Banks and law enforcement officers are trying to cooperate better on identity theft issues, in part because they have realized that such thefts often are linked to other types of crimes, according to the Identity Theft Assistance Center.
The nonprofit, which is expected to publish a report today, found that banks are "just more sensitive to these issues and are better able to identify real fraud and to separate it from the imagined," according to Anne Wallace, its president.
"The financial services companies are a lot better these days at dealing with fraud and helping victims," she said.
The center also found that local police departments are more willing than they were in the past to take victim reports, in part because officials have come to recognize exactly how connected identity theft is to other types of crime, Ms. Wallace said.
"There's a growing recognition on the part of law enforcement, both on the local and federal level … of the larger implications of identity theft in issues such as immigration and terrorism and organized crime," she said. "Identity theft is a leading indicator — the tip of the iceberg — of other types of crime."
In addition, politicians are taking the issue more seriously, particularly as government breaches continue making headlines, Ms. Wallace said.
In November, when a U.K. government agency lost computer disks with data on 25 million people in that country, Prime Minister Gordon Brown apologized personally.
"A politician, the head of government, had to apologize for the action," Ms. Wallace said. Mr. Brown's statement "struck me as a landmark event, what a significant political issue it was."
Data security and financial fraud could also become an election issue this year in the United States, Ms. Wallace said.
