Brain injury patient victimized by ID thief

November 17, 2010 – 10:51 am

A Rochester, N.Y. man accused with his wife of stealing the identity of a woman who suffered a traumatic brain injury has been arrested again, just days before he was scheduled to plead guilty to his previous crimes.

Kenneth Vickers was arrested Oct. 29 on charges of petit larceny and possession of a forged instrument. He was scheduled to make his plea on previous charges Nov. 12.

In 2008, Vickers and his wife, Wynette Reed-Vickers, stole the personal information of a disabled woman who lived at the group home where the couple worked. The duo opened credit card accounts in the woman’s name and ran up debts totaling $185,000.

The couple also bought a $13,000 Ford Expedition.

Vickers was set to plead guilty, but once federal prosecutors learned of the new charges, he was arrested for violating his pre-trial release conditions.

Vickers is in custody and is expected in court today.

No one expected this criminal to strike again – this is obvious by the fact that they let him out of jail until his scheduled court date.

And no one expects to become a victim of identity theft, either. But it happens. And often. Statistics show that one in every 20 Americans became a victim of identity theft in 2009, and one person falls victim every three seconds. There are more than 24,000 reports of identity fraud every day.

Those numbers are staggering, and the worst part is that the numbers are growing. The question is not, “What if I become a victim of identity theft?” The question is now, “When will I become a victim?”

So what can you do to protect yourself? The ideal thing would be to get proactive, and to watch your personal information, wherever it might be present, every minute of every day. That is not, however, practical. Who has time for that?

You can’t prevent identity theft – but you can see to it that your information is useless to anyone but you. That’s where LifeLock comes in. LifeLock will do what you don’t have time for – monitor the Internet for both credit and non-credit related threats to your identity. You’ll be notified of any issues immediately, and your information will remain safe. No one will be able to use your information but you. And that’s as it should be.

Call LifeLock today. Receive 30 days free and get a 10 percent discount on enrollment with the LifeLock Promo Code “Defense.”

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