It takes a certain kind of person to commit violent crime, but what about nonviolent crimes . . . crimes that may even go unnoticed for months?

There’s quite a difference between the moxie necessary to bludgeon a victim over the head vs. the ability to enter a fraudulent PIN and commit identity theft.  It’s no wonder that the identity thief is something of a breed of his own.

About 85 percent of identity theft crimes are perpetrated without direct criminal-to-victim contact, according to “Combating Identity Theft,” an April 2007 report by the newly formed Identity Theft Task Force chaired by Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez. The majority of victims (56 percent) don’t even know how their personal information came to be compromised.  This makes any study of the identity theft criminal profile more difficult.

Nonetheless, law enforcement agencies have gathered extensive, if not quite comprehensive, data and established several categories of identity thieves.

The first of these categories is the criminal whom the victim already knows.  Although only 15 percent of identity theft victims report a prior acquaintance with the thief, this segment is actually the most frequently reported known method of identity theft, since the majority of victims have no idea who stole their personal data or how, according to the report.  Of the 44 percent who know how their information was compromised, the majority are fleeced by an acquaintance than by any other method.  Co-workers, caretakers and even family members are among those known to carry out such crimes.

A more fascinating class of identity criminals has also emerged recently: The meth-head ID thief.  In a growing number of cases, especially in the American west, identity theft has been linked to methamphetamine users and pushers.  The link is hard to nail down since the production and use of methamphetamines is less organized and traceable than some other illegal drugs, but in times and places of increased meth use, there have consistently been increases in identity theft; and some law enforcement have reported that white-supremacist groups are organizing meth users to commit identity theft in order to fund their habit and the drug machine, according to the report.

The meth-head ID thief is extremely low-tech in his methods, which also makes associating the individual crimes more difficult – there is usually no source to trace via IP address, as is the case with most internet fraud.  Primarily, the crimes stem from stolen wallets and purses, as well as a pervasive penchant for mail theft.  Many times, this new brand of thieves steals mail straight from the victims’ porches, harvesting valuable information from bills and other personal documents.

Another recent addition to the game is perhaps more insidious: organized crime.  Always on the lookout for the next racket, and likely inspired by the success of small-time identity thieves, several major organized crime networks have made their way into the picture.  Such groups include Hell’s Angels and MS-13, and have significantly greater resources to back their efforts, the report says.

The crimes of these organizations, usually well-funded, are generally more complex and less noticeable to the victim.  Their tactics include “skimming,” meaning using devices through which victims slide a credit card or ATM card.  Some schemes have rigged a skimmer that rides on the front of a legitimate ATM machine so that the victim believes he is using a real bank service.  Hidden cameras installed by the professional crooks then capture the victim entering his PIN on the keypad.

Other crime consortiums come together only in cyberspace, linking a network of criminals who may have no personal contact.  Often these cells are centered overseas, says the report, and use online methods exclusively.

A term you’ve likely heard is “phishing,” one of the more popular online scams in which an ID thief poses as a legitimate authority, bank or governmental agency, demanding “verification” of personal information.  Usually a phisher sends an e-mail that redirects the unwitting consumer to a false-front Web site designed to imitate a real business or agency.  When the victim enters his personal information, the ID thieves collect it at the other end.

Almost always, the crucial piece of information is your social security number.  Once the criminals have that, it becomes possible to obtain identification in your name, open new lines of credit and create a variety of fraudulent new accounts – the worst form of identity theft.

To that end, the most technologically advanced identity thieves have developed a variety of spyware and other cyber-scaries that can intercept your data as you transmit it online or even log your keystrokes to record your passwords and information.

They come in all shapes and sizes and, in most cases, you’ll never even see their faces.  But the threat posed by identity thieves is no less real than a mugger in a back alley.