Living in the information age with the rapid growth of technology all around us simply makes us more vulnerable.

The government has set up many hotlines and other bureaucratic tools to deal with the mushrooming crime of identity theft. But just like corporate America can’t seem to catch up with the security implications of identity theft, so can’t the government seem to legislate fast enough to deal with the problem.

Here are some interesting, if scary, facts to keep you on your guard and guide you.

Identity Theft Fact #1
Half the number of identity theft victims has no idea how their data was stolen.

Identity Theft Fact #2
A fourth of the victims said they only found out about suspicious movements in their accounts when their banks or credit card companies told them about it.

Identity Theft Fact #3
Less than 10% of victims said they only learned identity thieves targeted them when they were rejected when applying for credit.

Identity Theft Fact #4
Victims today discover identity theft earlier – but it takes longer to erase the bad marks from their credit records than ever before! (Average time to fix the problem = 600 hours, a three-hundred-percent increase from former figures!)

Identity Theft Fact #5
15% of identity theft victims say their data was used by thieves for non-financial matters, such as to get documents or forms from the government.

Identity Theft Fact #6
67% of all victims (that’s 6.7 million Americans) say the thieves used their existing credit accounts, rather than opening new ones.

Identity Theft Fact #7
A fifth of all identity theft victims say thieves used their savings or checking accounts.

Identity Theft Fact #8
4% of all victims say that thieves got their personal data by simply stealing their mail!

Identity Theft Fact #9
The emotional effect on victims of identity theft equals that of those individuals who are victims of violence.

Identity Theft Fact #10
The attitude of the parties a victim of identity theft has to deal with lacks sensitivity. The situation hasn’t improved since the first research was conducted around year 2000.

One of the reasons for this identity theft up trend is that the American consumer market sits like a big, vulnerable target on the face of the globe. Robust American consumerism contributes to this vulnerability. So does an increasingly plastic economy.

The problem becomes worse when you consider that not only have industries and technologies all over the world gone global, so has crime.

Identity Theft Using US Commerce & Law

In one of the most remarkable cases of gang identity theft and fraud activities in recent years, the Wo Hop To case stands out. Not only did the Asian gang use legitimate American cardholders, it also used federal laws to keep the racket going!

The gang had already set up a veritable counterfeit credit card factory in the US, importing everything from machines to magnetic strips from Hong Kong. Even a sort of identity theft quality-control process was set up: a gang member would try out the fake cards at restaurants, gas stations, and stores.

And then they got creative.

Identity Theft – Creating a “Win-Win” Situation

The gang started recruiting genuine credit cardholders, asking them to OVERPAY their monthly bills with counterfeit bank checks. Once the recruit’s account was credited, the recruit and a gang member would go on a shopping spree.

The gang would then fence the goods and the recruit would get some of the proceeds. Eventually, the gang would use federal bankruptcy laws to have the recruit avoid any liability by filing for credit protection!

It succeeded because it was so easy to get recruits. The recruits felt protected by federal laws AND it was so lucrative!

One recruit pocketed a total of $615,000 inside 12 months!

After the dust settled, everyone who participated in this massive scam had cost MasterCard and Visa over $100 million, affecting over a hundred financial institutions.

To this day, credit card fraud is the leading culprit in identity theft cases throughout America, judging by the complaints received by the FTC.

When the notorious Asian gang case happened in the mid-1990s, experts predicted that credit cards would cease to exist in the next few years and that all transactions (i.e., credit, debit, ATM, etc.) would be unified into one plastic card. Moreover, even filing for a loan would remove humans from the equation, using purely plastic and machine (as in an ATM machine).

They were dead wrong.

Identity theft has put America on the defensive and the scenarios experts predicted appear to be still a decade or two away.