Identity theft has become a story of numbers: millions of victims, billions of dollars lost. But to police officers, that story comes person by person. Each of those victims has a story to share; each of those billions of dollars matters to people seeking help from a law enforcement agency.

Each month, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enters, on average, 21,000 identity theft complaints into its Identity Theft Clearinghouse: complaints from a woman who found that an ID thief had a $100,000 business loan in her name; a man who discovered that someone had obtained a fake driver’s license, established power of attorney, and ultimately secured a mortgage for more than $400,000 using his name and information; and a man who uncovered his stolen identity when the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tried to collect a debt from him because of a fraudulent tax return filed in his name. This man learned that there were over 10 credit card accounts in his name, as well as a new mortgage for over $300,000—all courtesy of the ID thief. Any law enforcement agency can probably match these stories with what it has seen and heard from victims.