Identity theft report

If Robert Douglas, co-founder of www.privacytoday.com
has it right, there were 10 million cases of
consumer ID theft in 2004, costing the financial
services industry $50 billion and consumers $3 to
$5 billion. According to Douglas in an April 14,
2005 C-Span interview, "identity theft" is the
most common crime in the country today -- as well
as the fastest growing.

The crime is so lucrative, it's reported, in
some cases organized crime figures have been
threatening bank employees just to get customer
info. According to a an April 17 article in the
Washington Post, data aggregator ChoicePoint
recently reported a theft of at least 110,000
identity files, and Time Warner just reported
(May 2, 2005) data from 600,000 current and
former employees missing. Lexus-Nexus has had
310,000 I.D. files stolen, and The Bank of
America, 1.2 million. Just today, June 8, New
York Times reports, "Personal Data on 3.9 Million
Lost in Transit."

But these organizations are all wimps and wanna-
bes when it comes to revealing personal financial
information to the world and giving away your
identity. We'll reveal the champ later. Can you
guess?

Read.