ID Fruad - Is there more hype than risk?

[k7.fantr () gmail com]

At the risk of opening a can of worms, this is a legitimate inquiry.

I am trying to separate the identity fraud hype from actual risk in the now more common sense of electronic data stolen 
online or from a database - not my uncle Joe filled out a credit app as his dog.. :)

The situation is stolen electronic data: such as name, address, and ssn – one or one million records.

Does anyone know themselves or can direct me to a place that can explain what a malicious person actually does with 
stolen personal information? Or, can anyone explain a realistic situation where the thief can prosper and get away with 
it?   

I am looking for a scenario that actually or logically works, not generic conventional wisdom like, “they use it to 
open accounts in their name and buy houses and vacations and things, and, er, stuff…” - The problem is that I can not 
seem to get my head around more then a couple of petty situations that would only work for misc charges, and for a very 
short period of time - not major purchases like a home, or car, and certainly not anything larger scale that would 
require thousands of identities. 

Sure I realize that I could open an account at a bank, but why on earth would I do that? How could I possibly benefit 
from that without tipping off where I live, or some point of where I will be? 

Also, are there really people that will buy this information at $75 a record? Or, is that just an FBI agent placing an 
ad in 2600 waiting for some idiot to respond? And if these people do buy this information, what on earth are they doing 
with it? There are by now hundreds of millions of stolen records out there. There are free tools that will create valid 
credit card numbers, and the information as to what makes a real ssn is published for verification checking (I know 
that does not make it real, but come on), etc, so why would anyone pay? It just doesn’t make sense to me.

After spending years protecting this information, I have never heard any realistic scenarios that wouldn’t simply lead 
the cops to the person’s front door. I have heard plenty of Hollywood movie plots and academic what if’s, which is what 
I theorize created the hype in the first place…

Perhaps it’s a testament to how lousy our law enforcement is, or my apparent lack of ability to think like a smart 
crook, or perhaps these crimes are being committed by idiots, but I tend to think that there is more hype then actual 
risk out there…It almost seems more akin to the “I’m in, here’s proof” situation rather than trading databases of 
socials for a fist full of dollars..


Thanks,