Over the past decade, identity theft has become the fastest growing financial crime and one of the fastest growing crimes overall in the United States. About 10 million Americans become victims of identity theft every year, with financial losses totaling nearly $50 billion in 2007.

One of the reasons that identity theft problems have become so widespread is because of how easy it is for sensitive information to get into the wrong hands. Criminals are getting more creative when it comes to finding ways to take advantage of having an individual’s personal information. Anyone can fall victim to identity theft, and there are several legal issues involved with this growing crime.

In 1998, Congress passed extensive identity theft laws after a few high profile cases made it a crime that needed to be addressed. Leading up to the 1998 lawmaking surrounding identity theft, 94% of financial crimes in 1996 and 1997 involved identity theft.

As more of the transactions Americans participate in each day become an electronic exchange of information, it has become easier than ever for criminals to act anonymously using another individual’s information. In Congress’ report on identity theft, they outlined many of the known methods criminals use to gather information. The report contained accounts of everything from dumpster diving and stealing mail to more sophisticated electronic information gathering tools. The report even showed involvement with organized crime rings in identity theft.

Because there are so many victims of identity theft, investigators usually don’t have the time or resources to follow the clues through every individual case. Unfortunately, most criminals are never caught for this crime.

The Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission are charged with enforcing identity theft crimes, but because of the difficulty in tracking and apprehending identity thieves, most Federal resources have been dedicated to educating the public and preventing identity theft as opposed to catching the criminals. Other law enforcement agencies, such as the FBI, have formed task forces dedicated to busting identity theft rings with various levels of success.

There are several laws on the books regarding identity theft. Many of these laws deal with the crime of identity theft itself, while others laws are designed to help victims of identity theft effectively restore credit and legal issues that can be extremely time consuming to deal with. Almost always, identity theft is accompanied by other crimes. Theft and various types of fraud are the most common crimes that are committed by identity thieves. There are also laws in place to limit losses to victims of identity theft, provided that they report the crime within a timely manner.

Victims of identity theft should contact the three credit reporting agencies and speak with their Fraud departments as soon as possible. Credit agencies will place fraud alerts on a victim’s credit report and monitor activity closely. Victims should also contact each of their individual creditor’s to close open accounts and open new accounts with new account numbers and passwords. Finally, the victim should alert both local and Federal authorities to report the crime.