From the front page of the Wall Street Journal

this past summer, an article describes a couple of online crime rings that have recently been shut down. Cardplanet.com is one of them, and the illicit activities of one of their members, 22 year old Douglas Cade Havard, is featured. It's an interesting story of how a crime ring like this works, with their online and offline efforts to gather credit card numbers, bank account information, etc., and how they produce counterfeit credit cards to use at ATMs, wire money around to each other, and so on. It's an interesting read to say the least.

At this point in time, there are so many ways to have your ID stolen. Based on 635,173 complaints received in 2004 by the FTC, approximately 39%, the highest percentage, are complaints about ID-theft. Other complaints were related to things like Internet auctions and prize/sweepstakes and lotteries (22%), Shop at home catalog sales, work at home plans (10%), Internet, computer and telephone services (8%), and others (21%).

Think about this: Identity theft is now America’s leading consumer complaint, according to the Federal Trade Commission, with an estimated 700,000 to 1 million new victims each year. The thefts range from opportunistic one-time events to huge, organized crime rings racking up millions of dollars in fraudulent charges each year.

This is a real problem, a big problem, and we all need to do everything we can to avoid becoming a victim.