Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the United States according to the Secret Service, and the Federal Trade Commission. As such, the crime is quickly becoming a legitimate threat to everyone in the United States—no one is immune. Below are listed several shocking statistics about the crime.

Every 79 seconds, a thief steals someone's identity, opens accounts in the victim's name.

According to a CBS News study taken in 2001 revealed that identity theft was occurring with unbelievable frequency.

Victims can spend upwards of 500 hours on average recovering from this crime, often over a period of years. Three years ago the average was 175 hours of time.

Based on 500 hours times the indicated victim wages, this equals nearly $13,500 in lost potential or realized income--making even simple ID Theft cases a devastatingly expensive crime.

Identity Theft increased 87% between 2001 and 2002.

On the heels of the CBS study above, a study by Gartner Group reveal that identity theft incidents continued to accelerate.

Identity Theft increased by 79% between 2002 and 2003.

In the latest Gartner Group study, taken in July 2003, the prominent think tank found that there was a 79 percent increase in identity theft in the past year alone.

85 percent of all identity theft victims find out about the crime only when they are denied credit or employment, contacted by the police, or have to deal with collection agencies, credit cards, and bills.

Research by Harris Interactive and Gartner in the summer of 2003 found that the overwhelming majority of consumers who become victims of ID theft only realize months after the crime has occurred.

The average arrest rate for ID Theft is under 5% of all reported cases by victims.

Due to various factors, ID Theft is one of the least convicted crimes in America. The circumstances are too often too complicated to track down.

ID Theft affects all parts of the country, below are listed the top 10 worst states for ID theft per capita.

HISTORY OF DATA BREACH

Egghead.com (December 1999) - first major hacking, database breach, 3 million credit card numbers stolen – all charged between $5 and $50 – targeted and coordinated, high tech/high volume cerim

Boston College – on March 11, 2005 acknowledges 100,000 alumni addresses and social security numbers were hacked in to. Boston College officials say they have no reason to believe the hacker was looking to steal personal information

Time Warner – on May 2, 2005 reports that 19 back-up magnetic tapes totaling over 600,000 current and former employees including names, addresses and social security numbers were either lost or stolen

Google Ads – on April 27, 2007 Google Ads linked to 20 popular web sites were found to install a malware program on users computers to capture personal information and used to access online accounts to 100 different banks/credit unions

T. Rowe Price Retirement Plan Services – Jan 28, 2008 current and former participants in “several hundred” retirement plans had their names and Social Security numbers contained in files on computers that were stolen.

The Dental Network (Blue Cross Blue Shield) March 19, 2008 a security breach of the Dental Network web site provided member personal data including 75,000 names, social security numbers, addresses and dates of birth.