Government reports surge in identity theft complaints last year

WASHINGTON -- The government received twice as many complaints about identity theft last year over 2001, with victims reporting hijacked credit cards, drained bank accounts and tarnished reputations.

"This is a crime that is almost solely on the shoulders of the victim to resolve," said Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a San Diego-based consumer group. "They're beleaguered, they're tired, they're angry and it takes them a good deal of time to recover."

The number of identity theft complaints rose from about 86,000 in 2001 to about 162,000 last year, the Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday. The figures come from a government database of 380,000 fraud complaints collected by the FTC, the FBI and scores of law enforcement and consumer groups.

Identity theft accounted for 43 percent of the complaints, topping the government's list of consumer frauds for a third consecutive year.

Up to 700,000 people in the United States may be victimized by identity bandits each year, the Justice Department says. It costs the average victim more than $1,000 in expenses to cope with the damage to their accounts and reputations, the FTC has said.

Privacy advocates advise consumers to protect themselves from identity theft by checking their credit reports twice a year, shredding personal documents before throwing them away and cleansing wallets of old receipts and printed Social Security numbers.

Howard Beales, chief of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said complaints about identity theft have increased along with greater public awareness of the problem, prompted by the agency's efforts and recent high-profile identity theft cases. In 2001, the FTC began promoting a dedicated Web site and toll-free phone number for victims.

In November, federal authorities in New York broke up what they called the biggest identity theft case in U.S. history and charged three men with stealing credit information for 30,000 people. Prosecutors said the scheme began with passwords and records stolen from a software company.

Last spring, Attorney General John Ashcroft ordered federal prosecutors to speed up investigations and trials of people accused of stealing identities.

The District of Columbia had the highest rate of identity theft in 2002 with 123 victims for every 100,000 people. California and Arizona followed with 91 and 88 victims per 100,000 people, respectively.

About half of all other types of fraud complaints last year had some connection to the Internet, the FTC said.

They involved online transactions, Web site advertising or promotions sent as e-mail spam.

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On the Net:

FTC: http://www.ftc.gov

ID theft site: http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/

Privacy Rights Clearinghouse: http://www.privacyrights.org