Adventures in identity theft

DETROIT — Richard Feight, a veteran financial adviser with Creative Financial Design, has made identity theft education and prevention a standard part of the services he provides to clients of the Lansing, Mich., firm.
The fact that Mr. Feight’s own identity has been stolen twice in the past three years has only made him smarter about the subject, he said.
Even before 2004, when he first discovered that his credit card was being used illegally to purchase groceries and gasoline in California, Mr. Feight always included a briefing on identity theft prevention in an initial meeting with clients.
The briefing includes a brochure that outlines a raft of techniques used to steal an individual’s personal information — which can lead to identity theft.
Among the tips Mr. Feight offers is a warning that credit card fraud is the most popular form of identity theft.
Although he isn’t entirely certain, he assumes it happened to him when he used a credit card while traveling and his card number was printed in full on a restaurant receipt.
Mr. Feight’s more recent experience, last fall, involved an e-mail solicitation that appeared to come from a friend but actually was a phishing scam designed to obtain his e-mail password and user name.
“I immediately went into survival mode, and it took a lot of time to get everything settled down and taken care of, but it’s a scary feeling, because you’re still waiting to see what will happen,” he said.
Ironically, Mr. Feight started offering identity theft prevention advice long before his own experiences when he saw examples of passwords and user names that seemed simplistic or obvious.
“I know what some of my dad’s passwords are, and it’s ridiculous how easy they would be to figure out,” he said.
Mr. Feight’s father, Theodore Feight, is the owner of Creative Financial Design, and his identity has never been stolen.