Full Notification

According to the U.S. Postal Service, there were almost 10 million incidents of identity theft in the United States in 2004 at a cost of $5 billion to consumers.
Victims report spending 30 hours, on average, cleaning up after an identity crime at an average cost of $500.
It’s in the newspapers every day and on the news every night. People worry that someone will run up charges on their credit card or fleece their bank account while their back is turned. There is reason to worry. All a thief needs is your Social Security number to commit identity theft. This crime is relatively easy to commit, but investigating and prosecuting it is complex and time-consuming. But once you know the facts and some preventive measures you can take, you can win the fight against identity theft.
Identity thieves commit their crime in several ways:
-- They steal credit card payments and other outgoing mail from private, curbside mailboxes.
-- They dig through garbage cans or communal dumpsters in search of cancelled checks, credit card and bank statements and preapproved credit card offers.
-- They hack into computers that contain personal records and steal the data.
-- They file a change of address form in the victim’s name to divert mail and gather personal and financial data.

From the National Crime Prevention Council