For over ten yes identity theft has been a serious crime which has affected millions of Americans every year and has prompted the implementation of laws concerning identity theft. Identity theft is the taking of another’s identity usually for financial gain or to use it for other benefits such as getting out of debt or hiding from the law.

Victims of this type of crime often suffer gravely and are often held responsible for the acts committed by the person behind the scam. Laws concerning identity theft have been put into place which makes it a crime to steal another person’s identity for personal gain.

Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act

The United States Congress began taking identity theft seriously in when they passed the one of these laws concerning identity theft in October of 1998 called the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act.

This piece of legislation made it a crime when someone knowingly and willingly uses another person’s identification without their consent for personal gain. Under this Act a person’s name,
birth certificate or Social Security Number is considered a means of identification. As well as credit card numbers, driver’s license, cellular telephone numbers, computers and any other type of information that can be used to identify a person.

People who commit identity theft and who are convicted can face a fine or up to a maximum prison sentence of 15 to 30 years. The law also makes it a crime to aid or abet anyone who has stolen someone’s personal information.

The Identity Theft Penalty Act

In the year 2003 there was a sharp increase in the number of people conducting personal business online such as banking and shopping that it caused a dramatic increase in identity theft crimes which prompted the creation of The Identity Theft Penalty Act.

In 2004 another one of the laws concerning identity theft was signed by President Bush. It was a groundbreaking measure in the prosecution of identity theft because the way these crimes were punished was forever changed. The degree of punishment increased from 3 years to a maximum of 5 years in a federal prison. Plus the level of the crime rose from a misdemeanor to a felony.

There were amendments made to this act which included an additional two years for internet phishing scams and the Aggravated Identity Theft which meant when a person commits a crime using identity theft such as mail fraud or acts of terrorism that they could be charged with Aggravated Identity Theft and with identity theft. For the charge of Aggravated Identity Theft two years would be added to their sentence.

Two Laws Concerning Identity Theft Put into Effect, From The Love Shop

We all know what a menace identity theft is proving to be and this is amply evident when we consider how each year tens and tens of thousands Americans are being victimized by this fastest growing crime in the US. Each day, news headlines scream out at you about this or that person having become the next victim of identity theft and researching the federal identity theft laws also means having to spend a lot of time and effort in order to know how the laws protect you.

Be Well Informed

It is certainly in your best interests to be well informed about current federal identity theft laws and there are in fact quite a wide range of such laws to learn about. In fact, federal identity theft laws can be categorized as laws that specifically relate to identity theft and they can also be laws concerning false identification. In addition, federal identity theft laws can also be those that deal with privacy as well as personal data and then there are laws governing credit.

Federal identity theft laws that deal specifically with identity theft are designed to criminalize cases of identity theft while laws enacted to deal with false identification are concerned with those cases in which fraud has been committed in connection with use of personal identity documents.

The most well known of all federal identity theft laws, the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act of 1998 is actually the first serious attempt by the federal government to control and punish identity theft – directly. This was the first federal identity theft law that considered identity theft to be a federal crime and this of course had the effect of making life for the law enforcement agencies a lot simpler.

Another one of the more useful federal identity theft laws, the Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act that was only passed in the year 2004 dealt with penalties to deal with aggravated instances of identity theft.

The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 contains an amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act that deal especially with identity theft and so strengthens the hands of the law enforcement agencies.

Besides federal identity theft laws, there are also many state identity theft laws that are applicable in different states in the US. If you are living in the state of Arizona then it will certainly pay for you to become conversant with the applicable state laws dealing with identity theft because this is the worst state in the entire US in so far as numbers of identity thefts go.

About A Few Of The Best Known Federal Identity Theft Laws, From The Love Shop

Identity theft is in the news for all the wrong reasons; seems like the newspapers, television and other media are all going overboard with reporting fresh instances of identity theft and this is enough to make an ordinary person sit up and wonder when they will become the next victim and if so what laws against identity theft are out there that will protect them.

Half A Million Victims

There is no other crime in the US with as high a growth rate as identity theft with more than half a million people becoming identity theft victims each year. Identity theft of course is a crime in which you have your personal information stolen and used by a thief who does not have your permission to use your personal data such as your Social Security Number and bank account number as well as credit card information.

What makes it all the more necessary to have laws against identity theft is the fact that a vast majority of identity theft cases are perpetrated by people that already know the victim. This in fact is good enough reason why the US Congress in the year 1998 enacted laws against identity theft such as the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act that specifically dealt with identity thefts.

This is one of the better laws against identity theft and one that mandates that identity theft be treated as a federal crime and which must be punished according to the guidelines set out by federal identity theft laws such as the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act.

This is one of those laws against identity theft that also defines identity theft and in this manner removes the ambiguity surrounding what constitutes identity theft. Prior to such a law against identity theft the federal laws only were concerned with addressing just the creation of fraud and also illegal use of a person’s identity document and it did not really deal with the actual theft or even crimes committed on the basis of the stolen identities.

With laws against identity theft such as the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act coming into force some of the lacunae in the laws in the country have been fixed and this has made life better for the victim and harder for the thief which is only fair.

Even former President George W. Bush realized the dangers to the ordinary citizen from identity theft and he too signed a new law against identity theft that would effectively provide greater protection against identity theft to the ordinary American.

Laws Against Identity Theft: Identity Theft And Assumption Deterrence Act, From The Love Shop