Some do, most don't. I've been educating consumers, business people, journalist and legislators on this topic since 2003 and little has changed with respect to consumer understanding of identity theft in over five years.

Identity theft like many diseases has a range of effects from mild to deadly. Also like many diseases, the risk can be decreased by education and lifestyle changes. Many people confuse identity theft and credit card or bank fraud not unlike the confusion between dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Credit card and bank fraud is a type of identity theft. There are types of identity theft that can be more serious than financial fraud, for example, medical and character identity theft, government benefits and identification fraud, employment fraud and others.

The media has a strong influence over what people know. Will Rogers once said, "all I know is what I read in the papers." Journalists tend to report on credit card fraud because it is easy to understand given a 30-second TV clip or a couple hundred words in a column. Does that superficial approach best serve the public? Probably not, because it leaves people thinking that all identity theft or is financial fraud-analogously all dementia is Alzheimer's.

I recently reported that a fair number of counties in Wisconsin disclose Social Security Numbers on the Web. At the same time, the Federal Trade Commission reported that two types of identity theft, government identification fraud and benefits fraud doubled in Wisconsin. Yet reporters want to talk about credit card and bank fraud, which is declined in Wisconsin according to the FTC. A reporter remarked, we need to keep it simple. But is simple right? Does simple serve the public? I ask, is journalism and investigative reporting dead?

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