Your Evil Twin

Book excerpt: The crime of the twenty-first century doesn't discriminate: ID theft has hit ordinary citizens and celebrities alike, from Oprah Winfrey to Steven Spielberg, and costs the economy $50 billion a year. Your Evil Twin covers this exploding crime from every possible angle. It includes exclusive whodunit details from mastermind identity thieves who have pilfered money from half the members of the Forbes 400, as well as exclusive interviews with a myriad of criminals in the Internet's underground, such as Russian hackers who have extorted money from U.S. banks. The book also issues a scathing indictment of the credit granting industry, from credit card issuers to the secretive credit reporting agencies, who have misunderstood the crime from the start, have been slow to respond, and bear much of the responsibility for the epidemic. Finally, Bob Sullivan, author and identity theft expert, probes the tepid solutions now being cobbled together by the industry and government. Bob Sullivan (Snohomish, WA), senior technology writer for MSNBC.com, is the nation's leading journalist covering identity fraud. He has written more than 100 articles on the subject since 1996, and is a regular contributor to MSNBC, CNBC, NBC Nightly News, the Today show, and various local NBC affiliates. With colleague Mike Brunker, Sullivan received the prestigious 2002 Society of Professional Journalists Public Service Award for ongoing coverage of Internet fraud.