I’ve known someone who actually went to jail after her identity was stolen and someone was writing bad checks in her name. She was already going through all of the legal process to get everything cleared up but she had warrants against her that she didn’t know about.

Now she doesn’t leave home without police reports and documentation that she has been the victim of identity theft.

These guys are saying something like 17M thefts in 2017, which to me is a bit concerning and almost incredible, even if they’re off by a factor of 2. I mean, it’s not the end of the world if someone assumes my identity but it certainly seems like a monumental hassle to deal with and almost certainly bound to cost several thousand dollars.

https://www.javelinstrategy.com/press-release/identity-fraud...

I think that depends on how you define "significant damaging impact".

Surely, somewhere some victim of identity theft has suffered vast financial losses without recoup.

Surely, many victims of identity theft have a harder time getting approved for loans, leases, or even government clearances and background checks. These things are explainable, but isn't the fact that a person has to deal with this for the rest of their life (or at least 10-15 years following an identity theft event) enough of a problem that you would say it has caused a person "significant, damaging impact"?

Extremely prevalent. Identity theft is one of the biggest forms of theft in the US. Things like fake income tax refunds is one of the fastest growing financial crimes in the last few years.

I don’t have any recent examples at hand right now but there absolutely have been cases of identity theft in the UK and the US (particularly given the importance attributed to social security numbers there).