Reverse Cell Number Lookup

Today there are laws that allow public criminal records to be available for general information. This allows individuals in the community to know what sex offenders are living in their neighborhoods, what the crime rate is in their area, and more.

Vital Information

For individuals who are contemplating moving to a new area, or who have been in a changing neighborhood, there is now the ability to simply type in a zip code and a list of all the sex offenders in that area to come up. There are usually maps that show precisely where the sex offender lives. These precautions allow individuals to take precautions, especially if they are women or children. It also shows what the individual was incarcerated for, so that it can be further determined what the risk factors are. For instance, young men who were convicted of statutory rape when they were eighteen and their girlfriends were not yet of age after the parents found out they were having sex is one end of the spectrum, whereas a serial rapist is at the other end.

The FBI an ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) Most Wanted are other public criminal records that are available. These records show the criminals that are still on the loose so that individuals can possibly recognize them and help to bring them to justice. The Drug Enforcement Administration’s fugitives are also available for the public’s viewing and help. Most wanted terrorists, especially in this day and age, are also available for the security of this country.

In addition to these lists, there is also a search for federal prison inmates, both past and present in public criminal records. Besides specific individuals who are in the system for crime, there is also an organized crime and crime statistics site that gives more general information about different communities. Help for victims is also available, such as the search for missing and exploited children, in which individuals can help to identify these children, as well as for parents who are missing their children.

Finally, there are other listings of most wanted individuals in public criminal records by different crime fighting organizations, some of which are not normally though to be a crime fighting organization. US Customs Service, US Marshall’s, and US Secret Service (Treasury Department) are more commonly thought to have a most wanted list for fugitives. The US Postal Service, those who serve in both rain and shine, also has a most wanted list of fugitives.

If you are looking to search public records online, there are a few very good places where you can gather information. Most of the information out there is free if you know where to search online for public records. There is a minor setback with some countries or states where you may not get access to certain information without physical proof of identification or payment. Such information would include the following:

• Birth certificates
• Driver’s licenses
• Marriage certificates

Other than this information, searching public records is rather simple. The following sites are the easiest and the most commonly used.

Google And Yahoo

These are public search engines which provide the ability to search for public records for free. These are also two of the worlds largest databases of information. Each offers Reverse Lookup, Phone listings, and other relevant search aids.

United States Vital Records

This is a government run website which offers vital public records searchable links to every state office you may need. The site explains how to obtain the vital records for each county or territory of the United States. You can search the following public records at this site:

• Birth Certificates
• Death Records
• Marriage Licenses
• Divorce Decrees

First Gov

This is the federal government’s huge searchable database of public records. This site also has access to many local searchable public records databases. Any agency which handles public records in the United States can be found someplace within this site if you take the time to look for them.

DirectGov

This is the British version of the government searchable public records database. As with the United States site, this site lists any agency which handles public records and information. This is also a free public records search.

Census Finder

This is a free public records search for the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. This is one of the most used government sites for genealogy researchers. There are many census records which have been transcribed online. It will take time to search through public records on this site with the thousands of files in the database. This site covers all of the following:

• Census indexes
• Census transcriptions
• Census images
• Census categories and charts

Zabasearch

This last resource for searchable public records scours all freely accessible information and public records. This is a free service for the basic information, but if you want more detailed information like a background check, there is a fee for this service.

Identity theft and fraud was already a multibillion-dollar criminal industry back in the 1990s. Although the NUMBER of identity fraud cases in on the decline, the TOTAL COST to America is on an up trend. In the last couple of years, total figures jumped by $2 billion additional dollars lost to identity theft.

One of the reasons for this identity theft up trend is that the American consumer market sits like a big, vulnerable target on the face of the globe. Robust American consumerism contributes to this vulnerability. So does an increasingly plastic economy.

The problem becomes worse when you consider that not only have industries and technologies all over the world gone global, so has crime.

Identity Theft Using US Commerce & Law

In one of the most remarkable cases of gang identity theft and fraud activities in recent years, the Wo Hop To case stands out. Not only did the Asian gang use legitimate American cardholders, it also used federal laws to keep the racket going!

The gang had already set up a veritable counterfeit credit card factory in the US, importing everything from machines to magnetic strips from Hong Kong. Even a sort of identity theft quality-control process was set up: a gang member would try out the fake cards at restaurants, gas stations, and stores.

And then they got creative.

Identity Theft – Creating a “Win-Win” Situation

The gang started recruiting genuine credit cardholders, asking them to OVERPAY their monthly bills with counterfeit bank checks. Once the recruit’s account was credited, the recruit and a gang member would go on a shopping spree.

The gang would then fence the goods and the recruit would get some of the proceeds. Eventually, the gang would use federal bankruptcy laws to have the recruit avoid any liability by filing for credit protection!

It succeeded because it was so easy to get recruits. The recruits felt protected by federal laws AND it was so lucrative!

One recruit pocketed a total of $615,000 inside 12 months!

After the dust settled, everyone who participated in this massive scam had cost MasterCard and Visa over $100 million, affecting over a hundred financial institutions.

To this day, credit card fraud is the leading culprit in identity theft cases throughout America, judging by the complaints received by the FTC.

When the notorious Asian gang case happened in the mid-1990s, experts predicted that credit cards would cease to exist in the next few years and that all transactions (i.e., credit, debit, ATM, etc.) would be unified into one plastic card. Moreover, even filing for a loan would remove humans from the equation, using purely plastic and machine (as in an ATM machine).

They were dead wrong.

Identity theft has put America on the defensive and the scenarios experts predicted appear to be still a decade or two away.