"Identity theft is not necessarily a high-tech crime, and can
just as easily damage the credit reputations of low-tech adults who
don't spend any time on the internet," said Avivah Litan, vice
president and research director for Gartner.
"More than half of all identity theft - where the method of
theft is documented - is committed by criminals that have
established relationships with their victims, such as family
members, roommates, neighbours, or co-workers," said Litan, citing
figures published by the Federal Trade Commission.
With identity theft, a thief takes over a consumer's entire
identity by stealing critical private information, such as the
Social Security number, driver's license number, address, credit
card number or bank account number.
The thief can then use the stolen information to obtain illegal
loans or credit lines to buy goods and services under the stolen
name. Identity thieves typically change the consumer's mailing
address to hide their activities.
"Many banks, credit card issuers, cell phone service providers
and other enterprises that extend financial credit to consumers
don't recognise most identity theft fraud for what it is," Litan
said.
"Instead they mistakenly write it off as credit losses, causing
a serious disconnect between the magnitude of identity theft that
innocent consumers experience and the industry's proper recognition
of the crime. This causes a disincentive to fix the problem with
the urgency it requires."
In May 2003, Gartner surveyed by mail 2,445 US households to
gauge the impact identity theft is having on consumers.
