"Catch Me If You Can" isn't just a hit movie. It's also the modus operandi for a growing band of street criminals and their hacker allies who trade in consumer credit card information, Social Security numbers and other personal and internal company data that wash across millions of Web sites every day with increasing velocity.
It's ironic that while some other types of crime are declining or have stabilized, identity theft is booming - doubling to roughly 162,000 cases last year. Identity theft is the leading consumer fraud, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC reports as many as 700,000 consumers may be victims of identity theft this year, costing each person an average of $1,000.