NORMAL, Ill -- Keeping your identity safe has become harder than ever with criminals utilizing advanced technology.
Someone once said, "cleaning up after identity theft is a marathon, not a sprint. Prepare your mind accordingly."
The first step to protecting your good name is prevention.
It doesn't matter what your social-economic status is, It can happen to anyone," says Chuck Whitlock, author of 'Easy Money and Scam School'.
Your own family can do it, even a trusting son.
That was the case for Normal resident William Sanders. His son, also William Sanders, who sometimes goes by his middle name Brian, allegedly began using his fathers name and social security number in the late 1980s.
"He didn't file police reports or anything like that because his son explained it away as clerical errors," says Terri Ryburn, the wife of Sanders Sr.
But that didn't last forever, Sanders Sr. and Ryburn eventually contacted Normal police.
Adding another level to the pain and challenge of the situation, William Sanders Sr. died in January of this year.
"It certainly trashed Bill's credit, he was a man who never owed anyone anything, always paid his bills," says Ryburn.
Normal Police Detective Brad Park has been working on this case for several years and applauds Ryburn's effort on keeping up with the case.
"Ms. Ryburn has been very forthcoming with information and also very aggressive into the prosecution of this case," says Detective Park.
According to police, Brian also conned some local businesses and his official charges stem from those cases, but as of now his whereabouts are unknown.
"At this point he could be in the United States, but I kind of feel that he could be somewhere outside of the country," says Park.
Detective Park has seen about 10 to 15 identity theft cases this year. And the emergence of smart phones with banking apps adds to decreased security. Smart phones and tablets are just as susceptible as home computers.
Detective Park offers easy tips for smart phone users, "It's amazing the information that's contained on that. Make sure that's it's not an automatic log-in that you just have the button. Make sure you still have to put in your username and password every time and then obviously make sure that password isn't something simple."
While theft from strangers do occur regularly, Detective Park says the majority of cases involve those close to you
Ryburn knows first hand, "You'd hate to be suspicious, you hate not to trust."
So what are your options if you do fall victim to the bad gift that keeps on giving?
-file a police report
-call your banks and credit companies to put a fraud alert on your account and freeze your credit
-head to www.ftc.gov for direct steps to start the process
-And check your credit report regularly
Everyone is entitled to one free credit report every 12 months from the three major credit reporting companies.
You can get those on www.annualcreditreport.com, it's a free site and it's endorsed by the FTC.
As for Ms. Ryburn, "It's more about prevention from this point on, as compared to making an arrest, which really he's not going to have the money to pay back," says Park.
Ryburn says she won't give up the battle, "Moving forward I will continue to respond. No one will ever get a penny from me, or from Bill's estate because Bill never owed anyone."
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