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Who Faces the Greatest Risks? Several obstacles hamper attempts to derive accu- rate estimates of the frequency of these thefts and the profile of those who are targeted most often. First, some people do not yet know that impostors have assumed their identities. Second, some victims are not aware that the FTC has been designated […]

Is the Problem Growing or Subsiding? How many people know what it is like to be impersonated? How rapidly are their ranks increas- ing? To address these concerns, it is necessary to ask “What are the yearly incidence and longer term prevalence rates?” A wide range of estimates can be found because of variations in

Losses and Suffering This potentially serious type of larceny can damage a person’s finances, reputation, and credit history, as well as cause great emotional distress that can trig- ger relationship problems. A targeted individual must undertake tasks that are confusing and infuri- ating because the burden of proving innocence falls to the victim. Identity theft

PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH, 2004 (REMARKS WHEN SIGNING THE IDENTITY THEFT PENALTY ENHANCEMENT ACT) The Nature of the Problem and How Many People Experience Its Aggravations Throughout history, people seeking to evade cap- ture have used disguises, false papers, and aliases to pass themselves off as someone else. Spies, sabo- teurs, infiltrators, terrorists, and fugitives from

FOCUSING ON INDIVIDUALS WHOSE IDENTITIES WERE STOLEN The crime of identity theft undermines the basic trust on which our economy depends. When a person takes out an insurance policy, or makes an online purchase or opens a savings account, he or she must have confidence that personal financial information will be protected and treated with

Clark and Harris, 1992; NICB Study, 1993; and Krauss, 1994). Finally, to make matters more complex, the desirability of particular vehicles on the black market varies around the country. For example, thieves concentrated on Japanese models in Los Angeles, pickup trucks in Dallas, and American sedans in Chicago, reflecting the preferences of consumers in those

Which Motorists Should Be Most Concerned When Parking? A truck is stolen from the parking lot of a hotel. Inside it are three presidential seals, three lecterns, and $200,000 worth of electronic equipment, including a teleprompter. The truck is recovered a few hours later—it was abandoned in the parking lot of another hotel and looted

Trends in Motor Vehicle Theft Changes in motor vehicle theft rates over the past few decades are shown in Figure 4.5. One trend line, based on NCVS findings, portrays yearly rates of thefts of noncommercial vehicles disclosed to survey interviewers, whether successful comple- tions or failed attempts, for every 1,000 house- holds. The other trend

FOCUSING ON MOTOR VEHICLE THEFT Stealing Cars for Fun and Profit About 556,000 households suffered a vehicle theft (or an attempted vehicle theft) during 2013, a slight bump up from previous years, according to the NCVS. That volume of incidents translated to a rate of a little more than five vehicle thefts for every 1,000

Trends and Patterns in Burglaries The changes in the burglary rate over a 30-year span appear in Figure 4.4. Residents of nearly 2.5 million households told NCVS interviewers in 2013 that someone had tried or had succeeded in entering their home to steal things. This translates to a rate of 26 for every 1,000 households,