The short answer is that identity theft is
a crime. Identity theft and identity fraud are terms used to
refer to all types of crime in which someone wrongfully
obtains and uses another person's personal data in some way
that involves fraud or deception, typically for economic
gain. 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
victims's names. In many cases, a victim's losses may
include not only out-of-pocket financial losses, but
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.
While the victim and his wife spent more than four years and
more than $15,000 of their own money to restore their credit
and reputation, the criminal served a brief sentence for
making a false statement to procure a firearm, but made no
restitution to his victim for any of the harm he had caused.
This case, and others like it, prompted Congress in 1998 to
create a new federal offense of identity theft.
