Grand theft identity and your credit

Newsweek has just posted an interesting article about large scale data theft cases:

"Over the last nine years, criminals have gotten a better understanding of the power of information," says Rob Douglas of PrivacyToday, a security consulting firm. "Instead of selling drugs, so much can be made so quickly with identity theft, and the likelihood of getting caught is almost nil."

Avivah Litan of research firm Gartner Group speculates that fewer than 1 in 700 identity crimes leads to a conviction. This goes a long way toward explaining why it's the fastest-growing crime of this century. Crooks rack up $53 billion a year in ID theft in the United States alone. Consumers get stuck with $5 billion directly; and the rest is paid by retailers and businesses—which pass it on in higher prices."

Although data theft cases are on the rise, the actual rate of these stolen identities being used fraudulently is quite low. One Visa spokesperson estimated that only 2% of people who have had their data compromised ever see their information used for identity theft. This CNET News.com article on data theft is a good companion to the Newsweek piece. If you get a notice that your data has been compromised, it makes sense to check your credit reports and take some precautions but it's not likely that your data will be misused.

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[credit card fraud]

Five people whose attempts to make largest credit card fraud were foiled pleaded guilty yesterday.
The gang, who had planned a £17 million credit card scam, had already spent money on foreign property, investments and international holidays.
The scamers stole 32,000 credit card numbers.