Asian Americans in Texas are angered after officials revealed this week that thousands of Asians statewide may be impacted by identity theft orchestrated through a website that involved using personal information to answer security questions.
The state’s Department of Public Safety (DPS) had unknowingly sent an estimated 3,000 driver’s licenses to an organized crime group that targeted Asians in the state, DPS director Steve McCraw, told a Texas House committee on Monday. The incident, which is currently under investigation, was discovered in December, McCraw said, and the department has begun to notify victims by mail this week.
With no warning about the incident for months, Asian Americans say they’re disappointed in the DPS’s response and feel they’ve been kept in the dark.
“It really goes to show that our state government does not see us and does not care about us and does not prioritize our welfare,” Lily Trieu, executive director of Asian Texans for Justice, told NBC News.
DPS did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
McCraw did not reveal the name of the organization, but told the Texas House appropriations committee that a New York-based Chinese organized crime group had obtained the licenses with Asian names to sell to undocumented immigrants, predominantly from China, in hopes of impersonating the victims. He added that with the licenses, impersonators could go on to obtain additional supporting identification documents featuring their own photos.
Using personal information of the victims obtained from “the dark web,” or websites hidden by traditional surface browsers, the group was able to answer security questions on the state’s Texas.gov website, McCraw said. The questions have since been removed from the website.
“The identity questions could be something you may have shared with a credit card company or something like your maiden mother’s maiden name, your first vehicle that you ever had, your favorite…
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