Toughening Illinois' Identity Theft Statute

In 1999, the Office crafted and pursued the enactment of one of the first identity theft laws in the country. This new law was necessary to address one of the fastest growing crimes in the nation. With the increasing use of credit and debit cards in both in-person and Internet transactions, offenders quickly learned that personal identification information has monetary value and that such information can be sold to others for illicit use. To prevent this new illicit enterprise of selling personal identification information, the State's Attorney's Office drafted an amendment in 2003 and successfully advocated for its passage in Springfield. The 2003 amendment extends identity theft to include the theft of an individual's identity for purposes beyond mere financial gain. Under this measure, the following acts can constitute identity theft: (1) knowing use of a person's identification to obtain credit, money, goods, services, or other property; or (2) knowing use of a person's identification to commit any felony; or (3) knowingly obtaining, recording, possessing, selling, transferring, purchasing, or manufacturing a person's identification information to commit or to aid or abet another in committing a felony; or (4) knowingly using, obtaining, recording, possessing, selling, transferring, purchasing, or manufacturing a person's identification information knowing that such personal identification information was stolen or produced without lawful authority, or (5) knowingly using, transferring, or possessing document-making implements to produce false identification or false documents with the knowledge that they will be used to commit a felony. Governor Blagojevich signed Public Act 93-401 on July 31, 2003. This tough, expanded statute took effect immediately upon the governor's signature