The Cost of Identity Theft Still Falls on the Victim

Recently, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer had a depressing article about a victim of identity theft whose experience has been far worse than most. Several times he has come close to losing his disability benefits because of identity mix-ups, and one time he even wound up in jail due to a mistake by law enforcement. The man’s case is clearly an outlier. But it does teach an important lesson about the true costs of identity theft.

Of course, there are laws on the books that try to shield consumers from direct financial liability when they fall victim to such fraud, but it’s instances such as this one that show that the financial side of identity theft is just one slice of the actual problem. Laws can force banks or credit card companies to shoulder the monetary costs, but it’s much harder to transfer away the other hassles that identity theft brings. What people need, in addition to financial protection, are ways to conveniently clear their names and correct all of the myriad databases that house their personal information. This is going to take organization and coordination among several disparate parties, and only then will victims start to see some relief.