The National Fraud Center has linked sharp increases in identity theft directly to the Internet and has called on Congress, the government and privacy advocates to further address the problem through legislation and self-regulatory actions.
In a white paper based on NFC studies over the last 14 years, organization CEO Norma A. Willox, stated that “the dramatic growth of identity theft appears to be tied to technology, particularly the Internet, and as a result, is rapidly developing international implications” that threaten “consumer confidence in the Internet as a means to conduct business.”
Warning that the Internet has allowed the identity thief to obtain personal identifiers of multiple persons more quickly; higher quality fake identification tools such as drivers licenses, birth certificates, and Social Security Numbers and through e-commerce, to render the credit transaction completely impersonal, Willox said the potential harm caused by an identity thief using the Internet is “exponential.”
According to the latest figures available from the government, arrests for identity fraud increased from 8,806 in 1995 to 9,455 in 1997 and financial losses to both consumers and businesses during that period zoomed from $442 million to $745 million.
Stating that the “crime of the 1990s is positioned to be the scourge of the Twenty First Century” the study called Congressional passage of the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act of 1998 an important first step in dealing with the problem.
There was no immediate comment from industry groups or the two panels Congress recently created to develop new, comprehensive legislation to protect personal privacy, including identity theft.
