Sgt. Tarick Fuller thought joining the military would help him achieve the American dream. A month after 9/11, the Jamaican immigrant enlisted in the Army, serving as a supply clerk first in Afghanistan, then in Iraq. He sent his $1,800 monthly pay back to Fort Bragg, N.C., where he hoped to buy a home and start a family with his wife, Cassandra, 20, now 4½ months pregnant. "My savings," says Fuller, 23, "were supposed to buy nice things for my family."

Instead, they have evaporated. While in Afghanistan in March 2002, Fuller received letters from a bank where he did not have an account, saying that he had bounced checks. Fuller had his mother contact his credit union and learned that a man carrying military identification with Fuller's name on it had withdrawn almost all of his money. By the time police caught the culprit—Army Spc. Troy Billups, a soldier in the same unit who was discharged after Fuller was deployed—he had used Fuller's Social Security number to set up four checking accounts, obtain a driver's license and spend nearly $20,000 of Fuller's money on a car, groceries, cell phones—even a $3,700 Valentine's Day spree.

Convicted in February 2003, Billups, 27, was recently released after serving 19 months on a work farm for fraud. But Fuller is still grappling with unpaid bills and a credit report in shambles. "He took almost all of my savings," says Fuller. "I was frustrated, sad and depressed."

He is far from alone. Identity theft—stealing Social Security numbers, credit card details and other personal data—is one of the fastest growing crimes in the U.S., affecting as many as 10 million Americans a year. And soldiers are especially vulnerable. The reasons, according to experts, are simple: GIs' Social Security numbers are printed on their military ID cards—and form the "serial number" they regularly recite along with name and rank; they spend long periods overseas or moving between states, often switching banks; and many are young and inexperienced at handling money. "Military personnel are prime targets," says Edmund Mierzwinsky of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. "They aren't going to be focused on their finances. They may not even be getting their mail."

The Pentagon keeps no statistics on identity theft, but anecdotal stories indicate the problem has mushroomed since 9/11, says Capt. Brian K. Keller, a JAG Marine officer in Virginia: "With the deployment of large numbers of our military, the opportunities have certainly increased, and criminals have taken the opportunity."

In December 2002, burglars broke into a Phoenix health care company and took the medical records of 500,000 troops and their families. None have surfaced yet, but authorities fear they will be used to create false IDs. In another case, Maria Ramirez, a clerk aboard the USS Nimitz during Operation Iraqi Freedom, was sentenced last month to five years in prison for allegedly funneling personal data of fellow sailors to a San Diego ID theft ring that stole thousands of dollars from more than 400 victims. And Curtis L. Phillips, a sailor formerly on the aircraft carrier George Washington, is now facing a military hearing, charged with using the ship's computer to obtain the personal identification of 20 officers. He allegedly sent them back to a U.S.-based ID theft ring, which used account information to make purchases in excess of $100,000.

Authorities in several states have reported that thieves posing as officials have contacted military families to get personal information. "A lot of our families received phone calls from people saying their soldier had been wounded or killed," says a spokeswoman for the Arkansas National Guard. "[The scam] seems to come in waves."

But most ID thefts are smaller-scale con jobs. In Fuller's case, for example, Billups "asked me to cash a check for him and put my Social Security number on it for identification," he says. "That was my downfall." Billups later told police he had chosen Fuller because he was about to be posted overseas for six months. In that time, says Det. Glenn Johnson of the Fayetteville, N.C., police, "he took that guy to the cleaners."

The Pentagon has begun educating troops about the problem and in February stopped printing Social Security numbers on military paychecks. Last December Congress also passed the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, which allows service members to put a special fraud warning on their accounts when they are shipped overseas.

For Fuller those measures arrived too late. Backed up by his credit union and the Army, he has cleared much of his financial record, but his savings were gone for good, and Billups wrote so many bad checks in his name that some still surface on credit reports. While Fuller was serving in Iraq earlier this year, his wife was turned down for a home loan because of those black marks. "I can't believe I defended freedom in Afghanistan and Iraq," he says, "for this."

J.D. Heyman and Richard Jerome. Michaele Ballard in Fayetteville, Robert Schlesinger in Washington, D.C., and Maureen Harrington in San Diego

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While Plata built a military career, Alaniz, now an Austin, Texas, furniture sales manager, discovered her credit report was filled with unfamiliar charges, with the debtor listed as a Cristina Alaniz who was in the Air Force. Investigators unmasked Plata in November 2003. Now discharged and facing fraud charges and possible deportation, she denies the debt. "It's not like I was out to ruin her name," she says.

Alaniz might disagree. Still clearing her record, she keeps a sharp eye on her personal data. "I'm wide awake," she says. "I'm on the alert."