Lowell Deeds

With traffic heading into Boston at a complete standstill due to last night’s tragic collapse of a Big Dig tunnel, the Corporations Division of the Secretary of State’s office is reminding customers north of Boston that Corporate Certicates may be obtained here at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds. Follow this link for instructions on how this service works.

The New York Times has another front-page story about identity theft (part one was published on May 30 and written about in this blog on June 14) that again makes the connection between methamphetamine use and the increased incidence of identity theft. Part of it is due to the effect of that particular drug. Heroin and cocaine addicts experience highs that rapidly disappear, leaving the addict desperate for his next fix and ready to create impulsive crimes such as mugging, carjacking and robbery. Methamphetemine users stay high for much longer and the drug causes their minds to focus intently during the high. This gives addicts the time, patience and ingenuity needed for to perpetrate identity theft. But this type of crime doesn’t usually involve stealing confidential information from the internet. Instead, it features the theft of mail or trash. When you pay your bills, don’t leave your outgoing mail in your mail box to await pickup by the letter carrier - an identity theft might get there first and with one of your checks and your original signature, the thief is well on his way to ripping someone off. Of course, the article also speculates that most instances of identity theft are not solved by the police, so the most sophisticated, internet based systems might be fully operational in a way that is invisible to the law enforcement community.