Identity theft is a type of fraud that involves using personal details of someone else . The term identity theft was coined in 1964 and is actually a misnomer , since it is not literally possible to steal an identity as such - more accurate terms would be identity fraud or impersonation or identity cloning but identity theft has become commonplace . `` Determining the link between data breaches and identity theft is challenging , primarily because identity theft victims often do not know how their personal information was obtained , '' and identity theft is not always detectable by the individual victims , according to a report done for the FTC .