Identity Theft Statistics Are Just the Tip of the Iceberg
Although we hear a lot about the crime, most people don’t realize that there are several different kinds of identity theft. Here’s what’s behind the statistics.
Although we hear a lot about the crime, most people don’t realize that there are several different kinds of identity theft. Here’s what’s behind the statistics.
Corporate data breaches have become an epidemic, and new legal and regulatory changes lead to massive corporate liability. There were 50 million records breached, at an average COST to the company of almost $200 per record in 2006. Review key strategies to reduce risk and cost.
Identity thieves steal personally identifying information to open new accounts and misuse existing accounts, creating havoc for consumers and businesses. Financial institutions and creditors soon will be required to implement a program to detect, prevent, and mitigate instances of identity theft. The programs must provide for the identification, detection, and response to patterns, practices, or specific activities – known as “red flags” – that could indicate identity theft.
In fact the technology is available to put together shredded documents in order to know exactly what they need to know about you. This can be a shocker for a lot of people. In order to fully protect yourself from this crime it is much better to get full protection from professional ID theft fraud alert services that will safeguard your finances and your future.
Everyone has probably heard of identity theft. It is a crime committed when another person utilizes the identity of another person to gain employment, commit crimes or acquire financial rewards. It is typically referred as a silent crime that can kill instantly because of the fact that most victims of identity theft do not realize that their identity has already been stolen until everything is too late. Charges have already been made on their credit cards, bank accounts have already been drained, and crimes have already been committed at the expense of the victim.
Identity theft can happen anytime, anywhere, to anyone. Identity fraud has become a huge concern in today’s new age and even though precautions have been taken to correct the situation there has not been much success. In the US approximately 120 million citizens had their private records exposed in the last three years causing approximately 27 million Americans to become identity theft victims.
Restoring one’s name and good credit is a time-consuming and expensive process. On average, it takes six months to detect identity theft and approximately 200 hours to recover from the crime. Victims must endure a number of costly steps to dispute fraudulent debts and accounts opened by identity thief, the fastest growing financial crime in America.
Unless consumers take extra care to protect themselves, online credit card and identity theft provides criminals with an insidious and sometimes invisible method of draining a bank account, racking up charges to the limit on a credit card or invading your personal privacy and security that often goes undetected for weeks, and sometimes months. Take steps to prevent identify theft before it occurs.