Meanwhile, the Social Security Administration investigated 1,153 cases of Social Security number fraud in 1997, up from 305 the previous year. In response to this mushrooming case load, Congress passed legislation last year that makes identity theft a federal crime, punishable with up to fifteen years in prison. Experts say the Pulliams were lucky. Some victims don't find out until months or years later, when they're denied a credit card or mortgage because the thief has stolen thousands of dollars in their names and destroyed their credit rating. Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit consumer information and advocacy group in San Diego, blames credit grantors.
Identity theft is all too easy to commit.
Perpetrators also know that identity theft is difficult to investigate and seldom prosecuted, explains Cheryl Smith, senior special investigator for the California Department of Motor Vehicles, in Sacramento. To criminals, it's a faceless crime, because the victim is a bank or department store. They're not thinking about harming an individual. Yet, four years after discovering that their identities had been stolen, the Pulliams are still trying to clean up their credit reports. In August 1995, as soon as Ann received the Pulliams' credit reports and spotted the Baltimore phone number for Pulliam Engineering, she decided to call it.