The FBI has called it "The fastest growing crime in America." Close to 10 million Americans every year are victimized by it and the costs are estimated at 50 billion dollars annually. Many criminals get off easily while the victims spend agonizing weeks working to restore their damaged credit reports and reputations. And, of course, quite often a great deal of money. Worse yet, there seems to be no end in sight to the problem.
"The popularity of the crime is simply growing faster than the solutions to stop it"
many experts conclude. Recovering from it is so time consuming, expensive and tedious that some states have taken to issuing "Identity Theft Passports" in an effort to assist victims endure the often lengthy and arduous cleaning up
Recent Surveys and Studies from the Better Business Bureau show that, although the number of cases have decreased since 2003, the figures are still quite astounding – frightening even.
Ponder these statistics from that Bureau --
Over a year 9,000,000 cases – that averages out to around 20,000 a day or around 800 an hour. $6 billion lost – that averages out to $6000 lost by each victim.
These are horrendous figures
Just think that EVERY hour of EVERY day of EVERY week 800 people are losing out to this fraud – people you and I know, our neighbors, office colleagues – innocent people caught in a widening net, losing money and then having to spend countless hours of tearful frustration trying to get their lives back on track.
We are led to believe that this is an internet crime but statistics show that this is not the case. In fact less than 10% of identity theft cases were committed on the internet. The rest occurred off line. In almost 50% of cases the victims themselves were the ones who discovered their loss and in almost half the cases the criminal and the victim were in close contact with each other – friend, relative, work colleague, employee. A large number actually came from the simple theft of a wallet. checkbook or credit card.
It is also worth noting that there has been a demographic switch in who is being targeted. If you are over 65 years of age then you can relax -- but only slightly. Those of you who are between 25 and 34 have now become the largest target of the fraudsters.
But, although the incidence of identity theft has been on the decline -- down from 9.3 million to 8.9 million in 2006 – the amount lost by each victim is rising.
That figure rose from $5900 in 2005 to near $6400 in 2006. The number of traumatic hours victims spent cleaning up the resultant financial debacle also rose – up from 28 hours in 2005 to over 40 hours in 2006. That year is the latest for which figures are available. It is possible that they have blown out considerably since then as our criminal elements realize how easy and lucrative identity theft can be. And with relatively little risk of being caught.
We are a trusting lot. We put off insuring our house until it burns down, or insuring our goods and chattels until we come home one day and find the most expensive items gone. Like Voltaire's Candide we tend to believe that all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds. But we often find out the hard way that it is not. Absolutely not.
So without further ado here are --
10 TIPS TO PROTECT YOUR FINANCIAL IDENTITY
1 Keep a list of all credit card and bank account numbers with bank phone
numbers so in case of loss or theft they can be notified immediately.
2 Use only one credit card for personal expenses and one card for business
expenses and monitor accounts online weekly.
3 Always send or receive mail only through secure and locked mail boxes.
4. Never give out any sensitive information (SSN, Acct #, Pin #, Password etc) via an email solicitation. Always type in and visit the website directly.
5 Limit the information on your checks to your first initial, last name and
address (nothing more).
6 On all credit cards instead of signing your name write "Check ID!".
7 Never use a debit card or Visa/Master Check card as recovering fraudulently accessed funds from these accounts can be extremely difficult.
8 Store all credit cards, bank statements and passports etc in a
secure and locked place.
9 Never give out your Social Security Number, Drivers License Number or
Date Of Birth unless the person requesting them have just cause and really need this information.
10 For details about establishing and initial fraud alert on your credit reports
visit: www.experian.com, www.equifax.com, www.transunion.com
These suggestions are only the least you can do but following them could well prevent you from becoming one of the 800 people in the next 60 minutes who are shortly going to be looking askance at their latest bank statement.
