Identity theft is a complex crime. It can be organized and linked to international crime syndicates, including terrorism, pornography, and drug and human trafficking. Or, identity theft can arise as a crime of opportunity connected to a friend, relative, or acquaintance who exploits access to your personal information in order to obtain a credit card or loan.

Public/Private Partnerships

The financial services industry was among the first to recognize that traditional approaches to identity theft fell short of addressing a growing threat. They established ITAC with the goal of first aiding victims of identity theft and then consolidating and sharing victim data with law enforcement. The data is used by investigators to identify criminals and rings of criminals with the goal of prosecution.

Federal Data Sharing Agreements

ITAC has a formal data sharing agreement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). When placed in the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Database, the ITAC data can be accessed by more than 1,400 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies and Canadian enforcement agencies. ITAC also provides case information to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) and its Financial Crime Database, which is used by postal inspectors all over the country. Read how USPIS is using ITAC data to prosecute identity crime in the case study, The Ultimate Inside Job: ITAC Data Used to Bust Ring that Racked up $2.5 Million in Credit Card Charges.

Regional Partnerships

ITAC also shares information with the National Identity Crime Law Enforcement (NICLE) system, designed by local, state, and federal criminal investigators particpating in the Regional Identity Theft Working Group, organized by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

ITAC President Anne Wallace joined U.S. Attorney Pat Meehan of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and Deputy Chief Postal Inspector Ken Jones to announce The National Identity Crime Law Enforcement system (NICLE). NICLE collects information about identity crime to be shared by local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.