When one hears of identity theft, it is easy to imagine that a thief would want a lesser known name that would not attract too much attention. However, many criminals target celebrities and other well known individuals counting on the fact that they have larger assets to plunder. There have been many cases of identity theft involving everyone from famous television personalities to CEO’s to sports stars. Though celebrities and the like are often privy to certain advantages, they will never be immune to identity theft.

The following are examples of celebrity identity theft:

Will Smith - Identity thief Carlos Lomax opened fourteen credit accounts using Will Smith’s legal name, Willard C. Smith. Over $30,000 dollars was charged to the bogus accounts. Lomax was earlier convicted of using the identity of Atlanta Hawks basketball player Steve Smith to rack up $81,000 worth of charges on a credit card account.

Michael Bloomberg - The New York City Mayor found himself the victim of identity theft when thieves Odalis Bostic and Charles Nelson absconded with $10,000 dollars using bogus checks. The pair was then nabbed after an attempt to cash a check in the amount of $400,000.

Tiger Woods - Con man Anthony Lemar Taylor fleeced golf great Tiger Woods for $50,000 worth of goods using nearly a dozen different lines of credit with different department stores. Though he did not resemble Woods in any way, the identity thief was able to carry out his crimes by using the athlete’s legal first name of Eldrick rather than Tiger.

Ruben Studdard - Ronald W. Edwards, Studdard’s ex manager and public relations director, used the singer’s name and personal information to take out credit cards, later maxing them to the tune of well over $100,000. Another $150,000 worth of checks was written for goods and services as well. Additional stolen checks in the amount of $25,000 were also deposited into Edwards’ bank account.

Barry Bonds - The big league baseball player had his identity stolen by Jason Keys, an individual working as an employee of a company that shreds sensitive information and documents for celebrities, medical offices and government organizations. Keys then applied for a credit card using Bonds’ name and social security number.

Many other celebrities, from Paris Hilton to Oprah Winfrey have been victims of identity theft. One of the biggest cases of identity theft was performed by Abraham Abdullah, a busboy working at a swanky New York restaurant.

Abdullah picked his victims from a list of Forbes 400 Richest list and harvested credit card information from his place of work. Victims included chief executives of major companies and well known personalities such as Martha Stewart, Ted Turner and even Ross Perot. Posing as his victims, Abdullah skillfully gathered more information using a complex network of cell phones and library computers. For six months, the man was able to approach banks and brokerage houses and easily remove millions from the bank accounts of many affluent victims. As is the case with many identity thieves, Abdullah was nabbed when he got greedy and tried to move ten million dollars out of the account of Siebel Systems founder, Thomas Siebel.