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ID Thieves Getting Less Money Out Of 10 Million Americans
SecurityProNews
Staff Writer
2009-02-09
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While the number of American identity theft fraud victims went up about 22 percent last year, the good news is they were taken for less: about $5000 on average. Security researchers credit better, faster, and cheaper fraud detection as a reason for the decline.
 | | ID Thieves Getting Less Money Out Of 10 Million Americans |  |
Conversely, Javelin Strategy and Research, the company releasing the numbers, blames hard times as a reason the upswing in number to 9.9 million Americans affected ID theft; dire financial straits often causes in an increase in crime. Hard times also causes people to have less money to steal, but the authors of the report preferred to credit swift maneuvering on the part of the security industry.
Despite the 22 percent increase bringing the total number of ID theft victims to 2004 levels-when $60 billion was lost-the total annual fraud amount in 2008 was 20 percent lower, totaling just $48 billion. The average fraud amount was $4,849, down from $5,488 the year before, and Javelin says the mean consumer costs of resolving ID theft dropped by 31 percent to $496 per incident.
"Crimes of opportunity, such as information from lost wallets, still comprise the vast majority of incidents," said James Van Dyke, president and founder of Javelin Strategy & Research.
"The good news is research shows consumers have more control than they may think and more of them are actively taking steps to protect themselves. Additionally, the financial industry has made significant strides to resolve fraud incidents for their customers and put stronger controls in place to limit fraud, which is lessening the impact of this crime."
In cases where ID theft was reported, 71 percent of incidents started less than a week after theft, up from 33 percent in 2005. Javelin says this increase points to an increase in fraudster sophistication and an increasing number of attacks of opportunity on exposed business data.
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SecurityProNews is a daily online and email publication focusing on internet security issues.
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