Armed robberies, car jackings and break-ins are serious crimes usually committed by a limited number of people. Identity theft is in a class by itself. A single individual can launch any number of attacks at anytime from anywhere and against virtually anyone.
The stealing of a person's confidential information is a major national and international problem. One of the best (and most recent) resources describing the scope of the problem in the United States is a "lagging" Special Report produced by the Bureau of Justice Statistics entitled, "Victims of Identity Theft, 2008".
More than 11.7 million people were affected by ID theft in the two year reporting period covered by the Department of Justice. The most commonly crime related to a person's confidential information was illegal purchases having been made on the existing credit card accounts of victims. One of the more surprising facts is that nearly forty percent (40%) of the illicit credit card fraud is committed by someone who is known to the victim.
More than half of the victims of identity theft suffered fraud against their accounts that totaled more than 17 billion dollars in the two-year time period covered by the BJS report. Current law and practices, fortunately, help protect consumers who detect the identity theft early and move to fight it. Doing so makes it easier to prevent additional losses.
A relatively small percentage of victims, seventeen percent (17%), actually report an identity theft crime to law enforcement. This basic fact is surprising because to assure the maximum amount of consumer protection that the law provides, an identity theft victim must file a criminal report with a law enforcement agency and an Identity Theft Complaint form with the FTC.
Twenty three percent (23%) of identity theft victims suffered out-of-pocket expenses that averaged $788.00 per victim. The damages caused to the credit ratings of victims and the time lost in unraveling the fraud are difficult to measure. The obvious stress and inconvenience are also hard to determine. The effects of an identity theft crime against a victim tend to last for a while and disrupt the victim's life.
The majority of the fraud perpetrated against individuals (53%) was committed against existing credit card accounts. The remainder of incidents was directed against bank accounts, telephone, insurance or online fraud. Thirty percent (30%) of the victims knew the identity thief.
Among the reasons that identity theft is prevalent is that it is relatively low-risk for the criminal. The actual crime(s) may already have been committed by the time the victim discovers the fraud. Complicating matters is that only a small amount of victims report the crime to law enforcement agencies as pointed out previously. Worse yet, a number of local law enforcement agencies across the country refuse to receive a criminal report related to identity theft. Those agencies are virtual havens in which identity thieves can set up "virtual dead drops" for stolen merchandise being delivered.
The burden of preventing ID theft is basically left on the shoulders of the individual citizen and private industry. The identity thieves know it and they look for vulnerabilities and opportunities. You can help deter identity theft by being vigilant with your personal digital profile and by reporting any identity theft fraud perpetrated against you. If your local law enforcement agency refuses to allow you to file a criminal report, insist upon filing a miscellaneous crime report.
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