Identity Theft: The Sandy Bigalow Patterson Story

In 2013, a man by the name of Sandy Bigalow Patterson received a phone call about one of his credit cards. He was told that there was a possibility that his identity had been stolen and if he provided them with his personal information, the bank would provide him with a free credit security service. Trusting the caller, Sandy proceeded to provide the caller with his social security number, his full name, and his birthday. Thinking his average life and family was safe another day, Sandy hung up with the kind lady from the bank and got on with his work day. Little did Sandy know, he had just given all of his important and personal information to an identity thief.

As the new Sandy Patterson (I am going to call her Sandy 2 even tough her name is really Dianna) ran up credit card debit and was living large, the real Sandy Patterson was being arrested and threatened by his boss because of the debt the thief had run up and the crimes she had committed. The fake Sandy Patterson in the movie Identity Thief (starring Melissa McCarthy and who doesn't love her) is a perfect example of the identity thieves that exist today.

There are many types of identity theft that these crooks partake in. The first is financial. This using another identity to obtain money, goods, and services. In the case of Sandy and Sandy 2, Sandy 2 ran up all of Sandy's credit cards on frivolous items like jet skis and used it for services like hair appointments. The second type of theft is criminal. This is when thieves pose as another when they are arrested or convicted. In the case of Sandy 2, she was arrested for drunk and disorderly and used her new identity as Sandy Bigalow Patterson when she went through processing. The third type is identity cloning. this means the crook is assuming the other persons identity in daily life. In the movie, Sandy 2 has a fake license made up for her stolen identity and lives her days as Sandy Bigalow Patterson.

The forth type of identity theft is synthetic. This means the numbers and birth dates stolen are real, but the social information surrounding the person are fabricated. Sandy 2 used the real Sandy Patterson's information, but turned him into a female and created an elaborate and fake background story. The fifth type of theft is medical. Sandy 2 does not portray this type, but it is the use of an identity to obtain medical care or drugs. The sixth and final type of identity theft is Ghosting. Sandy 2 does not commit this type of theft in the movie, but this is when a person steals the identity and/ or social role of a dead person.

In order to commit all of these forms of identity theft, the thieves have to obtain the information necessary. Ways that thieves get private information include finding papers containing the information in the trash, taking personal information off of people's computers, regular theft like robbery or burglary, getting people to provide the information, getting it off of the internet, and even Facebook. In the case of Sandy Bigalow Patterson, he received a call from Sandy 2 who was pretending to be an employee at his bank and he readily provided all of the information Sandy 2 needed to rob him blind.

Sandy 2 used something called phishing in order to get the original Sandy's information. Phishing is when someone sends you some sort of message to get your private information. Sandy 2 did not send a message exactly, but she personally called the original Sandy to get his personal information. A message sent out for the purpose of phishing will have particular characteristics. One is seemingly legitimate sources. They will contain names of banks and companies that have credible names. Another thing they could include are familiar URLs in links to external sites. For example, if the sender wanted the message to look like it came from google, the URL would contain a subtle difference like a period or number and the rest would be google' usual URL. The purpose of these messages is to get someone to provide private information, so a lot of times they will say that the company needs them the person to "verify" information so that a service can be provided to them. Something to look for in the messages is how professional the message is and if there are any obvious spelling mistakes. Those two characteristics can hint that the message's sender just wants to steal your information.

No one wants to have their identity stolen, but it does happen. If you are careful and protect your information, it will lessen your chances of ending up like Sandy Bigalow Patterson.

Beware: Jigsaw the Stalker

If you have not heard of the infamous Saw installation by now you are seriously missing out. In this intense and thrilling movie series, a man by the name of Jigsaw decides to take the law and others morality into his own hands. He captures criminals varying from drug abusers to murderers to rapists. He captures these criminals and puts them to the test. They are given the option to better themselves or die. The ways that he tests these criminals are brutal. Examples include blinding them with knives and cutting their own feet off.  In order to find these criminals, Jigsaw himself had to commit criminal acts and multiple things we talked about in class. Two major things in CMC that he used were surveillance and stalking.

The first step in Jigsaw’s plan was always surveillance. He used a variety of ways to watch his “victims”. He installed cameras in their homes, cars, and places of work. He also used others to watch them. He forced people to follow his intended targets around. They would find out what they did every day, what their habits were, and places they frequented. He even watched them once he captured them and put them through “tests”. He installed cameras in every room they were going to be in, and in one case he even pretended to be dead and laid himself on the floor of the room that they were chained in. The extent to which he watched them was definitely severe. On top of that he was almost a total stranger to many of these people. He was very covert in his watching. He did not disrupt his victims so they certainly did not know they were being watched.  He crosses many lines in terms of the surveillance that he pulls and because of this he can be categorized as a stalker.

There are specific behaviors associated to stalking, and Jigsaw shows many, but not all of these behaviors. The first behavior is Hyper-intimacy. Jigsaw does not show this behavior, but it can be defined as creepy romantic advances. The second behavior is mediated contact. Jigsaw does not seem to use the internet, but it can be assumed that he had to have used it a little to get basic information about his victims. The third behavior is extreme surveillance. Jigsaw took his surveillance above and beyond and could definitely be said to be more than extreme. He tracked them and watched their every move and recorded every single one of their habits. This is probably the behavior of stalking that was most extreme in the case of Jigsaw.

The next behavior exhibited in stalking and ORI-specific behaviors is invasion and intrusion. These two words can imply many things, but in the case of Jigsaw, he it literally and to the extreme. In order to obtain his victims he would break into their homes, cars, and places of work. He is an intruder to a tee.  He would harm and drug his victims after breaking in and then transport them to the location of their “tests” while they were unconscious. The next behavior that can also be seen in jigsaw is harassment and intimidation. Once captured and placed where he wanted them, he would intimidate them to get them to complete their tasks. He would call them weak or tell them that they have been living their lives all wrong. He had no need to harass his victims though. Harassment would be constantly contacting an individual and trying to persuade them to talk to you or date you.

The next stalking and ORI-specific behavior is threatening. Jigsaw uses a large amount of threatening, and without his threats his “tests” would not work.  Along with the people meant to be tested, Jigsaw would also capture people around the individual who had meaning to them. Jigsaw would then give his “test subjects” proof through videos or pictures that he had their family or friends and he would threaten to harm them if the subject did not complete the tasks necessary to pass the test.  The final behavior, and a big one, that surfaces in the Saw movies is a proxy pursuit. A proxy pursuit is when a third party is used to access the intended target. This can be done by going through a friend or family member, but in the case of Jigsaw, he used his past victims to get to his new test subjects. He would send survivors out to stalk and capture the new victims for him and he would get them to do so by threatening their lives once again.

Jigsaw’s actions in every single Saw movie were those of a stalker. Even when he was dead he was still finding a way to hunt people down and out a giant hole in their lives. His meticulous ways and plotting mind both help to make him one of the most advanced and greatest stalkers ever.