• An identity thief could steal your credit identity to obtain money and property by using and ruining your good credit.
  
  
• The FBI indicates that identity theft the fastest growing white-collar crime in America.
  
  
• The Federal Trade Commission released a report in September 2003 stating that almost 10 million Americans were victims of identity theft in the last 12 months.
  
  
• Individual victims of identity theft reported over $5 Billion in out of pocket expenses.
  
  
• The FTC reported that victims spent an average of $1,495 in out-of-pocket expenses and over 500 hours to clean up the mess resulting from the identity theft (actual incidents show that the time and expense can be significantly greater).
  
  
• The Federal Trade Commission explains that identity theft is committed by co-opting your name, Social Security number, credit card number, or some other piece of your personal information without your knowledge to commit fraud or theft.
  
  
• When identity thieves fake your identity, they are allowed to:
  
  
  • Open a new credit card account, using your name, date of birth, and Social Security number.
    
    
  • When they use credit card with a stolen identity and fail to pay the bills, the delinquent account is reported on your credit report.
    
    
  • Call your credit card issuer and, pretending to be you, change the mailing address on “your” credit card account.
    
    
  • Run up charges on your account. Because your bills are being sent to the new address, you may not immediately realize there is a problem.
    
    
  • Establish cellular phone service in your name.
    
    
  • Open a bank account in your name and write bad checks.
  
  

While generally not liable for the bad debts that the criminal accumulates, the consumer-victim of identity fraud is left with a damaged credit history that can take considerable time and money to restore.

• Identity fraud is a crime rapidly increasing in frequency, especially in this era of electronic record keeping, online financial transactions, and the Internet's ability to rapidly distribute information.

• Although recent federal legislation allows consumers to seek restitution for expenses from the criminal that carried out the identity fraud, actually obtaining such restitution might prove impossible if the criminal isn't caught or if there is a long list of creditors seeking similar restitution.

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