Hidden cost of illegal immigration: ID theft

Posted: Friday, March 31 at 07:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan

In the noisy immigration debate raging in Washington, there is one voice NOT being heard.

The voice of identity theft victims. 

Behind many of the nation’s millions of undocumented workers are someone else's documents. To get a job, illegal immigrants need a Social Security number, and they often borrow one.  As victim Melody Millet is fond of saying, U.S. citizens are being forced to share their identities with undocumented immigrants to give corporate America a steady supply of cheap labor.

MSNBC.com reporter Bob Sullivan talks about illegal immigration and identity theft on MSNBC.

Thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of Americans are right now sharing their identities with immigrants and don't know it. It is the dirty little secret of the immigration issue: By not dealing directly with the undocumented worker situation, the U.S government is actually encouraging identity theft.  In fact, one can argue that the origins of the identity theft epidemic can be traced to the immigration issue.

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The scope of this problem is vast.  Every year, nearly 9 million people pay their taxes using the wrong Social Security number. The name used on W-2 tax forms used by employers doesn't match the name on file with the Social Security Administration.  There can be many reasons why -- a data entry typo by a human resources department, a woman changes her name after marriage and forgets to report it, or a man uses someone else's SSN to get a job. 

Social Security calls this a "no-match" situation.  When this happens, the Social Security Administration collects the money, but the wage credits go into limbo. They don't end up on anyone's annual Social Security statement, they end up in something called the Earnings Suspense File.  Since 1984, when the Social Security card employment verification requirement kicked in, nearly $500 billion in wages has ended up in that file. 

Who are all these people paying their taxes using the wrong SSN? Neither Social Security nor the IRS has ever studied this issue in great detail. But there are clear indications that many -- if not most -- of the 9 million mismatches are immigrants using the wrong SSN. One study by Social Security indicates no-match payments come most frequently from agricultural and restaurant industries, for example.

Not every mismatched SSN belongs to a real living person, and in fact, it appears many are chosen at random. Some belong to the deceased; others are entirely fictitious. One study showed thousands of entries using obvious fakes, such as 123-45-6789 or 999-99-9999.

Many victims are very real
But many victims are very real.  Recently, officials in Utah matched a database of children receiving welfare benefits with a database of workers paying state taxes and found 1,800 child victims.  It’s impossible to know how many of the impostors were undocumented workers, but Utah Assistant Attorney General Rich Hamp says that behind most cases the agency has prosecuted so far, he’s found an immigrant using someone else’s papers.

Victims often don't have any idea they’re sharing their identity with an immigrant, because there's no way to find out.  Social Security won't tell you if someone else is using your SSN. The extra earnings don't end up on your annual Social Security statement, because they are designated to the Earnings Suspense File instead. Ditto for the Internal Revenue Service.  The misuse isn't revealed in personal credit reports, either.  If somebody uses your number to get a credit card or car loan, the nation's credit bureaus create a new credit file instead of alerting you to the misuse.

Victims only find out when something goes wrong -- when there are unpaid taxes or unpaid bills, debt collectors often track down the original SSN holder.

But there are sometimes hints along the way.

SSN-only ID theft victim Margaret Harrison was once denied unemployment because records showed she had a job.  Harrison was in West Virginia -- her Social Security number was working on a farm in Washington state.  She couldn't prove her problem until recently, however, when she received a debit card with her impostor's picture on it. 

The immigration issue is an incredibly complex mine field of competing emotional issues. There are sloganeering and extremism on both sides.  There will be no kicking out every undocumented worker; and there will be no letting everyone in right away.  People who insist on either are naive, foolish or both.  There will be hard decisions and heartbreaks. This column does not suggest there is a simple answer.

And it also does not blame the immigrants, who are simply following the real-life rules they’ve been given.  Want a job?  Want to feed your family, want a better life for your kids?  Just get a nine-digit number. The message has been clear from our government and our corporations for 20 years -- no one cares whose nine-digit number you use.

Plenty of blame to go around
The blame lies on us all for not dealing with the situation directly, and instead encouraging under-the-table activity. There are millions of victims on all sides -- including the innocent bystanders who must share their Social Security numbers.

This is what happens when an extra-legal system is in place.  Today, there are no rules, which clearly encourages this sharing of Social Security numbers. It encourages the cottage industry that is document forgery. And ultimately, it encourages identity theft.

While consumers cannot learn the secret life of their Social Security numbers, several groups know all about it. The nation’s credit bureaus, for example, can sort their data by number instead of name. 

Lenders routinely buy this information when assessing a consumer's credit risk.  Every time MSNBC.com covers this issue, workers at car dealers and banks write in to say they’ve seen countless examples of consumers who apply for accounts and have multiple names connected to their Social Security numbers.  Privacy rules prevent them from warning the consumers.

And of course, any agency that collects taxes, such as Social Security or the IRS, has this information.

It would certainly be possible for any of these groups to inform those who are sharing SSNs, but a serious attempt has never been made.  Why?  I suspect that doing so would personalize the immigration debate and might very well lead to a true flash point for the issue. 

Three years ago, Social Security did the next-best thing, sending letters to some employers with large lists of people paying taxes using the wrong SSN.  As workers scattered, seeing the letters as tantamount to a deportation notice, immigration rights groups protested. The letters were immediately withdrawn. And here we sit.

One thing activists on many sides of this issue seem to agree on –- it’s time to bring undocumented workers out of the shadows.  That would be wise, as it would also bring countless identity theft victims out of the shadows. 

But until that happens, the IRS, the SSA and the nation’s credit bureaus need to develop a system that allows the rightful holder of a Social Security number to know if it has a secret life. 

 The secret list of ID theft victims

Consumers could be warned, but U.S government isn't talking

Linda Trevino, who lives in a Chicago suburb, applied for a job last year at a local Target department store, and was denied.  The reason? She already worked there -- or rather, her Social Security number already worked there. 

Follow-up investigation revealed the same Social Security number had been used to obtain work at 37 other employers, mostly by illegal immigrants trying to satisfy government requirements to get a job.

Trevino is hardly alone. MSNBC.com research and government reports suggest hundreds of thousands of American citizens are in the same spot -- unknowingly lending their identity to illegal immigrants so they can work. And while several government agencies and private corporations sometimes know whose Social Security numbers are being ripped off, they won't notify the victims. That is, until they come after the victims for back taxes or unpaid loans owed by the imposter.

It's a thorny problem that cuts to the heart of America's undocumented worker issue. Immigration opponents say it's another reason to shut the borders tight; immigrant rights groups point out that identity theft is an inevitable outcome of unfair labor laws that push foreign visitors deeper into the shadows.

"The numbers get passed around a family, and around neighborhoods," he said.

"People need to wake up to this problem," said Richard Hamp, an assistant attorney general for the state of Utah who has prosecuted several cases involving stolen IDs and illegal immigrants. "They are destroying people's credit, Social Security benefits, and everything else. This problem has been ignored by the federal government, and it's enormous."

But could Trevino, and all the other victims, be warned by the government? After all, several agencies and corporations found her when they wanted her money. Until then, not a single one had bothered to warn her that someone else was using her Social Security number.

Melody Millet's husband Steve was the victim of immigrant identity theft. None of the agencies involved are trying to tackle the problem because they all benefit from it, as does corporate America, she said. The IRS and Social Security collect extra taxes, lenders sell more loans and employers get inexpensive workers. Fixing the problem and telling all the victimized consumers would upset the delicate apple cart that is America's immigration policy, she said.

"The government is forcing people to share identities because they want to provide cheap labor to corporate America," Melody Millet said. 

An undocumented immigrant worker managed to use Steve Millet's Social Security number for more than 10 years before the incident was discovered. Millet said the imposter managed to obtain a dozen credit cards, buy a car, and even a house using the stolen number and his own name.  All the while, that imposter paid taxes, paid into Social Security, and took out loans using the stolen Social Security Number. All of those agencies had a record of the abused SSN; none bothered to tell Steve Millet.

"You can't find out except by accident," Melody Millet said. "They are not required to notify us. No one is required to notify you. The way it sits now, our lives were ruined. We will never have again a normal financial life."

$420 billion in accounting limbo
Quantifying the problem of immigrant imposters is a challenge; neither the IRS nor the Social Security Administration has tried. But there are some solid hints suggesting hundreds of thousands of people are currently at risk, right now lending their identity to an undocumented worker.

With every paycheck, U.S. workers pay FICA taxes, destined for Social Security funds. But each year, millions of payments are made to the agency with mismatched names and numbers. The Social Security Administration has no idea who deserves credit for the taxes paid by those wage earnings -- so no one gets it. The amount of uncredited Social Security wages is now an enormous $420 billion, an amount that sits in what's called the Earnings Suspense File, an accounting limbo.

During 2002, the year with the most recent figures available, 9 million people paid taxes with mismatched names and Social Security Numbers. Some were women who had failed to notify the agency that their name changed after marriage. Some were the result of typographical errors.

But most -- between 50 and 80 percent depending on whom you talk to -- represent illegal immigrants using a stolen or manufactured Social Security number at the workplace.

The amount of money headed for the Earnings Suspense File began to skyrocket after 1986, when a new federal law required workers to produce Social Security cards to get employment.

In 2001, Social Security reports indicated 35 percent of the wages in the fund were earned by workers in California. In 2002, about 46 percent of the wages that ended up in the fund come from immigrant-heavy industries like agriculture, restaurants and other services, according to Social Security's Office of Inspector General. Both facts suggest to analysts that much of the fund is the result of payments made by undocumented immigrant workers.

What's unclear is how many of those millions of payments made by undocumented workers are made using someone else's Social Security numbers. Audits show that many are made with manufactured numbers, such as 000-00-0000. But people familiar with the data say the list would point to hundreds of thousands of identity theft victims. 

“(The list) would be a terrific source of leads for the identity remediation effort, but there are so many other compelling workloads in front of (SSA) I don't know what can they do with that today," he said. "Also, the politics of immigration get involved in this.”

A spokesman for the Social Security Administration said the agency simply couldn't disclose the information to consumers because doing so would run afoul of federal law.

"That information is considered to be tax return information, and it's governed under the Internal Revenue code," said Social Security's Mark Lassiter.  "There are strict limitations on disclosure.  Can someone see if anyone else has reported earnings under their Social Security number? The answer would be no."

The IRS also receives payments from mismatched names and numbers, and has access to the same no-match list created by Social Security. But according to IRS spokesman Anthony Burke, the agency doesn't check for number-name mismatches until it processes tax returns.  And it does not have a mechanism for informing the rightful Social Security number holder that someone else has filed a return using that number.

When tax returns are filed with wrong Social Security numbers -- some 500,000 were filed last year -- the agency simply notifies the filer in writing. The rightful number holder isn't told, because there is no way to know why the wrong number was used, Burke said. 

Credit reports don't help
How can a consumer unravel the secret life of their Social Security number? In fact, since neither the government nor private industry is speaking out, there is no way. Asking the Social Security Administration or IRS won't help.

Most consumers only discover the situation when their imposters take the next step up the economic ladder, securing credit using the stolen number. And even then, the victims may not be told unless the imposter misses a loan payment or otherwise sends creditors hunting for their money. That's because thanks to a quirk in the credit system, credit obtained by imposters using their real name but a stolen Social Security number doesn't appear on the victim's credit report.

This so-called "SSN-only" identity theft poses a unique set of problems for consumers and the nation's credit bureaus. If credit is granted by a lender, an entry is made in credit bureau files -- but not disclosed to the consumer who properly owns that number. Even when a consumer gets a copy of her credit report, such fraudulent accounts don't appear on the report. Instead, the bureaus create what are sometimes called "subfiles," which act like separate identities in their databases.

In fact, consumer credit reports obtained from the credit bureaus expressly leave off this kind of fraud. If an imposter is using a consumer's Social Security number but his own name and address to open up fraudulent accounts, a consumer-disclosed credit report won't include that information. The rightful number holder will never know.

Millet, who has sued the credit bureaus, said her husband was denied a credit card even though his credit report was spotless, and he had a superb credit score of 700.

Businesses interested in giving credit to a consumer can pay to see any activity connected to a particular Social Security Number; consumers cannot.  All three credit bureaus sell specialized services with names like "Social Search," that track the entire history of a Social Security number. The services are not available to consumers.

Privacy concerns prevent consumers from seeing a Social Security number-only report, said Equifax's David Rubinger.

"Companies that have signed agreements with us can access data like that. But we can't let every consumer see it," he said. It would be difficult for the firm to establish definitively who the rightful Social Security number holder is, he said. And there would still be potentially sticky privacy issues related to revealing the imposter's information.

Don Girard, a spokesman for Experian, acknowledged his firm had seen the problem, but said it was extremely rare.

"I can tell you we have quite a few people looking into this," he said.

Trans Union did not respond to requests for interview for this report.

'Total purgatory' for taxpayers
Frustration can mount for victims of this kind of fraud. Eventually, the government agencies involved do catch up with the legitimate consumers; but often, not until they are looking for money. Victims can have trouble getting disability or unemployment benefits, Utah's Hamp said. 

Others find the Internal Revenue Service on their backs, looking for payment of back taxes for wages earned by their imposters. Some see refunds held up by the confusion; others see their wages garnished.

Trevino found herself in a financial nightmare. All those imitators made a mess out of her work history, her Social Security benefits records and her credit report. She was haunted by bills and creditors. She received threatening letters from the IRS, asking her to pay taxes on money earned by her imposters. She was told to re-pay unemployment benefits she had received, after the government discovered she was "working" while drawing benefits.

"At the time I'm thinking, 'I'm unemployed. I wish I could have at least one job, let alone all these different jobs,’" she said.

"This is total purgatory that this puts U.S. citizen taxpayers into," said Marti Dinerstein, president of Immigration Matters, a public-policy analysis firm in New York.  "It's a nightmare to get it stopped. And when they do get it stopped, it is only for that particular year. The whole mess could begin anew next tax season."

But neither the Social Security Administration nor the IRS tells consumers that something unusual is happening with their Social Security numbers.  It seems consumers are the last ones in on the joke.

“This is the schizophrenia of the federal government," Huse, the former Social Security inspector general said.  "The Homeland Security people are screaming about the accuracy of records, and you have the IRS taking money from wherever it comes."

Mismatches go unchecked
Since the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, workers must produce a Social Security card or similar identity verification when obtaining employment.  Employers are supposed to verify that the card is legitimate, but many don't. 

By creating a black market for counterfeit Social Security cards, the law may have inadvertently kicked off the identity theft crisis, experts say.

"It's truly an unintended consequences of the 1986 immigration law," said Marilanne Hincapie of the National Immigration Law Center. "That’s why there is this need for comprehensive immigration reform."

For now, with the tacit approval from all involved, undocumented workers buy counterfeit cards from suppliers who steal or simply manufacture Social Security numbers.

"You could end up at birth with a bad credit history and a work record," Hamp said.

The Social Security Administration has made some efforts to straighten out its records, sending letters to hundreds of thousands of businesses, asking that they follow-up on name/number mismatches.

In 2002, the agency sent 900,000 letters to companies that had workers using erroneous names or numbers. The letters confused employers and employees alike: some workers fled immediately, other employers fired workers on the spot.

Immigration rights groups objected, pointing out that inclusion in a no-match list was not an automatic indicator of illegal status. The effort did little to reduce the Earnings Suspense File or fix Social Security accounting, so the agency backed off.

Meanwhile, the IRS, which is charged with enforcing the requirement that employers collect accurate Social Security number data, has never once levied a fine against a corporation for failing to do so.

Change tied up with key policy shifts
The issue of Social Security number abuse is getting some attention as the Bush administration presses ahead on two related issues: Social Security reform and undocumented worker legalization.

The single best way to reduce the amount of entries into the Earnings Suspense File -- and remove the need for immigrant identity theft -- would be to provide a path to legal status for undocumented workers.

On the other hand, removing items from that file would actually increase future liabilities for Social Security, since more wage earners would have a claim on future Social Security payments, adding a bit of fuel for those who warn about Social Security deficits looming in the future.

As things stand, payments made by workers that land in the Earnings Suspense File -- for 2002, Social Security taxes paid on wages of $56 billion -- represent essentially free money to the system, since they come with no future payout liabilities.

In the meantime, neither the Social Security Administration nor the IRS has any public plans to attempt to notify consumers who might be sharing their identity with an undocumented worker -- or 30. 

Telling the number's rightful holder that someone else is using it might create more panic then necessary, some Social Security investigators said -- and there's not a lot of good advice the agency could offer, anyway. There's little a victim could do at that point. Uncovering just who is the rightful owner of the Social Security number -- and who is the imposter -- could also pose a challenge. So would finding correct contact information for victims.

Betsy Broder, the attorney in charge of the Federal Trade Commission's efforts to combat identity theft, said more government coordination is surely needed, but she sympathized with the challenge facing the IRS and SSA.

"Of course consumers are always better off if they know how their information is being misused. But having said that, it's really complex with federal agencies," she said. "There are restrictions under the Privacy Act. You can't release to one person another person's information. And the agencies are often not in a position to know with any certainty who was the right person and who was the imposter, leading to possible problems with unauthorized disclosure of information."

The credit bureaus cite much the same concerns, indicating they simply couldn't sell Social Security number-search tools to any consumer who wants them. Even data aggregators like ChoicePoint don't sell such a product to consumers.

Millet thinks there's another motivation for agencies to not deal with the problem. Everyone except the consumer is profiting from the situation, she said. Notifying every consumer whose number is being misused by someone else would be disruptive to the American workforce, and would force government agencies to face the sticky undocumented worker problem.

"If there was no issue, the government would issue work visas to all of them," she said. "But if we gave them all their own Social Security numbers, they'd be able to compete for real wages. That's why no one is dealing with this."

Bob Sullivan is author of Your Evil Twin: Behind the Identity Theft Epidemic.

© 2007 MSNBC Interactive

is a term first appearing in U.S. literature in the 1990s, leading to the drafting of the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act.^[1]

In 1998, The Federal Trade Commission appeared before the Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism and Government Information of the Committee of the Judiciary, United States Senate.^[2] The FTC highlighted the concerns of consumers for financial crimes exploiting their credit worthiness to commit loan fraud, mortgage fraud, lines-of-credit fraud, credit card fraud, commodities and services frauds. With the rising awareness of consumers to an international problem, in particular through a proliferation of web sites and the media, the term "identity theft" has since morphed to encompass a much broader range of identification-based crimes. The more traditional crimes range anywhere from dead beat dads avoiding their financial obligations, to criminals providing the police with stolen or forged documents, thereby avoiding detection, as well as money laundering, trafficking in human beings, stock market manipulation and even to terrorism.

According to the non-profit Identity Theft Resource Center, identity theft is "sub-divided into four categories: Financial Identity Theft (using another's name and SSN to obtain goods and services), Criminal Identity Theft (posing as another when apprehended for a crime), Identity Cloning (using another's information to assume his or her identity in daily life) and Business/Commercial Identity Theft (using another's business name to obtain credit)."

The Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act (2003)[ITADA] amended the U.S. Code, s. 1028 - "Fraud related to activity in connection with identification documents, authentication features, and information". The Code now makes possession of any "means of identification" to "knowingly transfer, possess, or use without lawful authority" a federal crime, alongside unlawful possession of identification documents.

Some people prefer the term "identity fraud" to describe when their means of identification has been exploited for an unlawful purpose. Others believe the thief does deprive the owner of his identity by replacing his reputation with the thief's. Both uses of the term focus on the act of acquiring the legally attributed personal identifiers and other personal information necessary to perpetrate the impersonation.^[3]

A classic example of consumer-dependent financial crime occurs when Bob obtains a loan from a financial institution impersonating Peter. Bob uses Peter's personal identifiers that he has somehow acquired. These personal identifiers conform with the data retained on Peter by national credit-rating services. The identifiers include surname, given names, date of birth, Social Security number (U.S.), Social Insurance Number (Cda), current and former addresses etc. These data are all part of credit header information retained by credit-rating services. For Bob, these crimes are non self-revealing. With consumers being credit-dependent, the onus shifts to them to re-establish their credit-worthiness with the lending institutions and credit-rating services.

Less commonly understood outside criminal intelligence and law enforcement circles is the impact of identification-based concealment crimes. As with credit-dependent consumer financial crimes, criminals acquire legally attributed personal identifiers and then clone someone to them for concealment from authorities. Unlike credit-dependent financial crimes, they are non self-revealing, continuing for an indeterminate amount of time without being detected.

The crimes include illegal immigration, terrorism and espionage, to mention a few. It may also be a means of blackmail if activities undertaken by the thief in the name of the victim would have serious consequences for the victim. There are cases of identity cloning to attack payment systems, such as obtaining medical treatment.

[edit] Personal Guardianship

The unlawful acquisition of legally attributed personal identifiers is made possible by serious breaches of privacy. For consumers it is usually due to personal naivete in who they provide their information to or carelessness in protecting their information from theft (e.g. vehicle break-ins and home invasions). Guardianship of personal identifiers by consumers is the most common intervention strategy recommended by the Federal Trade Commission, Canadian Phone Busters and most sites that address "identity theft". Personal guardianship issues include recommendations on what consumers may do to prevent their information getting into the wrong hands.

[edit] Agency Guardianship

Governments trade off diligence in issuing both foundation and other means of identification documents providing access to benefits, privileges and services, for delivery of smooth and efficient services to their clients.

In their May 1998 testimony on Identity Theft before a subcommittee of the Committee of the Judiciary, United States Senate, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported on their response to consumer concern about the sale of their Social Security numbers and other personal identifiers by the individual reference service industry [credit-raters and data miners]. The FTC agreed to the industry's draft of self-regulating principles restricting access to non-public information which includes "credit header" information on credit reports. The credit header data typically includes the individual's name, address, aliases, Social Security number, current and prior addresses and telephone number.^[4] According the industry the restrictions vary according to the category of customer. Credit-rating services gather and disclosure personal and credit information to a wide business client base.

Governments, in registering sole proprietorships, partnerships and corporations do not make an effort to determine if the officers listed in the Articles of Incorporation are who they say they are, potentially allowing criminals access to personal information through credit-rating and data mining services. Other poor corporate diligence standards include: i) a failure to shred confidential information before throwing it into dumpsters; ii) the brokerage of personal information to other businesses without ensuring that the purchaser maintains adequate security controls; and iii) the theft of laptop computers being carried off-site containing vast amounts of personal information.

If corporate or government organizations do not protect consumer privacy, client confidentiality and political privacy, the acquisition of personal identifiers to commit unlawful acts will continue to be a prime target for criminals.^[5]

[edit] Legal response

In the United Kingdom personal data is protected by the Data Protection Act. The Act covers all personal data which an organization may hold, including names, birthday and anniversary dates, addresses, telephone numbers, etc.

Under English law, the deception offenses under the Theft Act 1968 increasingly contend with identity theft situations. In R v Seward (2005) EWCA Crim 1941^[6] the defendant was acting as the "front man" in the use of stolen credit cards and other documents to obtain goods. He obtained goods to the value of £10,000 for others who are unlikely ever to be identified. The Court of Appeal considered sentencing policy for deception offenses involving "identity theft" and concluded that a prison sentence was required. Henriques J. said at para 14:"Identity fraud is a particularly pernicious and prevalent form of dishonesty calling for, in our judgment, deterrent sentences."

In Australia, privacy law is the responsibility of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.^[7]

In the USA, until 2003, dealing with consumer crimes involving legally attributed personal identifiers was the jurisdictional responsibility of the local and state authorities. Identification documents are a different story, addressed in Title 18 > Part I > Chapter 47 s.1028 of the U.S. Code. The unlawful use of identification documents is historically a federal offence. In response to the consumer issue of "identity theft", the U.S. Congress passed the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act (2003) amending Title 18 > Part I > Chapter 47, s. 1028 to include the unlawful use of a "means of identification" [s,1028 (d)(7)] making it a federal crime alongside identification documents. The title of s.1028 is, "Fraud related to activity in connection with identification documents, authentication features, and information". The Act also provides the Federal Trade Commission with authority to track the number of incidents and the dollar value of losses. There figures relate mainly to consumer financial crimes and not the broader range of all identification-based crimes.^[8] Punishments for the unlawful use of a "means of identification" were strengthened in s.1028a, allowing for a consecutive sentence under specific conditions of a felony violation defined in s. 1028c.

If used to commit another crime in the commission of identity theft in the United States (if charged federally) include:

• Class B Felony: 6-20 years in Jail and a fine up to $10,000
• Class C Felony: 2-8 years in Jail and a fine up to $10,000

If charges are brought by state or local law enforcement agencies, different penalties apply depending on the state.

In France, a person convicted of identity theft can be sentenced upto 5 years in prison and fined upto €75,000.[1]

[edit] Techniques for obtaining information

• Stealing mail or rummaging through rubbish (dumpster diving)
• Stealing payment or identification cards or the information on them (pickpocketing, "drive-by" scanning of RF-enabled cards/tags)
• Eavesdropping on public transactions to obtain personal data (shoulder surfing)
• Stealing personal information in computer databases (Trojan horses, hacking)
• Infiltration of organizations that store large amounts of personal information
• Impersonating a trusted organization in an electronic communication (phishing)
• Obtaining castings of fingers for falsifying fingerprint identification.
• browsing social network (MySpace, Facebook, Bebo etc) sites, online for personal details that have been posted by users
• Simply researching about the victim in government registers, at the internet and so on.

[edit] Spread and impact of consumer-based "identity theft"

Surveys in the USA from 2003 to 2006 showed a decrease in the total number of victims but an increase in the total value of identity fraud to US$56.6 billion in 2006. The average fraud per person rose from $5,249 in 2003 to $6,383 in 2006.^[9]

The 2003 survey from the Identity Theft Resource Center found that :

• Only 15% of victims find out about the theft through proactive action taken by a business
• The average time spent by victims resolving the problem is about 40 hours
• 73% of respondents indicated the crime involved the thief acquiring a credit card
• The emotional impact is similar to that of victims of violent crimes

In a widely publicized account,^[10] Michelle Brown, a victim of identity fraud, testified before a U.S. Senate Committee Hearing on Identity Theft. Ms. Brown testified that: "over a year and a half from January 1998 through July 1999, one individual impersonated me to procure over $50,000 in goods and services. Not only did she damage my credit, but she escalated her crimes to a level that I never truly expected: she engaged in drug trafficking. The crime resulted in my erroneous arrest record, a warrant out for my arrest, and eventually, a prison record when she was booked under my name as an inmate in the Chicago Federal Prison."

In Australia, identity theft was estimated to be worth between AUS$1billion and AUS$4 billion per annum in 2001.^[11]

In the United Kingdom the Home Office reported that identity fraud costs the UK economy £1.7 billion^[12] although privacy groups object to the validity of these numbers, arguing that they are being used by the government to push for introduction of national ID cards. ^{[citation needed]} Confusion over exactly what constitutes identity theft has led to claims that statistics may be exaggerated.^[13]

[edit] In popular culture

The public fascination with impostors has long had an effect on popular culture and extends to modern literature.

• The story of Michelle Brown has been made into a film.^[14]
• In Frederick Forsyth's novel The Day of the Jackal the would-be assassin of General de Gaulle steals three identities. Firstly, he assumes the identity of a dead child by obtaining the child's birth certificate and using it to apply for a passport. He also steals the passports of a Danish clergyman and an American tourist, and disguises himself as each of those persons in turn.
• In the 1995 movie The Net, Sandra Bullock plays a computer consultant whose life is taken over with the help of computer assisted identity theft.
• In Jonathan Smith's novel Night Windows the action is based on the horrific and real life theft of Smith's own identity.
• In the webcomic Kevin and Kell the character Danielle Kindle dies and is later "replaced" by a double from a parallel world. After an attempt at taking over her predecessor's identity, Danielle Kendall confesses her true nature and gets accepted by the predecessor's family - if not by all the readers.
• T. Coraghessan Boyle's 2006 novel Talk Talk describes the theft of Dana Halter's identity, and her and Martin Bridger's chase of the thief across the country.
• In Susan Schaab's novel Wearing the Spider a female attorney gets caught in a web of sexual harrassment, identiy theft and political intrigue.

[edit] See also

• Impostor
• Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act
• Fair Credit Billing Act
• Fair Credit Reporting Act
• Identity document forgery
• Lapsed lurker
• Pharming
• Phishing
• Spam
• Credit card fraud

[edit] References

1. ^ http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/itada/itadact.htm Public Law 105-318, 112 Stat. 3007 (Oct. 30, 1998)
2. ^ http://www.ftc.gov/os/1998/05/identhef.htm Prepared Statement of the Federal Trade Commission on "Identity Theft" May 20, 1998
3. ^ What Are Identity Theft and Identity Fraud?, United States Department of Justice, retrieved June 30, 2006
4. ^ http://www.ftc.gov/os/1998/05/identhef.htm Testimony before the Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism and Government Information, Committee of the Judiciary, United States Senate May 20, 1998 pp 5,6
5. ^ Internet Identity Theft - A Tragedy for Victims, Software and Information Industry Association, retrieved June 30, 2006
6. ^ R v Seward (2005) EWCA Crim 1941
7. ^ Privacy Commissioner, retrieved June 30, 2006
8. ^ Federal Trade Commission, retrieved June 30, 2006
9. ^ Recent Surveys and Studies, Privacy Clearing House, retrieved June 30, 2006
10. ^ Verbal Testimony by Michelle Brown, July 2000, U.S. Senate Committee Hearing on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism and Government Information -- "Identity Theft: How to Protect and Restore Your Good Name"
11. ^ Identity Crime Research and Coordination, Australasian Centre for Policing Research, retrieved June 30, 2006
12. ^ What is Identity theft?,Home Office,retrieved June 30, 2006
13. ^ Identity Theft Over-Reported,Bruce Schneier, retrieved June 30, 2006
14. ^ Identity Theft: The Michelle Brown Story (2004)

[edit] External links

• Identity Theft Resource Center - A U.S. non-profit nationally known organization that focuses on issues of identity theft, scams, and fraud
• The President’s Task Force on Identity Theft - a government task force established by US President George W. Bush to fight identity theft.
• All Party Parliamentary Group on Identity Fraud Website - initiative of British parliamentarians
• United Kingdom Home Office Identity Theft Website
• Privacy Rights Clearinghouse webpages a non profit consumer information and advocacy organisation
• Identity theft – United States Federal Trade Commission
• Identity Theft and Fraud – United States Department of Justice
• Internet Fraud – United States Department of Justice
• Identity Theft – Carnegie Mellon University
• Privacy Laws by State – Electronic Privacy Information Center
• "Transcript of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras Announcing the Release of the President's Identity Theft Task Force", US Department of Justice, April 23, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-04-24. 
• Identity Theft: A Research Review, National Institute of Justice 2007

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