72% of ID Theft Victims Don’t Know the Source
Almost three quarters of identity theft victims can’t pinpoint the source of the crime, says a survey recently released by the Identity Theft Assistance Center (ITAC).
The information was compiled from the input of over 1500 ID theft victims. The survey results were released on Business Wire yesterday.
ITAC representatives said that victims who did know the source cited such examples as a lost or stolen wallet, theft by a friend or relative, computer-related crimes or data breaches, including those by employees.
Of known ID theft sources, friends, relatives and employees topped the list, at 26.5%.
Crimes are Becoming More Targeted
Criminals are honing their skills and becoming more specific about how and whom they target, according to experts. This makes tracing ID theft to a source tricky.
It could also mean increases in such crimes in the future.
“We may see these anonymous sources grow since criminals use stolen data as currency and are becoming more targeted and organized,” Michael Stanfield, chairman and CEO of Intersections Inc., told Business Wire. “Technology allows criminals to act anonymously to steal information off your computer with key logging programs, or to create new identities using bits of information from public records.”
This “long-distance” theft is the crime wave of the present and could grow even larger, ID theft experts are currently predicting.
Prevention Measures
Because source detection may be difficult and rectifying a case of false identity may be time-consuming and costly, prevention is key.
The ITAC told Business Wire that that identity protection should be a part of everyone’s routine.
“Your best bet is to treat your personal information as you do your personal safety—like buckling your seat belt,” said Anne Wallace, president of the ITAC. “Keep data in your home and workplace in a secure location, keep your anti-virus software, browser and operating system updated, and monitor your accounts online for unusual activity.”
Other Tips
Of course, some people already take those measures—and are ID theft victims nonetheless. We’d suggest adding the following to your identity protection game plan:
- Invest in a shredder. These can be found fairly inexpensively. Rifling through trash and recycling bins is still a common identity theft method.
- Invest in a quality credit monitoring protection program. Again, these are surprisingly economic. Do your homework and shop around for the best program; they differ quite a bit in what and how they monitor your data (for example, some programs scan the internet for overuse of your name in search engines).
- Order a copy of your credit report once a year and look it over thoroughly for any suspicious activity.
- NEVER give your PIN number to anyone, including a family member or trusted friend. Of the ID theft victims surveyed by the ITAC, the majority who were able traced the crime to someone they knew.
More info on the ITAC can be found at www.identitytheftassistance.org.
March 26th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Often people don’t know how their identity information was taken because a common target is the unlocked mailbox. When you don’t know what mail to expect you can’t know if its missing. One key point you leave out in prevention methods is to SECURE your mail – use a high quality locking mailbox to protect incoming mail, and use a secure PO Box for important outgoing mail. Otherwise the venerable paper shredder is useless. Ask yourself, what do most people shred? It’s what they receive in their UNLOCKED MAILBOX. Most sly identity thieves would rather take mail from an unlocked residential mailbox then dig through a dump for it… the FIRST DEFENSE against your physical (paper) sensitive information is a security locking mailbox.