With identity theft, a thief takes over a consumer's identity by
stealing critical private information, such as his or her Social
Security number, driver's licence number, address, credit card
number or bank account number.
The thief can then use the stolen information to illegally
obtain loans or credit lines to buy goods and services under the
stolen name. Identity thieves typically change the consumer's
mailing address to hide their activities.
Research company Synovate surveyed 4,000 Americans for the FTC.
The results show that over the last five years, 27.3 million
Americans have been victims of identity theft, 9.9 million in the
last year alone. The cost to businesses and financial institutions
amounted to nearly $48 billion last year, while consumer victims
reported $5 billion in out-of-pocket expenses.
"These numbers are the real thing," said Howard Beales, Director
of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "For several years we
have been seeing anecdotal evidence that identity theft is a
significant problem that is on the rise. Now we know. It is
affecting millions of consumers and costing billions of
dollars."
The survey reports that 51% of the victims - about five million
- say they know how their personal information was obtained. Nearly
one-quarter of all victims said their information was lost or
stolen, including lost or stolen credit cards, cheque books or
social security cards. Stolen mail was the source of information
for identity thieves with 4% of all victims - 400,000 in the last
year.
The survey was released in the same week as a new coalition to
fight ID theft was announced. Visa, Amazon.com, eBay, Microsoft,
VeriSign and others from the financial services, IT and e-commerce
industries are joining together to form the Coalition on On-line
Identity Theft.
