What do Identity Thieves do with stolen information?

Identity theft can be used in a wide range of different unlawful activities, and there are quite a number of ways in which thieves can utilise the personal information of their victims.

Financial Fraud
This is one of the most prevalent types of identity theft crimes and depends on what information the thieves manage to steal.  The easiest way for thieves to carry out financial fraud is to trick you into revealing your full account details or credit card numbers, which they can then quickly use to empty your accounts of money, and also run up fraudulent charges for goods and services.  Thieves will also try and gain enough personal information about you in order to apply for as many credit products as possible, such as loans, service agreements, credit cards and bank accounts.  They will then use these accounts up to their limits, ditch them on move on to their next victim, leaving you to face all of the debts and charges they have run up in your name.

Social Security Number Fraud
This is a major problem in the US, and SSN are usually stolen to be used to mask the identity of both illegal immigrants and wanted criminals, so that they can apply for benefits, jobs and taxes without attracting the attention of authorities.

Impersonation Fraud
Criminals can get hold of key identity documents such as passports and driver licenses, and use these for a number of serious impersonation frauds such as entering countries illegally, avoiding taxes and debts in their own names, driving when disqualified or not licensed and also to mask their own identities if they are charged for a crime.  It can be very difficult to prove that impersonation fraud has taken place, and you may end up spending a lot of money on legal costs to try and clear your name, especially if your identity has been fraudulently linked to a crime that you did not commit.