• Identity theft is the crime of using someone else's personal information - such as an account number, driver's license, health insurance card or Social Security number - to commit fraud.
• Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the nation - a $50 billion a year industry that continues to expand its reach. The risk of identity theft is real and growing -- hitting over 8 million Americans in 2008 alone, a crime amounting to over $45 billion*.
• You or someone you know may have experienced some sort of identity theft. The crime takes many forms. Identity thieves may rent an apartment, obtain a credit card, or establish a telephone account in your name.
• Identity theft is serious. While some victims can resolve their problems fairly quickly, others spend hundreds of personal hours and thousands of dollars to repair the damage to their good name and credit record.
• Some consumers victimized by identity theft may lose out on job opportunities or be denied loans for homes, cars, or education because of negative information on their credit reports. In rare cases, they may even be arrested for crimes they did not commit.

*2008 Identity Fraud Survey Report, Javelin Research

Once identity thieves have your personal information, they may use it in a variety of ways. They may:

• Take out major loans in your name and not pay off the debt.
• Open a bank account in your name and write bad checks.
• Forge checks on your account and cash them at your bank to clean out your account.
• Change the billing address on your credit card and run up charges on your account.
• Clone your ATM or debit cards and make electronic withdrawals in your name.
• Steal your Social Security number, and possibly steal your retirement benefits.
• Commit telephone or utilities fraud, opening up new accounts in your name.
• Begin an entire new life to hide their criminal record, getting a driver's license or official I.D. using your name and their picture. Or, they may present your identity to police or court authorities after being arrested, creating a criminal record in your name.

Identity thieves have become increasingly savvy at gaining access to people's personal information. There is a lucrative black market for stolen identities, leading to elaborate schemes to steal your personal information. Here are some common methods they use:

• Open new credit card accounts in your name.
• Hacking into a bank, credit union or credit card company database (data breach).
• Stealing bank or credit card statements from your mail.
• Stealing your Personal Identity Number (PIN) at an ATM, gas station POS or grocery store POS.
• Cloning credit card information at restaurants and bars where you swipe your credit and debit cards or hand them to servers who process the charge behind closed doors.
• Theft of information from retailers, which may be low-tech, like grabbing a day's receipts, or high-tech, as when a hacker breaks into a store's customer rewards program database.
• Dumpster diving - the act of going into people's garbage for pre-approved credit card offers, bank statements or other discarded material that may contain personal information.
• Phishing - when a scammer sends an e-mail that appears to come from your bank or another legitimate company, asking you for personal information such as your credit card or Social Security number; phishing scams may also be conducted by telephone, with an unknown caller claiming to represent your bank or credit card issuer.
• Employees at an auto dealership or mortgage lender who steal consumer's personal data in order to access credit histories for identity theft purposes.

Thieves can obtain data from other sources that may surprise you:

• Data breach from school or university via stolen laptops - thieves may only be after the hardware, but then discover data on the hard drives.
• Doctor's offices or medical insurance companies, where your Social Security number may be stored or used as a policy number.
• County Recorder's office where your house deed is registered and recorded.
• County Municipal Hall where you file and get the official marriage certificate, birth certificate, and death certificate. These certificates have your entire family's address, SSN, DOB, DOD, telephone number and other personal details.
• Hospital where you gave birth since the application for your new baby's Social Security number is filled out at the hospital.
• Car dealerships where you bought your present and past cars. They usually attach your latest credit report and score to your purchase document.
• Annual earnings statements that the Social Security Administration mails out.
• Veterans Administration, its affiliates and hospitals. They not only have information on military personnel but also on the families and beneficiaries of veterans.
• Previous Employers - They have your SSN, your past and present names (aka maiden name), past and future addresses, your old W2s, 401K and beneficiary forms, etc.
• Human Resource departments of companies where you've applied for employment.
• Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) information can be easily obtained.
• Airline "Frequent Flyer" clubs.
• Grocery store "Preferred Customer" clubs.
• Sports associations.
• Library cards.
• Payday check cashing outlets.
• Passport centers.

Medical identity theft frequently results in erroneous information being added to a person´s medical record, or even the creation of an entirely fictitious medical record in the victim´s name. When you seek care, you could end up with the wrong medical history, wrong blood type, wrong allergies and other errors that could cause you serious medical problems.

Medical identity theft can be difficult to uncover, and may not be detected on your credit report. Typically, it is hidden in large electronic payment systems and in widely dispersed databases and medical files. As the U.S. health system transitions from paper-based to electronic, this crime may become easier to commit.

There are a number of ways medical identity thieves steal your identity:

• One of the most common forms of medical identity theft is using someone else's insurance ID card to receive medical services.
• Identity thieves may also use the person's stolen identity to obtain money by falsifying claims for medical services and falsifying medical records to support those claims.
• In addition to credit cards being opened in a victim's name, perpetrators can also run up large hospital bills that can go to collections.
• Thieves can also steal a doctor's name, medical license number; forge their signature, falsifying patient records and prescriptions.
• Unlike purely financial forms of identity theft, medical identity thieves may also harm victims by creating false entries in a person's health records at hospitals, doctors' offices, pharmacies and insurance companies.