Recently, the media has reported that an identity thief, said to be associated with the largest case of identity theft to date, has been caught. Albert Gonzalez, 28, ran an operation in which he hacked into over 100 million credit card accounts. Gonzalez (residing in Miami, FL) was charged on Monday for credit and debit card theft. He is reported to have stolen 40 million card numbers in the past, so this is at least his second offense. He was able to obtain the numbers by hacking into retail store computer networks. If convicted, Gonzalez faces up to 20 years in prison. Gonzalez was involved in the following data breaches (reported earlier): Heartland Payment Systems; 7-Eleven Inc, TJX Companies, Dave & Busters, BJ’s Wholesale Club, OfficeMax, Boston Market, Barnes & Noble, Sports Authority, Forever 21, DSW and others. There are also unidentified company breaches that Gonzalez, and his conspirators, were involved with. (more…)

Family members, coworkers, restaurant employees, company employees and the list goes on and on. What do they all have in common? All of these groups have included  identity thieves who have been caught committing the crime. Now the question is: Is identity theft punishment strong enough to deter these people from committing this crime again?
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