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PA program working to prepare against ID theft | 12.06.2006 | 06:07:37 | Views: 5904 | ID: December 6 '06: Pennsylvania officials have been working to reduce the amount of identity theft in their state by giving citizens the tools to protect their financial and personal information. A new community-based website has been launched that will provide information "on how identity theft occurs, prevention tips, steps to take if you become a victim, statistics, and information for law enforcement agencies that investigate these types of crimes," a press release read Monday. The wesbite, called Identitytheftactionplan.com features resources, download-ables, and contact information to help guide citizens through manging their personal and financial information. "By developing a personal identity theft action plan, citzens can document the financial institutions that issue their credit and bank cards, and the fraud reporting numbers for those businesses." Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the country, according to the action plan's website. In the last year, almost 9 million Americans have been victims of some form of ID theft. Annually, ID theft costs around $56.6 billion and the average cost to each victim has grown in the last few years by 21.6 percent to $6,383, although total ID thefts are down country-wide by 11.9 percent since 2003. The website is sponsored by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquancy. Its chairman, Walter M. Phillips Jr. said, "I encourage all citiznes to take five minutes to fill out the action plan so you have all of you important information in on place if you ever need it. Should you become a victim, it will give you peace of mind that you have the document."
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