Identity Theft

Definitions of identity theft on the Web :

Identity theft is a crime used to refer to fraud that involves someone pretending to be someone else in order to steal money or get other benefits. The term is relatively new and is actually a misnomer, since it is not inherently possible to steal an identity, only to use it. The person whose identity is used can suffer various consequences when he or she is held responsible for the perpetrator's actions. In many countries specific laws make it a crime to use another person's identity for personal gain.

Identity theft is somewhat different from identity fraud. However, the terms are often used interchangably. Identity fraud is the result of identity theft. Someone can steal or appropriate someones identifying information without actually committing identity fraud. The best example of this is when a data breach occurs. There has been very little evidence to link ID fraud to data breaches. A Government Accountability Office study determined that "most breaches have not resulted in detected incidents of identity theft".A later study by Carnegie Mellon University concluded that "the probability of becoming a victim to identity theft as a result of a data breach is ...around only 2%".More recently, one of the largest data breaches ever accounting for over four million records resulted in only 1800 instances of identity theft.