Marin County Office of the District Attorney

The State of California – State and Consumer Services Agency

LEGAL AFFAIRS
400 R Street, Suite 3090
Sacramento, CA 95814-6200

CREDIT IDENTITY THEFT:
TIPS TO AVOID AND RESOLVE PROBLEMS

March 2002
Statutory Update, November 2002

“Credit identity theft”, “identity theft” and “identity fraud”. All of these terms describe the theft of a consumer’s personal identification and credit information and the thief’s use of this information to gain access to the consumer’s credit and bank accounts and take over the consumer’s credit identity.

Credit identity theft is a growing problem in California and nationally. The Federal Trade Theft Commission ranks California fourth nationally in reported identity theft cases per capita.¹ The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse estimates that there are approximately 500,000 cases of identity theft nationally per year. The California Legislature has declared that identity theft is the fastest growing white collar crime in the nation.² (Read more)