It started with a phone call from the Bank of America, asking about payment for a new truck purchased the previous month. The problem was that Michelle Brown--then 29 years old and working in international banking--hadn't bought a truck. She immediately canceled all her credit cards, issued fraud alerts, and notified her bank. But it was too late--the damage had been done.

Over the next year and a half, Brown's identity was used to purchase more than $50,000 in goods and services, to rent property, and even to engage in drug trafficking. Brown estimates she spent well over 500 hours trying to clear her name and credit and to simply sever all connections with the criminal, who was eventually arrested and incarcerated. But Brown says, "I don't think I'll ever be able to close the books on this. The existence of [the thief] has robbed me of the normal life I have strived for and deserve."

As Brown's story illustrates, identity theft--the criminal use of your personal information to make fraudulent purchases, open accounts, and even take out loans--can financially and emotionally devastate its victims. And what's worse, government officials say terrorists are now using identity theft to finance their crimes and cover their tracks.

The Web can be a real boon for identity thieves, helping them find information about victims and profit from the crime. As the Web increasingly becomes part of our lives, identity theft is growing at an alarming rate. Reports of identity theft to the Federal Trade Commission more than doubled last year. And that's just a fraction of the cases. If you include all local law-enforcement and police reports across the United States, the number of victims in 2001 probably falls between 750,000 and 1 million.

"The risk starts the minute you're issued a Social Security number," says Jay Foley of the Identity Theft Resource Center, a San Diego-based nonprofit resource and advisory center for victims. "And," he adds, "it continues until well past your death."

Funding Terror

While most of the perpetrators of identity theft are common criminals, some are quite a bit scarier. Dennis M. Lormel, chief of the FBI's Terrorist Financial Review Group, recently told a Senate subcommittee that identity theft is a "key catalyst" fueling the activities of terrorist groups, including cells of Al Qaeda.

Why are cases of identity theft skyrocketing? Foley blames two factors.

First, criminals are catching on to how lucrative--and low-risk--identity theft can be and are starting to act in organized groups. Identity theft is a lazy criminal's dream: Its practitioners can simply grab a cold one, boot up, and commit their crimes in the comfort of their own homes without breaking a sweat.

Less than 10 percent of identity thieves ever face criminal charges, Foley says. And even if convicted, identity thieves usually receive light punishment--probation and maybe community service. Rarely are perpetrators sentenced to more than a year of jail time.

The second factor fueling the increase is the loosening in some credit card companies' application procedures. A smart thief armed with only a stolen name and Social Security number could easily open dozens of credit accounts--online and anonymously, with no face-to-face verification required--and put their unsuspecting victim potentially thousands of dollars in debt within an hour or two.

Lots of identity thieves get the information they need the old-fashioned way, sorting through a trash bin or jotting down a credit card number at a store. But many others use technology--hacking into a company's personnel files or visiting a Web site that sells Social Security numbers or other personal information.

Web Leaks Help

Sometimes Web site administrators inadvertently simplify the process. Recently, the tele-management firm Resicom acknowledged that it had mistakenly posted the names, addresses, and Social Security numbers of about 2000 students on the Web, where any surfer could see them. Last year, genealogy site RootsWeb.com came under fire for posting indexes to some birth records. Both companies removed the information when the problems came to light, and so far no cases of identity theft based on these Web disclosures have been confirmed. But both provided the type of information identity thieves need.

How can you protect yourself on the Web? Here are some steps to help prevent your personal information from falling into the wrong hands:

• Provide only essential information when you buy online: Your name, address, and credit card number are all any vendor should need for a transaction. If you're uncomfortable giving out any information online, pick up the phone.
  
  
• If you're selling or donating a computer, repartition and then reformat the hard drive before you part with the system to ensure that the next user won't come across any of your personal information.
  
  
• Order and then carefully review your credit report at least once a year. You can request a copy of your record online from the three major credit-reporting bureaus-- Equifax, Experian , and TransUnion.
  
  
• Visit CardCops to see whether your credit cards are in their database of possible fraud targets. The site offers a wealth of information about credit card and e-commerce fraud.
  
  
• Be wary of providing powerful information like your mother's maiden name to verify your identity at Web sites. Similarly, don't use easy-to-guess passwords like your date of birth, anniversary, or dog's name. The best passwords are at least eight characters long and cryptic, using a combination of letters and numbers.
  
  

There are also many offline precautions you should take, such as shredding financial statements, keeping key documents in a secure place, and reviewing credit card statements for bogus transactions.

If you have a life, you're vulnerable to the financial and emotional damage of identity theft. And because it is an incredibly difficult crime to undo, you should take every precaution you can to avoid becoming its next victim.

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