When the FBI Comes Calling…®
IDENTITY THEFT
Background
Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in the world. The news has been filled with stories about how personal data have been compromised from certain personal information aggregators such as ChoicePoint and LexisNexis. See, e.g., Peter Lewis, Taking a Bite Out of Identity Theft, FORTUNE May 2, 2005, at 36; David Colker & Rong-Gong Lin II, Law May Help Freeze ID Theft, L.A. TIMES, Apr. 23, 2005 at C1; Heather Timmons, Security Breach at LexisNexis Now Appears Larger, N.Y. TIMES, Apr. 12, at C7. The United States takes the breach of such data very seriously. On October 30, 1998, Congress enacted the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act of 1998, Pub. L. No. 105-318 [hereinafter ITADA].
- The ITADA amended the fraud chapter of title 18 of the United States Code to create a new crime prohibiting the unlawful use of personal identifying information, including, but not limited to, names, social security numbers, and credit card numbers. Identity fraud involves the misappropriation of another person's personal identifying information. Criminals use this information to establish credit in their name, run up debts on another person's account, or take over existing financial accounts. The ITADA directed the Sentencing Commission to "review and amend the Federal sentencing guidelines and the policy statements of the Commission, as appropriate, to provide an appropriate penalty for each offense under section 1028 of title 18, United States Code, as amended by this Act." Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act of 1998, Pub. L. No. 105-318 § 4(a), 112 Stat. 3007 (codified in 28 U.S.C. § 994 note). United States v. Williams, 355 F.3d 893, 898 (6th Cir. 2003).
The transnational implications of identity theft are fairly easy to see.The perpetrators of the most recent ChoicePoint breach, as well as a similar breach in 2000, were from Nigeria. See David Colker & Joseph Menn, ChoicePoint Had Earlier Data Link, L.A. TIMES , Mar. 2, 2005, at C1.Illegal immigrants often have false identities as they try to enter the country, and an Egyptian-born American citizen pleaded guilty to selling fake international driver's licenses to two of the September 11 hijackers. See Threats and Responses¸ N.Y. TIMES, Feb. 4, 2003, at A13.
Statutory Authority
Congress has criminalized identity theft and the use of a false identity in a number of ways. It has criminalized the theft of mail, the unauthorized access of computer storage, the theft of credit cards and PINs, the use of a false identity, and even the use of a false identity in committing a felony. What follows is a synopsis of the crime of identity theft in the United States Code and its application in United States courts.