It is important to understand that identity theft is a fast-growing crime. It is also important to know just how your identity can be stolen and how to protect against it. Try to keep as up-to-date as possible in this growing epidemic, and to know who is most likely to be a target.
2006 Statistics of Identity Theft
The Federal Trade Commission compiles a list of vital statistics of identity theft every year. It can be long-winded and tedious to read long reports at times, so a breakdown of the most important statistics to know follows.
In 2006, there were at least 246,000 cases of identity theft reported, with credit card fraud reported as the most frequent type of theft at 25% of all cases. Phone/utilities fraud, bank fraud and employment fraud were other categories, each evenly distributed at about 16%.
According to the statistics, electronic transfer is still the easiest way to target someone for identity theft, even though it is fairly secure. Napa, California and Madera, California were the highest ranked cities for the number of cases of identity theft.
Bank account transactions, credit cards and wire transfers are the most frequently abused methods of fund transfer; the identity theft statistics indicate them at 20%, 30% and 23% respectively. Cash advances and money orders are the least used methods of transaction, and therefore the least vulnerable.
Identity theft has a different threat online. Identity thieves will set up fake webpages, disguising them as a legitimate company’s webpage. They will use it to gather email addresses of victims. This “phishing” (as it is known) is a fast spreading problem in Internet security. Most bank sites are using what is known as a Sitekey. A Sitekey is a special personalized image that appears for an accountholder who has signed up for online banking. It confirms that the browser is displaying the actual correct website- not a fake one.
People from the ages of 40 to 49 are the most targeted demographic, according to the Federal Trade Commissions collection of statistics of identity theft. Almost a quarter of all cases fall under this demographic.
Be sure to keep these statistics in mind- if you are in the middle-aged demographic and use the Internet for online banking regularly- you should be cautious because this group has been shown to be the most targeted victims of identity theft.