The commercial website PixelPrivacy.com has good information about online identity theft. Check it out. Here are the opening paragraphs:

Online identity theft has the fastest-growing crime rate in the U.S.

More than 12 million Americans are victim of identity fraud every year, and the average financial loss per identity theft incident is just over $5,000.

The percentage of U.S. households that have experienced some kind of identity theft is closing in on a staggering 10%.

For cyber thieves, your personal information is a goldmine. For example, your (user) name, last name, email addresses, phone numbers, passwords, banking information, credit card details, Social Security number, medical records – and so forth.

Cyber thieves will attempt to steal such information and then use it for fraudulent activities and other crimes, such as selling your information.

Identity theft can be bothersome when, for example, they get ahold of your phone number and, as a result, you receive random calls from salesmen. Such theft is a problem that would be relatively easy to fix.

On the other hand, identity theft may cause tremendous damage and cost you thousands of dollars, and might take months and months to resolve.

Worst case scenarios of identity theft include severe damage to your reputation, missing out on new job opportunities, or rejection of loan applications for your house or the school of your kids. Also, online identity theft can cause serious damage to your credit scores.

People have even been arrested and held in custody – once for more than two weeks! – because criminals used their identities, making the police think that they were the criminals.

In case you haven’t actively started protecting your identity on the internet, you should start doing so today.

Online Identity Theft: What Is It and How to Protect Yourself