To Catch an ID Thief

Did you catch the Dateline special a few weeks ago featuring Chris Hansen tracking down identity thieves? That's right, the famous hunter of sexual predators turned his cameras toward the worst phishers and credit card fraudsters.

In Dateline's To Catch and ID Thief, they baited scammers online with credit card accounts. In under 10 minutes, the baited cards were charged to the limit by identity thieves in 16 countries around the world You can watch the entire special online by clicking on the image below:

Pretty scary stuff. Of course, personal finance industry insiders know that credit card fraud is pretty small peanuts for a lot of identity thieves. The real money and damage comes from larger scams.

I'd love to see Dateline start pursuing those terrible advanced-fee loan scammers. Victims of these loan scams lose thousands of dollars of their own money, money that can't be recovered by a credit cards zero liability policy. Law enforcement, government agencies and business organizations haven't found a way to stop them...we need Chris Hansen on this case!