Websites that project the image of legality may in fact be copies of actual websites in an attempt to log information about you. Without even knowing it, your personal information would be passed to a website with malicious intent before reaching the appropriate destination. And the consequences of identity theft can be long term. Fraudulent charges to a credit card can be refunded, but not without damage to the victim's standing with his or her company. Identity theft on social networking sites can ruin relationships with virtual and physical acquaintances.

Identity theft is much larger than what one may assume. A survey in the United States shows that identity theft has caused a total loss of $56.6 billion in the single year of 2006. Individually, this translates to a loss of over $6,000 per person . Tens of thousands of MySpace passwords have been phished and posted on the Internet within the past year alone.