- Consumer Sentinel Network
- The President's Identity Theft Task Force
- FTC Survey
- 2012 Javelin Strategy & Research Report
- Immigration Fraud
- It Can Happen to Anyone
- A Big Problem
- Terrorism and Identity Theft
- What Do Identity Thieves Do?
- Phishing-Go Phish
- Who Do You Trust?
- How Do You Know That You Have Been a Victim of Phishing?
- What You Can Do to Prevent Identity Theft
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
The President’s Identity Theft Task Force
According to the President’s Identity Theft Task Force report in 2007, billions of dollars are lost to identity theft each year, and this number has only gone up since the report was first issued. Victims of identity theft find themselves sued by creditors of the people who stole their identities. The time, money, and effort that it takes to repair the harm done by identity thieves can be tremendous.
According to the Task Force report, identity thieves are a varied group. They include people who had never before committed a crime, career criminals, and family members, as well as organized crime both here and abroad.
The report noted, “Identity theft is prevalent in part because criminals are able to obtain personal consumer information everywhere such data are located or stored. Homes and businesses, cars and health-club lockers, electronic networks, and even trash baskets and dumpsters have been targets for identity thieves. Some thieves use more technologically advanced means to extract information from computers, including malicious-code programs that secretly log information or give criminals access to it.”