Some recent large identity theft cases:

• Last month in Mineola, N.Y., 14 people were charged with operating an identity theft ring that counterfeited credit cards from numbers stolen off patrons at Long Island restaurants.

• In May, a man who sent 850 million junk e-mails through accounts he opened with stolen identities was sentenced in Buffalo, N.Y., to up to seven years in prison. A year earlier, Internet service provider Earthlink Inc. won a $16.4 million civil judgment against the man.

• In November, Secret Service agents reported finding the names, addresses and Social Security numbers of thousands of Wells Fargo Bank customers on a stolen computer inside the Concord, Calif. home of a man who was arrested.

• Last August, Acxiom Corp., one of the world’s largest consumer database companies, said that a computer hacker had gained access to the company’s private files and downloaded sensitive information about some of its clients’ customers. The company’s loss was estimated at $5.8 million. A man pleaded guilty in December.

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