If a thief opens new accounts using your identity and then fails to pay the debts, your credit will be ruined and, unfortunately, the mechanism for repairing the damage is spotty.
Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the United States, and the reasons are simple: it’s easy and it pays. I guess criminals think, why go through life with their shitty identity when they can steal someone else’s for little more than the cost of pizza and beer? You can buy an identity package online, complete with an SSN, for around $40. Yes, it’s that easy.
Of the 516,740 FTC complaints received in 2003, 301,835 were fraud complaints and 214,905 identity theft complaints. Identity theft reports accounted for 42 percent of all complaints, up from 40 percent in 2002.
Of the 635,173 complaints received in 2004, 246,570 were identity theft complaints and 388,603 fraud complaints. For the fifth year in a row, identity theft topped the list of complaints, accounting for 39 percent of consumer fraud complaints filed with the agency. Internet-related complaints accounted for 53 percent of all reported fraud complaints.
The loss or theft of Bank One and Citibank computer tapes in 2005 resulted in the compromise of millions of accounts and SSNs. This is just one example of the many ways thieves can obtain personal data from companies.
In February 2005, ChoicePoint revealed that the thieves opened 50 accounts and received personal data from about 145,000 consumers. By the way, ChoicePoint analyzes insurance claim information; is a clearinghouse for the personal data of hundreds of millions of people. The crooks used fraudulent information to create accounts, which allowed them access to the database, and operated for a year before being discovered, defrauding around 750 people.
In April 2005, DSW Shoe Warehouse said that 1.4 million customers were affected by a cyber attack on the company’s database. In the same month, London-based Reed Elsevier (owner of LexisNexis) announced that there may have been a breach of the LexisNexis system and that criminals may have accessed computer files containing the personal information of 310,000 people since January 2003.