UK identities being sold

Hey guys

I came across this article and I thought you might find this interesting. Internet fraudsters are selling complete financial identities for just £80, according to an online safety group. The Safe Online group, who is backed by police, government and banks, says ID theft is a serious problem because of an international trade in stolen identities and data. The information that is being sold online are names, addresses, passport numbers and confidential financial data such as credit card numbers. The experts says that with six out of 10 people now managing finances online, the public needs to do more to prevent e-crime. The article stated that online marketplaces, often sited in countries with lax controls against e-crime, sell bundles of data harvested in concerted attacks against poorly defended computers in wealthier nations. The link to the article is listed below. I find this very disturbing that people's personal information is beling tampered with. I wonder how will this effect the UK? Do you guys think that it is possible to effect the US? With all these identity theft cases in the UK and the US how damaging could this be to the economy in the US and UK? What do you guys think?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7732569.stm

La Mara