From convict to crusader

By ALLAN KOAY

James Rinaldo Jackson, master of identity theft, has vowed never to return to a life of crime, and instead, wants to prevent others from becoming victims of scams.

THIS is the strange case in the peculiar life of James Rinaldo Jackson. He has the distinction of being the “founding father of identity theft”.

Whether that title is a coveted one is another matter, as is whether we should be envious. Simply, Jackson went through a lot to achieve that distinction.

He spent years in prison.

Once known as a digital-age Robin Hood, although he didn’t give to the poor, Jackson assumed the identities of the rich and famous, even dead ones, and stole from them.

James Rinaldo Jackson spent years in jail for identity theft.

But the story here isn’t about how Jackson could pass himself off as, say, Steven Spielberg, and obtain vital, personal information about the director just through phone calls.

It’s really about how he has turned over a new leaf, even speaking out against the crime he once perpetrated, going around the globe to talk about preventing identity theft.

Jackson was arrested a total of eight times, although he said charges were made and then dropped during his early stints. It was in 1991 that law enforcement agencies finally caught on to his game and eventually closed in on him, after he had already purchased a US$150,000 home in Georgia and a collection of luxury cars.

At 30, he was living it up with a fake ID and stolen credit-card information. As he himself describes it, identity theft is “easy like Sunday morning,” quoting the famous Commodores song.

Smooth talker

From all accounts of Jackson’s modus operandi, it would seem that all one needed to commit identity theft is simple logic, some basic information about a person, a telephone, and the gift of the gab.

Jackson has been described as a charmer, someone who could probably talk you into giving him the shirt off your back. It is that simple because the system is terribly flawed, not because of any criminal ingenuity.

A book on identity theft by MSNBC’s investigative reporter Bob Sullivan, titled Your Evil Twin, starts with a chapter detailing Jackson’s 20-year career impersonating “half of Wall Street and half of Hollywood.”

Sullivan traces the genesis of Jackson’s criminal tendencies to his childhood obsession with Elvis Presley; Jackson grew up in Memphis, Tennessee €“ Presley’s home €“ in the 1960s.

Sullivan suggests that because Jackson had a black mother and a white father, constant teasing in school made identity a problem for him. After pretending to be a member of the Beatles for a while, Jackson started to identify with Presley, going so far as to wear blue suede shoes. He attended the same high school that Presley did, and even took pleasure from defecating on the same toilet as The King.

Asked if Sullivan’s view is accurate, Jackson, replying from his home in Memphis in an e-mail interview, said: “Yes, absolutely! Bob was on target ... he hit the bull’s eye.”

Jackson started small, winning radio phone-in contests, before he moved on to scams involving car accident claims when he was older.

Soon, he learned from a certain Nigerian “professor” about the insurance industry and ways to fool customer-service phone operators into releasing vital information. From thereon, he never looked back.

Even while in prison, Jackson continued his spree of identity thefts, using payphones and even a mobile phone smuggled in with the help of his brother-in-law.

After he was released in 1998, Jackson continued to impersonate the big-wigs of business, such as the CEOs of Wendy’s, Coca-Cola and Hilton Hotels. He was caught again after a spate of diamond purchases.

This time he pleaded guilty to all 29 charges of felony.

Turning point

This would seem like the turning point in his life, but Jackson said his “crusade” against identity theft actually began much earlier.

“Well, the turning point in my life was June 1, 1993, long before the term ‘identity theft’ was invented, whereby I attempted to alert Hollywood’s movie industry chairman, CEO of Warner Bros Terry Semel, to the coming identity crisis,” said Jackson.

Semel got a package containing a movie pitch and his personal information, including his bank account number, Social Security number and credit card number. Also in the package was personal data on Steven Seagal, Danny DeVito, Mel Gibson, Sydney Pollack, Leonard Nimoy, Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg, among others.

The most important was a letter warning that millions of people would become victims of identity fraud in the coming years, a prediction that certainly came true.

Unfortunately, no one paid Jackson any heed.

“So I did what I had to do in an effort to help bring further attention to a problem I knew the world was about to be faced with,” said Jackson. “Sept 11, 2001, is a prime example. The very first technique that terrorists use to enter illegally into countries, board planes, is stealing others’ identities.”

Jackson said that after 9/11, it became mandatory for him to do all he could to help victims and potential victims of identity theft.

“I vowed I would never involve myself in committing identity-theft-related crimes, ever,” he said.

But how convinced is the world that he has changed for the better, and is he concerned about what people think of him now?

“It doesn’t matter because you’re going to have positive and negative vibes from others, no matter what you do to convince them that you’ve changed,” said Jackson.

“The most important element for one to remember is to please yourself and do what you can to help others, with effort, no matter what anyone else thinks.”

He said he hasn’t had any problems in his dealings with banks and other financial institutions, nothing that could have resulted from a damaged credibility.

Flaws in the system

Today, Jackson works in public relations and customer service for First Choice Staffing Service in Memphis. Ironically, he is now one of the people he used to call up to steal others’ information!

“Sometimes, having the shoe on the other foot makes a better fit!” said Jackson. “I pick up on things that the average person misses in a heartbeat when it relates to cons calling.”

Naturally, there have been offers from security companies since he would be one of the best persons to help develop fail-safe security for financial institutions and others. But he said so far there is nothing concrete.

A father of three girls, Jackson is currently working on a book on his life. “My life and all I’ve done, seen and been through concerning identity theft would rock the world,” he said.

But having assumed so many different identities, and even imagining himself as one of the Beatles and then Elvis Presley, has he overcome his personal identity crisis? Who is the real James Jackson?

He described himself as a caring person who diligently helped to unveil the flaws within a system that is entrusted with our personal data.

“James Rinaldo Jackson was a caring and considerate person then, just as he still is today. Except I can be referred to as a sacrificial lamb of sorts for a cause. I didn’t steal the identities of average day-to-day people, because it wouldn’t have given attention to the problem. Further, Corporate America steals on a daily basis from people throughout the world.

“So, I went after them as well, to help bring notice (to the problem). Although, I admit my wrongs and accept full responsibility for my actions. But finally attention has been garnered and I look forward to my experiences being a magnitude of help to millions.”

He said his biggest regret, apart from not meeting Elvis, would be that he should have possibly taken a different approach than the one that landed him in prison.

“I can’t change the past but assuredly, I can help make an assertive difference in the future,” he said. “Who doesn’t have a past? We all do.”

Just a phone call away

JAMES Rinaldo Jackson continued his scamming even while in prison for precisely that offence. From there, he posed as Steven Spielberg.

“All I needed was a name,” he said. His method became known as “pretext calling”.

Bob Sullivan’s book, Your Evil Twin, details how Jackson did it.

First, he called the Screen Actors Guild and obtained the guild’s healthcare insurance provider. Then he called the insurance provider and pretended to be from a medical provider that needed to verify coverage. The operators innocently gave away vital information such as Social Security numbers and addresses.

It was then time to call American Express. The young operator seemed excited to be dealing with “Steven Spielberg”. When the operator asked if Jackson was the Spielberg, he simply replied that he wasn’t but that he was constantly mistaken for the director.

Still suspecting nothing, the operator then asked for Spielberg’s account number. Jackson replied that he had left his card at home.

The operator then asked for his Social Security number, and Jackson had already obtained that via the Screen Actors Guild. From there, Jackson found out what Spielberg spent on, which restaurants he frequented, and what designer brands he preferred.

But Jackson never stole from Spielberg, simply because he is such a big fan and only wanted to know more about the director.

Jackson’s modus operandi was so effective that one news article called it “laughably easy”.

Another of Jackson’s many rich and famous victims was George Teter, the late CEO of Wendy’s.

He had found out about Teter’s death from the New York Timesobituaries, wrote Sullivan. The obit itself provided Jackson with many details.

Pretending to be from the insurance company, Jackson called the funeral home. All the operator asked of Jackson was whether he worked for Teter’s insurance company. Jackson didn’t even need to know the company’s name. He was then given Teter’s Social Security number and address.

Next, he called Wendy’s corporate offices and pretended to be a businessman wanting to open a franchise, and got hold of the name of the company’s bank.

Although he didn’t have Teter’s account number, all he needed to give the bank was Teter’s birth date, home address, ZIP code and Social Security number, and Teter’s money was then his to spend.

While the living and the dead were equally fair game to Jackson, there were some who were declared off limits by him. Apart from Spielberg, Jackson also vowed never to steal from Oprah Winfrey.

In the 1990s, when Jackson found out that Winfrey’s father had a barbershop near his hometown of Memphis, he drove there to have his hair cut by Vernon Winfrey.

Jackson found him to be an “amazingly warm and sensible gentleman” who treated him like a VIP, that he promised himself he would never touch Oprah’s money.

Source: The Star 29.9.2008