Watching Out For Identity Theft

Aug. 30, 2004 -- Being victim of a theft is a painful experience, and as millions of Americans have discovered, that includes identity theft.

While ID theft may once have seemed like the stuff of movies or crime novels, it has now become a common occurrence in the United States. The Federal Trade Commission estimated in a September 2003 report that 9.9 million Americans were victims of identity theft in 2002, at a cost of $53 billion to consumers and businesses.

Moreover, victims of identity theft can spend untold stressful hours wrestling with paperwork, dealing with financial institutions and police in order to clear their names and restore their credit records.

"What we're seeing here is a tremendous number of perpetrators stealing a tremendous amount of money, and every one of us is paying for it," says Jay Foley, co-executive director of the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group in San Diego. "Being a victim of fraud is one of the costs we're paying for."

ID Crimes, From Simple to Elaborate

Identity theft, however, is not one specific crime, but an umbrella term covering a variety of crimes made possible when thieves wrongfully obtain private information, including Social Security numbers and credit card information.

Use of stolen credit card numbers is among the most common forms of identity theft, although scams vary. Some thieves will simply obtain another person's credit card information and go on a spending spree, while others will open new credit accounts, or divert the bills for existing accounts and not pay the charges.

Some identity theft schemes are more elaborate, including cases where crooks have used stolen personal information to get jobs or take out mortgages in other people's names.