? You'll protest your innocence all the way to jail.

Business owners play an extremely important role. ID thieves know there are businesses and medical facilities with weak or nonexistent information security practices that collect valuable, sensitive data about their customers and employees. The thieves also need businesses to turn stolen information into cash, services or merchandise.

As a computer engineer, I understand that security has to be part of the design. We need to motivate business owners, customers, friends, and families to integrate ID theft awareness and information security as a designed feature of their daily activities.

The Federal Trade Commission provides a good starting point for information security through their guides, "Protecting Personal Information, A Guide for Business", and "Fighting Fraud With the Red Flags Rule". There are links to these documents at IdTheftAwareness.com.

There is no silver bullet to kill identity theft. Gaining fraudulent advantage using another's identity has been going on since Jacob stole his brother's identity a long time ago as noted in the Bible (Genesis chapter 27). The battle against identity theft is waged on several fronts to include effective legislation and prosecution, data protection practices by businesses and individuals and better identification documents just to name a few.

Please contact me at (210) 387-0875 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it if you need a speaker to motivate your audience to take preventive measures against identity theft. There is a lot you can do to avoid ID theft problems for your employees, customers and loved ones.