ID Theft is the No. 1 Runaway U.S. Crime

For others, it was an honor just to be nominated ? but it?s identity theft that has taken home the much-coveted ?#1 Runaway Crime in the U.S.? award, according to a story running in the Salt Lake Tribune.

“I’ve never seen a crime take hold and grow like this,” Kirk Jorgensen, chief deputy to the Utah Attorney General’s Office, told a downtown Salt Lake City identity theft symposium Tuesday hosted by the Sutherland Institute. “And it is so easy; it literally doesn’t take a rocket scientist.” Not that rocket scientists can?t get involved in the game. Identity theft is an equal opportunity criminal pastime.

Issues with combating identity theft have exposed weak places in local, state, and national security ? and taken quite a toll on the economy. Crimes involving identity theft weigh on our system of credit, raising the costs of doing business and subtly impeding economic growth.

To read more about this story, including ways to prevent identity theft, go to ID theft is the No. 1 runaway U.S. crime.