| IDENTITY THEFT |

While person-to-person crime is still rampant, crime has shifted slightly to the method of "white-collar" crime. People hide behind computer screens and steal your personal information. This can cause such turmoil in a person's life due to the delayed time frame of finding the theft and the jurisdictional issues caused by foreign criminal operations.

What is identity theft and fraud?

The short answer is that identity theft is a crime. Identity theft and identity fraud are terms used to refer to all types of crime in which someone wrongfully obtains and uses another person's personal data in some way that involves fraud or deception, typically for economic gain. These Web pages are intended to explain why you need to take precautions to protect yourself from identity theft. Unlike your fingerprints, which are unique to you and cannot be given to someone else for their use, your personal data ­ especially your Social Security number, your bank account or credit card number, your telephone calling card number, and other valuable identifying data ­ can be used, if they fall into the wrong hands, to personally profit at your expense. In the United States and Canada, for example, many people have reported that unauthorized persons have taken funds out of their bank or financial accounts, or, in the worst cases, taken over their identities altogether, running up vast debts and committing crimes while using the victims's names. In many cases, a victim's losses may include not only out-of-pocket financial losses, but substantial additional financial costs associated with trying to restore his reputation in the community and correcting erroneous information for which the criminal is responsible. (source: US DOJ)

What should I do if I believe I am a victim of identity theft or fraud?

If you think you've become a victim of identity theft or fraud, act immediately to minimize the damage to your personal funds and financial accounts, as well as your reputation. Here's a list -- based in part on information obtained from the website of the US Department of Justice-- of some actions that you should take right away:

1. Contact the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to report the situation, whether Online,

2. By telephone toll-free at 1-877-ID THEFT (877-438-4338) or TDD at 1-866-653-4261, or

3. By mail to Consumer Response Center, FTC, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580.

Under the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act , the Federal Trade Commission is responsible for receiving and processing complaints from people who believe they may be victims of identity theft, providing informational materials to those people, and referring those complaints to appropriate entities, including the major credit reporting agencies and law enforcement agencies. For further information, please check the FTC's identity theft Web pages . You can also call your local office of the FBI or the U.S. Secret Service to report crimes relating to identity theft and fraud. (source: US DOJ)

4. Contact your local police department to have a complaint report initiated for documentation. Understand that many times these complaints can only be documented and not strategically followed up on, due to resources available and location of the criminal suspect(s).