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National News

Thieves Use Texas Court To Steal ID's

April 01, 2012 posted by Steve Brownstein

An identity theft ring based in Albuquerque has stolen the identities of 232 people, most with ties to Tarrant County.

Turns out the thieves got the information from Tarrant County court records available free online for use by the public.

Millions of records with sensitive information were on the county website.

A member of the criminal ring showed a police detective on a computer how easy it was to pull names, birth dates, and Social Security and driver's license numbers from county clerk records, according to a police report.

Data miners, part of a drug ring, used the information to steal the identities of Texans and residents of other states who had ties to Tarrant County through court cases.

The ring used the information to open lines of credit in the names of some of the victims.