Credit card numbers, driver's license numbers, social security numbers, date of birth, and other personal identification can net criminals thousands of dollars in a very short period of time. Most often, identity thieves will obtain your personal identification numbers from the trash and obtain credit in your name by having credit cards, goods or services delivered to their address or mail drop. Since the bills for charges incurred with be sent to the thief's address, not yours, you will be unaware that debt is mounting up in your name until the collections department tracks you down. By then your credit report will already be riddled with late payment histories and show many accounts in collections. As you can imagine the credit reporting bureaus will be reluctant to change negative credit without proof that you didn't create the bad credit.
Identity theft can take many forms.
An illegal immigrant may use you social security number and date of birth for employment purposes or to obtain a birth certificate. Imagine the confusion that can be created when the IRS wants to know why you didn't declare the extra income reported to them from someone using your name and social security number. Sometimes personal identification numbers are sold over and over to hundreds of individuals who in turn attempt to obtain bogus credit in your name or establish utility services and run up the bills. Sometimes arrested criminals will gave assumed names, DOB's, and SSN's. Innocent persons can have criminal records reported in the databases because of these situations.