4,800 people affected by ID theft scam that targeted Asian community, Texas DPS says

The Texas Department of Public Safety last week sent out its second round of letters to notify victims of a scam that targeted thousands of Asian Americans in the state.

In February, the department announced at least 3,000 people were affected by the scam, in which fraudsters used data culled from the dark web to order driver’s licenses in Texans’ names. That number has grown to around 4,800, said Travis Considine, a spokesman for Texas DPS.

“Of those, more than 2,000 have been in contact with (driver’s license) staff,” Considine said in a written statement.

Considine said Monday the department had sent its second round of letters to people who were directly impacted by the scam, adding that the letter is also available in Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese.

Texas DPS Chief Steve McCraw has said authorities first identified the problem late last year but they did not notify affected Texans because of the criminal investigation. No Texas DPS systems were breached, according to the department.

Multiple advocates with ties to the Asian American community had criticized the department for how long it took authorities to announce that identities had been stolen. They had also stressed that Texas DPS needed to notify people in different languages.

In December, the company that manages texas.gov payment services notified the department of public safety about an increase in customers disputing credit charges for online transactions, according to the Texas DPS website. Special agents at the department, the FBI and authorities in other impacted states are helping in the criminal investigation, which is ongoing.

“Several subjects have been identified in this criminal enterprise scheme,” the department said.

Ping Du, who in February told  he may have been a victim of the scam, said he had to be on “constant alert,” because fraudsters had tried to access his bank accounts multiple times. In March, Du said he received a letter from Texas DPS confirming that he was directly affected.

He was able to get a new driver’s license through a expedited process and thinks that authorities have been better about communicating with him about the progress of the investigation, Du said.

Du said he is also happy that Texas DPS made the notification letters available in different languages.

“I think that’s awesome,” Du said. “Not everyone is necessarily fluent in English so if they are sending out letters in language other than English, that would help reach more folks who really need this information.”

Still, he is still getting calls from his bank notifying him of fraudulent attempts to access his account.

“Since I had already notified my bank of the situation and because they know about my case, (the fraudster) was not able to access my account,” Du said.