Although a relatively new crime, identity theft has dramatically increased in occurrence and severity since the early 1990s. By definition, identity theft is the obtainment and fraudulent use of another person s personal information, which can be relatively innocuous or much more serious. A talented criminal can take another individual s social security number, credit card information, checks, or other personal information, and use that information to impersonate the individual, manipulating a system that increasingly relies on nonpersonal identifiers. The political, legal, and criminal...