Changing Identities

Once personal information is out there, there's no telling where it will end up. Credit card information can turn up on illegal "carder," or credit card trading Web sites, along with thousands of card numbers posted with other personal data. Other legitimate Web sites sell lists of personal data for marketing purposes. But thieves can buy that data and use it to create fake IDs and checks.

Buying personal information is all too easy for tech-savvy thieves, says Jamie Court, of the California-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR) and author of Corporateering: How Corporate Power Steals Your Personal Freedom and What You Can Do About It (Tarcher, 2003).

"Acquiring Social Security numbers is a matter of just $26 dollars and 24 hours," Court says. "You give information to a bank, insurer, or brokerage, and it's shared with hundreds of affiliates, affiliates sell it to other companies, all with little or no controls or cross-checking," he says. And if thieves are caught, law enforcement doesn't always respond as it should. Although various agencies around the country are beginning to deal with this new crime, historically police have claimed that such crimes are "too small" to investigate.