European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 29, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sunday december 29, 1991 the stars and stripes a Page 7business booms for bogus residency cards by the los Angeles times los Angeles at the bustling Comer of 7th and Alvarado Long known for its free Wheeling Trade in drugs sex and Cut rate Fortun telling a dozen or so entrepreneurs Are leaning against a faded Wall hawking what has become the hottest product on the Block a forged . Residency cards. A permanent or temporary a a dealer asks pushing to close a Deal on the cards at $120 and $70, respectively. Amid the swaying Palm Trees and passed out addicts near Macarthur Park the Trade of immigration fraud is open and casual. It is Only the tip of what has become a multimillion Dollar National Industry. In the past five years the fraud Industry has grown into a vast web of counterfeit document Mills and Shady immigration offices that have flourished in a largely uncontrolled environment officials said. A a it a just rampant a said William Griffen of the . Immigration and naturalization service in los Angeles. The immigration service has routinely broken up Large counterfeiting rings. It recently cracked one of the biggest operations Ever confiscating 250,000 forged documents Worth an estimated $8 million. But in a world where thousands of forged social Security cards can be produced on a Small printing press frustrated ins officials concede that Success is relative. A we took a Quarter of a million documents off the Street a said John Brech Tel head of ins investigations in los Angeles. A have other documents replaced the Supply in All likelihood  the Rise in immigration fraud was touched off by the landmark immigration Reform and control act of 1986, which was intended to curtail illegal immigration. The Law granted Legal status to most of those illegal immigrants who had continuously lived in the country since Jan. 1, 19s2. Applicants were required to prove their residence in the United states by providing the ins with a variety of documents such As rent receipts Bills or in some cases affidavits from employers. To curtail the flow of additional illegal immigrants the Law imposed stiff fines on employers who knowingly hired workers without the proper documentation. The theory was that without the Magnet of easy employment fewer immigrants would come to the United states. As thousands of immigrants discovered the easiest Way to avoid the Law was to buy a forged social Security or permanent resident card. The counterfeiting business has evolved into a Complex Industry organized much like the drug Trade with Street level a runners a mid level wholesalers and upper cd halon document printers. Most of the forgeries Are terrible Replete with fuzzy Type and wrong colors. But since the Law docs not require employers to be document experts even the most obvious forgeries Are sometimes accepted. A look How Tacky this is Quot Bruchtel said As he held up forgeries of a permanent and temporary resident card. A but that Sall they need. Fifteen years of congressional work Defeated by two  data Selling spurs worries Over privacy Strong arms of the Law Quot two police officers in san Antonio assist fellow officer a1 Peeler Center after an altercation with a Man hot Tom suspected of Auto theft. The suspect and three by the new York times Washington a with her personal finances buckling after losing her Job As a computer operator Cynthia Bovell of Woodbridge va., found a classified and in a local newspaper offering Loans of up to $15,000. When she sent the new Jersey company that had placed the and $400 As an Advance fee for securing the loan the Mother of three with a savings account of Zero became one of the hundreds of thousands of Consumers and Small businesses swindled through one of the nations fastest growing scams. A those who could least afford it people who were in a desperate enough Strait to look for Loans through these brokers Are robbed of the few remaining dollars they could scrape together a sen. Joseph i. Lie la Bennan Berman said last week. A it is a Lon distance mugging pure and  Lieberman a Connecticut Democrat who is the chairman of the governmental affairs committees subcommittee on consumer and environmental affairs has proposed that Congress outlaw Advance fees for consumer and Small Busi Ness Loans offered by unregulated companies. According to a Survey by a Council of the better business Bureau such scams prompted More than 300,000 inquiries and complaints nationwide in the first nine months of the year. Legislation to regulate the Industry passed after minimal others were arrested last week after the theft of a vehicle from the City s West Side. The stolen car struck two parked cars. Debate this year in Florida where there were a number of complaints about what the authorities called loan broker boiler rooms said Barry a. Gladden a spokesman for the Florida comptrollers office. The Florida Law went into effect in july and the number of boiler rooms there dropped from at least 100 in april to 15 in october Gladden said. But he said Many operations simply moved to other states. Gladden said Nebraska Iowa and Kansas also have Laws concerning loan brokers. Advance fee loan schemes Are often promoted through advertisements that talk of Loans being available regardless of a persons credit rating. Potential borrowers arc told to Call toll free �?o800�?� Telephone numbers a and sometimes �?o900�?� numbers for which they Are billed for the Call. Postal service inspectors arc investigating 61 fraud cases involving what they Call Fly by night loan companies. Postal inspectors arrested 12 people in such schemes in the last year said Kenneth m. Hearst assistant chief postal inspector for criminal investigations. But he said Many companies skirted the postal authorities by using overnight delivery or courier services. The service has even placed ads in six newspapers mimicking the ads placed by loan brokers. But when Consumers Call they receive a recorded educational message warning them about being taken in by such ads. As for Bovell she told Lieberman a subcommittee a i feel very angry and confused and stupid. I really counted on these  by the Washington Post Washington a need somebody checked out just Call nationwide electronic tracking the company that a gets the information you need a when you need  so boasted a brochure sent out last year by the Tampa firm claiming a instant Access to a variety of a confidential Quot computer data. Net promised it could provide data on virtually anyone in the country a private credit reports business histories Drivers License records even personal social Security records and criminal history backgrounds. Net May have seemed like a Boon to companies trying to Check out Job applicants. But some Federal officials say it also was evidence of a growing computer age menace a the fledgling a information broker Industry that some experts fear May pose one of the most serious threats in decades to individual privacy. Law enforcement officials say that As the demand for personal data grows information brokers arc increasingly turning to illegal methods. Last week net was identified by the Fri As one player in a nationwide network that allegedly pilfered and sold confidential personal data from . Government computers. The information broker investigation involved what officials say was the largest Case Ever involving the theft of Federal computer data and was essentially a series of inside jobs. Among the 16 people arrested by the Fri in 10 states were three current Ana former social Security administration employees in Illinois new York and Arizona who Are charged with Selling personal records contained in sea computers. Also arrested was a Chicago police officer and a terminal operator at the Fulton county ga., sheriffs office. Both were charged with illegally retrieving criminal history records from the of big a National criminal information Center a data base that contains records of about 15,170,000 arrests compiled from Law enforcement agencies around the country. To Many experts the Case suggests that a a insider information trading May he far More widespread than previously suspected. Among Federal officials the information broker Case is particularly troubling because it appears to indicate routine penetration of the Necic. The Security of the of big a data base has been a concern to civil libertarians because roughly half of the Necic records Are incomplete failing to record whether charges were dropped or inc Thor a suspect was acquitted. Jim Cottos regional inspector general in Atlanta for the department of health and human services said an investigation began 18 months ago when someone sent a copy of the net sales brochure to has investigators in Atlanta. The brochure said individual credit reports could be obtained for $10 apiece employment histories ranged from $100 to $175, with availability in three to five Days and criminal histories Cost $100 apiece and could be provided within a week. Cottos said has investigators then approached the two principals of net Scott l. Strady and Roger d. Burton who agreed to plead guilty to one count each of disclosing tax related information and then cooperate in a wider investigation. Ban on Advance fee Loans proposed