February 10, 2010
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News: ID Theft Escalates Above Economy Growth
The fastest growing criminal activity has grown even faster. According to a new report, during 2009 identity theft (ID) and credit card theft grew to higher levels than the growth of the U.S. economy. The firm of Javelin Strategy and Research released its report, The 2010 Identity Fraud Survey Report that showed 11.1 million credit card holders became victim of identity fraud over the past year. As identity theft increased by 12 percent, it cost our nation over $54 billion, a 12.5 percent increase from the previous year. There are a number of ways thieves steal identities. The most popular are stealing credit card numbers from a variety of sources including dumpsters, selling online bogus products from sites like Craigslist and email scams that capture personal information.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says that thieves use stolen identities for more than the traditional reason of infiltrating bank accounts. Today, thieves use stolen identities to gain employment, get medical assistance, evade law enforcement, open up new credit card accounts, and even to enter the U.S. illegally. The Better Business Bureau (BBB) has also expressed concern over possible ID theft of individuals hunting for a job. The BBB warns individuals searching for a job to be cautious of scammers looking to gather personal information for ID theft. High unemployment rates have placed these individuals at higher risk. The BBB says people should avoid anyone who asks for money in advance or requesting personal information including Social Security, bank account, or credit card numbers.
The ' is also warning individuals of a popular email scam claiming to be from a government agency requesting the person to provide personal information in order to get his tax refund. Like many other email scams, the link provided is a bogus site designed to look like your bank, credit card company, or the IRS. However, once you click on the site and enter any sensitive information, the site is designed to capture all the information. The thief in turns uses the information to conduct his fraudulent activities. Nevertheless, the Javelin report indicates that Americans have done a good job at taking steps to protect themselves with more aggressive monitoring, detecting, and preventing technology.