With identity theft claiming a victim every 3.8 seconds in the United States, many are concerned. Understanding the seriousness of this crime is one of the ways you can fight back.
- 8.1 million Americans (3.6% of adults) became victims of identity theft in 2007.
- Over 226 million data records of U.S. residents have been exposed due to security breaches since February 2005, as of May 2008.
- The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) received 670,000 consumer fraud and identity theft complaints in 2006.
- The total cost of identity theft to businesses and consumers was $47 billion in 2007.
- The average fraud amount per victim was approximately $5,720 in 2007.
- The average victim of an existing account fraud paid approximately $587 out-of-pocket in consumer costs.
- The average resolution time for resolving fraud cases is 25 hours per victim in 2007.
- 59% of identity theft involves existing credit card accounts. Forty-nine percent involves other existing accounts, such as bank accounts and utilities. And, 22% involves new accounts and other non-account-related forms of the crime, according to the Federal Trade Commission's 2007 report.
- The chances of being a victim of:
- Violent Crime: 1 in 5,000
- Heart Disease: 1 in 2,600
- Auto Accident: 1 in 130
- Identity Theft: 1 in 27
- All a thief needs to open a credit card, get cash advances or obtain loans under your name is:
- A Social Security number
- A driver’s license
- A checking account number
- According to the FTC, credit card fraud is the most common form of reported identity theft followed by phone or utilities fraud, bank fraud, employment fraud, government documents/benefits fraud and loan fraud.
- One of the biggest threats to confidential employee and customer data is a company’s own current and former employees.
- Hackers have hit 83% of financial institutions.
- More than 57 million people have received phishing emails.