Identity Theft Report

human-centered design | talking to users | service design | visual design

I worked on a small team to figure out how we might make it easier for identity theft victims to report the crime to law enforcement and businesses.  We spoke with people who touch this issue from all angles: identity theft victims, federal and local law enforcement, credit bureaus, fraud departments within businesses, and victim advocates.


By talking to victims and stakeholders we learned that the form the FTC provided to victims had the potential for significant improvements in credibility, flexibility and authentication.

These conversations helped us to identify what information was most important and what aspects of the current form were not working.

After several iterations, we proposed to retire the blank print form and develop a new Identity Theft Report that is only produced after a victim completes a report to the FTC. The new format introduces many improvements but most importantly, it now carries the weight of an official report to a law enforcement agency and is a more effective tool.

Our proposal was significant but readily accepted because its usefulness and impact were validated by our research. The new form launched in October 2016.

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IdentityTheft.gov

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Identity Theft Personas