The thief who stole Carmen Groves' identity has written more than $5,000 in bogus checks to department stores on her closed bank account.

        Ms. Groves, 77, has spent uncounted hours writing letters to credit reporting agencies, filing police reports, canceling accounts and battling to get her identity back.

        “I'm so scared,” said Ms. Groves, who lives in San Marcos, Texas. “I never thought this would happen to me.”

Thousands each year

        Ms. Groves is one of thousands of people who have their identities stolen each year.

        Identity theft involves stealing another person's personal identifying information such as Social Security number, name, date of birth and mother's maiden name, and then using the information fraudulently to establish credit, run up debt, or take over existing financial accounts.

        In most cases, the victim's wallet, checkbook or purse is stolen. But identity theft also occurs when criminals get personal information from misdirected or stolen mail. Thieves especially look for Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers and credit card information left on receipts.

        Afterward, the victim is left with a ruined credit history and the complicated task of regaining financial health.

Cause for concern here

        Identity theft is cause for concern in Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana as well.

        In what investigators say was one of the Tristate's more elaborate identity-theft schemes, Jennifer Hurley, a 34-year-old woman from Butler County, stole the identities of three similar-looking (smallish and blonde) women in three states. Her victims say they felt their lives were being ruined by Ms. Hurley's actions.

        Ms. Hurley, who was sentenced to seven years in prison earlier this year, used a Texas woman's identification to get an Ohio driver's license. Then she bought three cars, took out loans, opened bank accounts and got credit cards — all under her victims' names, authorities said. Using an assumed name, she even landed a job as a hospital patient registrar.

        Even more worrisome, officials say, is the fact that identity theft may enable criminals to elude prosecution and possibly implicate innocent people in other crimes, including violent ones.

        The Federal Trade Commission reports that more than 86,000 Americans were victims of identity theft in 2001. That number has almost tripled from 31,103 in 2000. Identity theft represented 42 percent of all consumer complaints to the FTC in 2001.

        The rise in identity theft complaints has left officials scrambling for ways to combat the problem. Last year, Kentucky shut down two government web sites because of fears that public employees' personal information could be accessed and used to steal their identities; in Ohio, there has been continuing debate about what information can be accessed via clerk of courts Web sites.

        The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse says the average identity theft victim is defrauded of $18,000.

        Scott Brecher, a 33-year-old securities manager from Houston, became a victim last year when someone stole his Social Security number and opened up credit card accounts in his name.

        In March, Mr. Brecher discovered the crime when Fleet Bank's collection department started calling him about an overdue account. He did not have an account with the bank. The thief had been using his identity for seven months and had run up more than $17,000 worth of fraudulent charges on two accounts, he said. Mr. Brecher spent months trying to reclaim his identity and eventually became an advocate for harsher laws on identity theft in Texas. Identity theft is a white-collar crime that is not taken seriously enough, he said.

        This year, a report prepared for Congress found that police agencies nationwide have insufficient resources to investigate and prosecute identity theft cases.

        Even when crimes are prosecuted and convictions obtained, identity theft cases generally do not result in long sentences. Venue and jurisdiction problems are also common in identity theft cases. Many cases present cross-jurisdictional issues, such as when a criminal steals personal information in one city and uses the information to conduct fraudulent activities in another city or state.

        The police catch the criminals in less than 10 percent of the cases, said Jay Foley, director of victim services with the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit organization that helps identity theft victims, based in San Diego.

        Some identity theft cases involve organized crime rings.

        In Dallas, a group of three individuals made about $750,000 in illegal transactions in less than 180 days by using identity fraud coupled with traditional crimes such as credit card abuse, forgery and securing loans through deception.

        Reporter Janice Morse contributed to this report.

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