ATLANTA,None — A northeast Atlanta business owner said identity thieves accessed his personal and business account information by re-routing his mail without his knowledge.
The victim, Noman Rashid, owns Buckhead Collision auto repair on Piedmont Circle. He told Channel 2's Amy Napier Viteri he first noticed he wasn't getting the normal amount of mail in November.
"Our regular postman says, 'Do you know your mail has been transferred?'" Rashid told Viteri.
The mail was transferred without his knowledge to a PO box in downtown Atlanta, Rashid said. Someone else was receiving his bank and credit card statements, as well as payments from insurance companies owed to the shop.
"He was getting all of my information, so he has every single thing that belongs to me," Rashid told Viteri.
The scariest part, he said, was that it wasn't hard to do.
"Anybody can move or transfer the mail by phone or email," Rashid said.
Atlanta police Detective James Polite told Viteri officers are seeing an increase in identity theft crimes involving mail.
"Unfortunately, it is very easy to do and unfortunately, it's one of the most gaining crimes that we have in identity theft," Polite said.
In Rashid's case, thieves used his debit card information to pay $2,500 toward credit card bills more than once. They forged checks from his business and as recently as late February and managed to cash one for nearly $3,000.
Rashid said he's canceled accounts and credit cards but some payments are still slipping through. "It is a nightmare, you know you have to worry about it," he said.
Atlanta police are investigating, along with the U.S. Postal Service.
WSBTV
