Federal Trade Commission has found number of complaints in 2008 is the highest it has ever been at 1.2 million registered. Of the total number of complaints filed in 2008, identity theft was at the top of the list and account for 26%.
(Federal Trade Commission - FTC.gov)
There were 10 million victims of identity theft in 2008 in the United States (Javelin Strategy and Research, 2009).
According to the Federal Trade Commission, 10 million Americans fell victim to identity theft in 2008, at an average cost of $5,000 per victim. (Federal Trade Commission - FTC.gov Website)
1.6 million households experienced fraud not related to credit cards (i.e. their bank accounts or debit cards were compromised) (U.S. Department of Justice, 2005).
Those households with incomes higher than $70,000 were twice as likely to experience identity theft than those with salaries under $50,000 (U.S. DOJ, 2005).
The Better Business Bureau reports that their top consumer complaint for the past 6 years in a row has been identity theft. (Better Business Bureau - BBB.org)
If you break the statistics down even further, you'll find that one person becomes the victim of identity theft every 13 seconds.
According to the FTC report, consumers have reported spending over $1 billion as a result of identity theft/fraud from 2007 to 2008.
(Federal Trade Commission - FTC.gov)
The top five states reporting are: Arizona, California, Florida, Texas and Nevada. Florida was in 5th place last year and has now moved to 3rd place, whereas Nevada moved from 3rd to 5th. (Federal Trade Commission - FTC.gov)
The number one form of reported identity theft is credit card fraud at 20% of all cases. Other cases involved government documents/benefits fraud at 15%; employment fraud at 15% and phone/utilities fraud at 13%.
(Federal Trade Commission - FTC.gov)
Discovery
The majority of victims (over 85%) discover that their identities have been stolen when they're denied credit while applying for a loan, credit card, or apartment.(Federal Trade Commission - FTC.gov Website)
38-48% discover someone has stolen their identity within three months, while 9-18% of victims don't learn that their identity has been stolen for four or more years (Identity Theft Resource Center Aftermath Study, 2004).
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission says it takes 12 months, on average, for a victim of identity theft to notice the crime, and quick identity recovery can substantially reduce or stop out-of-poket expenses.
(Federal Trade Commission - FTC.gov)
Recovery
It can take up to 5,840 hours (the equivalent of working a full-time job for two years) to correct the damage from ID theft, depending on the severity of the case (ITRC Aftermath Study, 2004).
According to the FTC, the recovery process can take almost 500 hours and as much as $3,000. (Federal Trade Commission - FTC.gov)
It takes 26-32% of victims between 4 and 6 months to straighten out problems caused by identity theft; 11-23% of victims spend 7 months to a year resolving their cases (ITRC Aftermath Study, 2004).
The FTC says that 41% of ID Theft victims are still dealing with the problem two years later. (Federal Trade Commission - FTC.gov)
65% of those who filed a complaint with the FTC did not file a police report.
(Federal Trade Commission - FTC.gov)
Costs
Businesses across the world lose $221 billion a year due to identity theft (Aberdeen Group).
On average, victims lose between $851 and $1,378 out-of-pocket trying to resolve identity theft (ITRC Aftermath Study, 2004).
The mean cost per victim is $500 (Javelin Strategy and Research, 2009).
47% of victims encounter problems qualifying for a new loan (ITRC Aftermath Study, 2004).
70% of victims have difficulty removing negative information that resulted from identity theft from their credit reports (ITRC Aftermath Study, 2004).
Dollar amount lost per household averaged $1,620 (U.S. DOJ, 2005).
If you break it down by average income, around $16,000 is lost each year per person while dealing with the aftermath of identity theft.
Over 50% of identity theft victims experience credit card fraud, in which the thief opens new credit accounts in the victim’s name and runs up huge balances on those cards.(Federal Trade Commission - FTC.gov)
Perpetrators
43% of victims knew the perpetrator (ITRC Aftermath Study, 2004).
In cases of child identity theft, the most common perpetrator is the child's parent (ITRC Aftermath Study, 2004).
Methods
More than 35 million data records were compromised in corporate and government data breaches in 2008 (ITRC).
263,214,232 records from databases containing sensitive personal information were involved in known security breaches in the U.S. from January 2005 to July, 2009. (Privacy Rights Clearinghouse - privacyrights.org)
Stolen wallets and physical paperwork accounts for almost half (43%) of all identity theft (Javelin Strategy and Research, 2009).
Online methods accounted for only 11% (Javelin Strategy and Research, 2009).
Did You Know?
