Protect Your Identity

Growing Problem

Identity theft is one of the fastest-growing crimes in the United States, with victim complaints quadrupling between 2000 and 2004, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Most victims are hit merely with credit card account hijackings, but for many others the situation is much worse. In the past five years, the FTC estimates, 10 million people have had criminals open new credit card accounts, secure utility services, or apply for mortgages under their names, spinning a web of deceit that can take years to unravel.

Authorities say that in many cases leaks leading to identity theft don't come from victims, and a glance at the headlines underscores the point: Thieves once stole tens of thousands of credit reports from the major reporting bureaus, and one Web site unwittingly made public thousands of client names and credit card information.

Meanwhile, doctors' offices, schools, and other institutions hold your information behind ineffective firewalls that are easy pickings for hackers and even easier pickings for unscrupulous employees.

But for phishing scams, the most rapidly expanding method of identity theft, consumers do bear some responsibility--and they can take back some control.

The instances of new, distinct phishing e-mail attacks are growing by about 40 to 50 percent monthly, and reached about 2000 total in July of this year, according to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, a multi-industry consortium formed last year to combat this type of fraud. In fact, such scams are so easy to create and so difficult to trace, thieves are abandoning other identity theft methods and setting up phishing camps. Worse, the scams are getting slicker, making it difficult for even the most observant users to tell the real from the fake. And soon phishers may disguise their hooks and use spyware, another plague of the Internet, to sneak into your PC and steal your information.

There is good news. Phishing and other forms of online identity theft can be prevented, authorities say, but it takes a more scrupulous approach to security--with, possibly, a minor cash outlay to get regular credit reports and software tools--and a lot of skepticism as you read your e-mail.

You can also add new weapons to your arsenal: Antiphishing tools have debuted from several vendors and from some ISPs, with others sure to follow (see " Don't Get Reeled In" for details).