Your Guide To Identity Theft
Identity Theft    
Identity theft is growing each year at epidemic proportions. In fact, it is the fastest growing crime in the U.S, affecting 10 million people and costing an estimated $5 billion each year. It has become easier for criminals to gain the information they need to steal your financial and personal information, putting you at significant risk. And worst of all, you can't even detect it until it has already happened.
 
Identity theft is an opportunistic crime that is relatively easy to commit. Many of those who commit this crime are lured by the financial benefit and a low risk of apprehension and prosecution. Victims of this crime are often shocked at how little help they receive from law enforcement and credit-reporting agencies. In many cases, the laws are not on the victims' sides and law enforcement is limited in what they can actually do to help.
 
To help protect you from this crime, we've put together information on the following: 
Identity Theft Statistics    
  • Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the United States.
  • Each year there are over nine million Americans who are victims of identity theft.
  • The average amount of loss per fraud victim is over $6,000.
  • The total U.S. annual identity fraud cost is about $56 billion.
  • The U.S. Federal Trade Commission reports that the average out-of-pocket costs that victims incur when cleaning up their credit is about $1,000.
  • In almost half of all identity theft cases, the victim knows the perpetrator of the crime.
  • In cases where the method of theft is known, 68.2% of the information was obtained off-line, with theft or loss of a wallet, checkbook, purse, or credit cards being the main source. The percentage of information obtained online was 11.6%.
  • Around 26% of identity theft cases involve credit card fraud.
  • Eighteen percent of identity theft cases involve opening a new telephone or utility account or running up charges on a victim's existing account.
  • Employment-related fraud comprises 12% of identity theft cases.
  • Over half of all identity theft victims are between the ages of 18-39, with 53% of victims in this age range. Victims under the age of 18 comprise 5%, and those over the age of 65 comprise only 2.3% of all victims.
  • Households with an income of over $75,000 per year are more likely to be victimized by this type of fraud.
  • People living in urban areas are almost twice as likely to be a victim of identity theft than those living in rural areas.
  • Most Americans are now shredding their personal documents that go in the trash, with 70% reporting they do this. As a result, only about one percent of identity theft cases involve theft of documents from garbage.
  • Sixty-eight percent of identity fraud victims incur no out-of-pocket expenses. However, it takes on average 30-50 hours of time trying to resolve identity fraud issues.
  • The chances of an identity thief being prosecuted are 1 in 700.



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