The Federal Trade Commission documented the most cases of identity theft ever in one year in its “2008 Fraud and Identity Theft Complaint Data.”

In 2008, the FTC said it had received about 1,200,000 complaints related to fraud, identity theft and other consumer complaints, representing a 50 percent increase over the previous year.

Those consumers reported fraud related losses of more than $1.8 billion. The states that reported the most complaints include Arizona, California and Florida. Those states have the highest rates of foreclosure, indicating that the economic downturn has been a driver of increased fraud.

“This FTC report confirms what we have been seeing in the online chat rooms where identity thieves buy and sell stolen personal information. Since we are constantly monitoring these rooms on behalf of our customers, we’ve been able to track a significant increase in activity over the last six months,” said Dan Clements, vice president, Affinion Security Center.

“In fact, we think that the number of complaints that the FTC receives are just the tip of the iceberg, and there are actually many more cases of identity theft that go unreported. Americans, more than any other nation, are vulnerable to identity theft,” he added.

The FTC report found that credit card fraud was the most common form of identity theft. When credit card information is stolen, the thieves often turn to online chat rooms where they buy and sell this information and also do tests to make sure the card is valid.