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Mon, Oct 2, 2000 1:00 PM Subject: Identity Theft Sirs: I am writing as a private investigator to express my concern and the concern of other private investigators to the potential adverse results of blocking access to Social Security numbers and other personal identifiers by the private investigator industry. Police departments around the country are understaffed sand under funded to handle the myriad cases that citizens demand action on. These include, inter alia, locating a dead beat parent behind on child support, locating long lost family members as heirs, tracing persons suspected of financial or retail fruad, locating persons responsible for accidents causing serious injury or death. Last year I was able to locate a parent behind in child support through the use of credit headers and other data, and this person is now making payments on the $10,000.00 arrearage. When I mentioned this case in a presentation to high school juniors, one of the students identified herself as the child involved and was very pleased that I'd found her father. In another case several years ago a private investigator loca- ted the father of a seriously ill woman who had a generic disease for which the father was the only one who had the necessary gene to offer hope for a cure when no other family member had that gene. Sirs, please ask yourselves this question. What would I do if my child or grandchild was abducted or near destitution because of a dead beat parent and the police could not assist due to other priorties and a private investigator could not locate the guilty party because s/he was denied access to credit headers and other personal identifiers ? Respectfully, Lawrence R. Miller |