Critical Statistics of Identity Theft
Knowing that identity theft is a fast-growing crime is one thing. It is also helpful to know how identity can be stolen and how to protect against it. However, it is also a good idea to keep as up to date as possible with the statistics of identity theft, to know what is most apt to be a target.
Statistics for Identity Theft for 2006
Each year, the Federal Trade Commission compiles a list of statistics on identity theft. A breakdown of the most important statistics to know follows:
In 2006, there were at least 246,000 cases of identity theft reported. Credit card fraud was reported as the most frequent type of theft, with 25% of all reported cases. Evenly distributed at about 16% were phone and utilities fraud, employment fraud and other such categories.
The statistics of identity theft show that electronic transfer, even though increasingly secure, is still the easiest target for identity theft. Napa, California and Madera, California were the two highest-ranked cities in the number of cases of identity theft reported.
The most abused methods of fund transfer are through credit cards (30%), wire transfers (23%) and bank account transactions (20%). The least used method of transaction and the least vulnerable for theft are cash advances and money orders.
On the internet, identity theft can be committed under the guise of a company sending email. After all, email and websites are the most widely-used ways of companies communicating with their clients to advertise products or services. Often, identity thieves will set up a fake webpage, disguise it as a legitimate companys webpage and use it to gather email addresses of unsuspecting victims. This is known as phishing, and is a swiftly spreading problem in Internet security. Most bank sites, such as Bank of America, will have what is known as a Sitekey, which is a special personalized image that appears for an accountholder who signed up for online banking. The Sitekey confirms that the browser is dislaying the actual site of the bank, rather than a false one.
The most targeted demographic is consumers between the ages of 40 to 49. According to the Federal Trade Commission’s collection of statistics, almost a quarter of all cases fall within this demographic.
These are the most important statistics to keep track of; if someone falls in the middle-aged demographic, uses the World wide web frequently for business or conducts on the internet banking on a regular basis, he or she should be especially wary, because they have been shown statistically to be the most targeted victims of identity theft.
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