As if a difficult economy and ongoing credit crunch weren't enough, consumers are also being reminded about the ever-present risk of identity theft.

Forbes recently reported that American financial institutions have been seeing a spike in data breaches, which in many cases turn out to be company employees hoping to sell the information to identity thieves.

The magazine cited data from the Identity Theft Resource Center showing that while seven percent of known data breaches took place at banks in 2007, that number should rise to about 11 percent at the end of 2008.

"They have access to the data, and they know how to use it. Desperation is never a good thing," Rex Davis of ITRC told Forbes.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, more than nine million Americans are victims of identity theft each year. The agency recommends that those who are victimized by the crime should start by filing an identity theft report with their local police department and also contacting their creditors. Victims are also advised to file ID theft complaints with the FTC.

Identity theft can be an especially difficult crime to recover from because victims often find it difficult at first to rebuild credit and clear up the debts they never ran up.

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