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Law Enforcement Community Teams up to Take Down Identity Thieves

"By coming together as a law enforcement community, we have the ability to tackle this rapidly growing crime head on."

While the number of identity theft cases reported to the Federal Trade Commission continue to climb, law enforcement officials struggle to solve cases left in the wake of criminals taking over identities and racking up mountains of debt, ruining credit and financially tarnishing good names. A new, three-year partnership between the FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development Association (FBI-LEEDA), a non-profit corporation, and LifeLock aims to bring law enforcement together to educate and share information on identity theft trends. They will use this information to educate and empower consumers. This inaugural event, which is set for Thursday, October 16, 2008, and is hosted by "America's Toughest Sheriff," Joe Arpaio, and the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in Phoenix, Ariz., brings together law enforcement officials from throughout the United States to share experiences and strategies in combating identity theft within their communities.

"By coming together as a law enforcement community, we have the ability to tackle this rapidly growing crime head on," said Tom Stone, executive director of the FBI-LEEDA. "This summit is just the beginning. By joining together and opening avenues of communication, we gain the ability to share effective policing strategies and connect identity theft cases from several cities and states to ensure that these criminals get the punishments they deserve."

LifeLock and FBI-LEEDA plan to host several free summits on identity theft throughout the next year. The October event will focus on a range of issues, including neighborhood identity theft, employer identity theft losses, relevant laws, awareness, protection strategies, high technology identity theft, and databases available to assist in investigations and more. The summit keynote speaker, Special Agent Wayne Ivey of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has created Operation "LEGIT" (Law Enforcement Getting Identity Thieves). Ivey has 27 years in law enforcement and is an expert in identity theft. He supervises Florida's Identity Theft Taskforce and has handled in excess of 45 million dollars in fraud cases in two years. Ivey has testified on identity theft issues before the Florida legislature and the United States Congress.

"Our partnership with the FBI-LEEDA is a monumental step in combating identity theft," said LifeLock CEO Todd Davis. "Identity theft is a crime that has no boundaries, and by forging relationships with those in law enforcement, we become a more united front against criminals. Our partnership with FBI-LEEDA gets us even closer to our ultimate goal -- eliminating identity theft."


-cmm