Credit Industry Lapses Lamented

The MSNBC.com Web site is currently featuring a book excerpt from the network’s Bob Sullivan, who has written Your Evil Twin, a book about identity theft.

In the chapter currently excerpted on the Web site, Sullivan spins the tale of an identity thief serving time in prison who had little difficulty obtaining enough information to pave an identity theft trail of destruction through the entertainment industry.

Identity thief James Rinaldo Jackson has been in and out of jail, but even from prison in the 1990s he was able to obtain information from unsuspecting insurance and credit card representatives and blaze a trail of illicit purchases. Sullivan's book implies that Jackson was able to obtain information from, first, the Screen Actors Guild and then credit card companies with little difficulty.

Once out of jail, his activities increased until he was apprehended with a $55,000 Cadillac Allante and a $40,000 Lexus in his driveway as well as luxury items and travel expenses made at the expense of others, including former Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin.