Identity Theft Crimes.

Identity theft is the theft of a person’s personal information to commit fraud. The thief takes a name and other personal information, such as a Social Security number, and uses it without permission to open new accounts, use existing accounts, or obtain medical services. A thief may even give the victim’s name to officers when arrested.

The harm goes well beyond money. Identity theft can damage the victim’s credit, get the victim sued for debts that are not theirs, put incorrect and possibly dangerous information into their medical records, and may even get the victim arrested.

Identity crime is the broader term. It is the theft or misuse of personal or financial identifiers to gain something of value, to facilitate other criminal activity, or both.

Identity theft numbers change every year, so the objective is to know where current data lives. The outline names two sources: the Insurance Information Institute (Facts and Statistics: Identity theft and cybercrime) and the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel Network.

The FTC describes identity theft as happening when someone uses your Social Security number or other personal information to open new accounts, make purchases, or get a tax refund.

The outline gives 2019 figures as an example. The top five types reported by the Insurance Information Institute were new-account credit card fraud, miscellaneous identity theft (online shopping and payment accounts, e-mail and social media, and medical, insurance and securities accounts), new mobile telephone accounts, business and personal loans, and auto loans or leases. That year Texas ranked 4th among the states in reports per 100,000 population, with 73,553 identity theft reports in the FTC Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book.

Identity crime is often a facilitator. It supplies money or anonymity for other crimes such as mail theft, mail fraud, narcotics, organized crime, money laundering, mortgage fraud, weapons trafficking, homicide, terrorism, wire fraud and computer intrusions.

It can also begin with a crime that looks unrelated: a robbery, a theft, a burglary of a motor vehicle, a computer intrusion, mail theft, theft of trash (“dumpster diving”), or theft of documents from a business, medical facility or hotel. According to the FTC, special forms of identity theft include tax identity theft, child identity theft and medical identity theft.

Think about this on a routine arrest. If an inventory of an impounded vehicle turns up numerous Texas ID cards and Social Security cards that do not belong to the driver, it is reasonable to believe they were stolen or fraudulently produced to facilitate other crimes. One or two cards is a different matter. You need to verify whether they are stolen. A person holding a friend’s driver’s license after a night out has not committed identity theft without further evidence.