Why Is There No Clearinghouse for Tracking Identity Theft Prosecutions?
Cybersecurity is all over the news lately. From our recent call for the U.S. government to take a more offensive approach in stopping cybercrimes to hackers compromising the U.S. electrical grid, the news is everywhere – further underscoring the seriousness of this topic.
One area that has not received much coverage is the prosecution of identity theft crimes. Last week, Rita M. Glavin, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division, Department of Justice, testified at House Homeland Security Committee hearing on PCI standards. Assistant Attorney General Glavin cited some very sobering statistics: there are more than 2,000 active cases related to identity theft pending in the U.S. Attorney’s Offices. She said there has been a 138.2 percent increase in identity theft convictions between 2004 and 2008.
The federal stats made me wonder about the number of state and local prosecutions. Conventional wisdom is that the federal prosecutions are the just the tip of the iceberg. U. S. Attorneys all over the country apply standards including big dollar losses, lots of victims, and “winability” to filter out any where from 50 percent to 90 percent of the cases in order to make the most of their limited resources.
So, how many state prosecutions for identity theft are there? Individual states publish data but I couldn’t find a compilation of state prosecutions. Is there one out there?
Does it matter? Well, there’s a sense that identity theft is a crime that isn’t punished. Maybe that’s why only about one-third of identity theft victims file a police report according to a recent report by Javelin Strategy & Research. Would more consumers file a police report if they thought the crook was likely to be prosecuted? Hard to know but I bet they would.
So, the question is…where is the data about state prosecutions? If you can point us to other resources, we would greatly appreciate it.
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From Linked-In:
I agree that there needs to be a uniform protocol for database management of all criminal prosecutions. When performing queries for pertinent background records the information on a single defendant is entered with many different spellings and variations that if it was not for time consuming review of data by human personnel, many prosecutions would fail. I’m sure that many slip through the cracks because of this reason. Each state has their main repository of records but no nationwide database for all records including those of lower degree level exists at this point.
From Linked-In:
Having tracked the issue of identity theft for more than a decade now, I am unaware of any one database that has an accurate compilation of identity theft cases. In fact, what we do know is that while identity theft continues to be one of the most prevalent crimes in America, it is also one of the most underreported crimes in America as well.
The FTC data of approximately 8 million victims per year – which are the numbers most often cited by the media – are voluntary and independent surveys show that only a fraction of identity theft victims report their cases to the FTC. So, we know that number is dramatically low.
There is a great need for better data collection at both the state and federal level. Hopefully, the day will come when that takes place.
From Linked-In:
Good point. I wanted to suggest that consent decrees that commercial organizations enter into with The FTC are public and can be a good source of information about the nature of the identity theft and the weaknesses in the organization’s privacy or security program which might have contributed to it. The FTC is using it’s very broad juristiction under the Fair Trade Act to enforce the Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices provision.