This information I get is summarized from NATIONAL CRIME PREVENTION COUNCIL (NCPC) report about PREVENTING IDENTITY THEFT.
According to U.S Department of Justice Identity theft defines as follow:
“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.”
Facts and Figures
According to the U.S. Postal Service, there were almost ten million incidents of identity theft in the United States in 2004, a huge figure dwarfed only by its cost to consumers—$5 billion. And limiting your use of your personal computer may not help much: a study released in January 2005 by the Better Business Bureau and Javelin Strategy and Research reported that most identity thefts take place offline, not online—just the opposite of what many folks might think. In fact, the study found, the theft of online information accounted for only 11.6 percent of identity fraud cases.
