It’s a question I hear a lot: Why take the time to report a scam, when the bad guys are rarely caught?
Granted, it’s easy to get discouraged while trying to recover your identity or your money, let alone taking the time to fill out law enforcement reports.
But there are lots of good reasons for doing so.
For one, a report “serves as formal documentation that the crime occurred … (and) provides the opportunity for law enforcement agencies to investigate, if enough evidence exists,” says Eva Velasquez, president and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center.
Keeping a copy of the report will come in handy when you contact the bank, credit card company, credit bureau, business or government agency from which you are seeking help.
Also, notifying the authorities about what happened allows them “to identify patterns and connect cases to one another,” Velasquez says. “It also helps to accurately measure the incident rate of these crime types.”
In New Mexico, a police report is required for a victim to be listed on the Identity Theft Passport database, which is accessible to all law enforcement. This helps prevent confusion if a crime is committed in the victim’s name.
In addition, the Albuquerque Police Department is able to use victim reports to spot trends and issue timely warnings to the public, spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins says.
“Unfortunately, it is usually very difficult to track the offender down on these scams, as the scammers use…
