i-fraud, Identity Theft and Identity Fraud

Identity Theft and Identity Fraud

Unlike your fingerprints, which are unique to you and cannot be given to someone else for their use, your personal data especially your Social Security number, your bank account or credit card number, your telephone calling card number, and other valuable identifying data can be used, if they fall into the wrong hands, to personally profit at your expense. In the United States and Canada, for example, many people have reported that unauthorized persons have taken funds out of their bank or financial accounts, or, in the worst cases, taken over their identities altogether, running up vast debts and committing crimes while using the victim's names. In many cases, a victim's losses may include not only out-of-pocket financial losses, but also substantial additional financial costs associated with trying to restore his reputation in the community and correcting erroneous information for which the criminal is responsible.

In one notorious case of identity theft, the criminal, a convicted felon, not only incurred more than $100,000 of credit card debt, obtained a federal home loan, and bought homes, motorcycles, and handguns in the victim's name, but called his victim to taunt him -- saying that he could continue to pose as the victim for as long as he wanted because identity theft was not a federal crime at that time -- before filing for bankruptcy, also in the victim's name.

Identity Fraud: Prevalence and Links to Alien Illegal Activities, by Richard M. Stana, director, justice issues, before the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security; and the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims, House Committee on the Judiciary.
June 25.

http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-02-830T

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