GAO Releases Report on ID Theft Enforcement Results
The General Accounting Office released a report on Identity Theft today. The report provides information on how Identity Theft laws are being enforced at the Federal and State level. The report found no comprehensive data on enforcement results, but finds that it is increasingly being seen as a serious crime. Some police departments, however, still consider ID theft to be a non traditional crime and because it happens across several jurisdictions they see it as someone else�s problem. Additionally, the report finds that state and federal agencies are not making use of existing data sources such as the Federal Trade Commission�s Consumer Sentinel Network, which collects ID Theft data in one central database. Investigative departments have been reluctant to use this information because they have limited resources and ID theft cases take a lot of effort for relatively light sentences. The upshot of the report for consumers is that while the government is taking some steps to crack down on ID thieves, it is clear that consumers need to be ever vigilant about guarding their personal information.Identity Theft: Greater Awareness and Use of Existing Data Are Needed GAO Report 02-766, June 2002 FTC ID Theft Site
