Free help offered to ID theft victims
By BRENDA SOMMER bsommer@leader-news.com

A Texas organization has stepped up to offer free legal help to Texas' victims of identity theft, a crime making an impact in Wharton County in recent months.

In December, the federal Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs announced it awarded $1.7 million in grant funds to provide direct assistance to victims of identity theft and financial fraud.

The funding, awarded through OJP's Office for Victims of Crime earlier in 2007, was given to four existing national, regional, state and local victim service organizations providing direct assistance to victims.

The award recipients include the Texas Legal Services Center, a state support office and regional victim services provider.

That group received $500,000 to operate the Victims Initiative for Counseling, Advocacy, and Restoration of the Southwest project. VICARS provides free legal assistance to victims of identity theft and financial fraud living in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Colorado and provides step-by-step coaching on how to reacquire their identity and credit.

"We have developed a 'victim's toolkit' to assist victims in reporting the crime, compiling evidence of the crime, restoring their identity, repairing their credit and documenting their time and out-of-pocket expenses," said Paula Pierce, VICARS managing attorney.

Identity thieves have had an ever-increasing impact on Wharton County, and their methods have ranged from questionable door-to-door salespeople trying to get information out of homeowners to unseen thieves randomly trying debit and credit card numbers through the Internet.

The latter form of the crime is hard to track because the matter is often handled solely between the victim and their bank or card issuer, and not reported to police.

The VICARS toolkit and its other services - all free - can help those attacked by identity thieves to rebuild their lives. The agency can provide direct legal advice and counseling, help them negotiate with creditors, collection agencies and credit reporting companies, and even represent the victim in a civil lawsuit against the person who committed the fraud.

The toolkit and VICARS services are available free, in English and Spanish, by calling 1-888-343-4414, or contacting ppierce@tlsc.org.