Digital Law Facts

1. The 2011 Identity Fraud Survey Report reports showed that the number of victims that suffered from identity fraud decreased by 28 percent to 8.1 million adults in the United States. The results showed that in the year prior to that there was three million more victims. Source

2. Two out of three victims that suffer from identity theft are unaware of the source of the crime

3. A survey of more than 1,500 identity theft victims shows that approximately three out of four, or 72%, do not know the source of the crime, according to ITAC, the Identity Theft Assistance Center.

4. Of the 1,530 victims helped by ITAC, twenty-eight percent said they knew the source of the crime.

• Followed by computer-related identity crime (21.6%).

• Lost/stolen wallet, checkbook or credit card accounts for 15.1%

• Corrupt businesses or employees also at (11.6%)

• And breaches of consumer data accounted for 4.7% of the cases

5. Although all types of fraud declined over the past year, new account fraud was responsible for the greatest fraud amount ($17 billion). New account fraud, in which accounts have been opened without the victim’s knowledge, is harder to detect and is the most likely to severely impact the victims. Existing card fraud amounts declined by 38 percent to $14 billion from $23 billion in 2009.

6. Friendly fraud - fraud perpetrated by people known to the victim, such as a relative or roommate - grew seven percent last year, with consumers between the ages of 25-34 most likely to be victims of this type of fraud. People in this age group are most likely to have their Social Security number (SSN) stolen—with 41 percent of fraud victims in this group reporting theft of their SSN.

Source: ITAC (Identity Theft Assistance Center)

7. A breakdown of the figures in identity theft since 2005 in the US ranks credit card fraud with the highest number of fraud at 26%. Source

8. The median value of goods and services obtained by identity thieves was $500, while 10% of the population experienced a theft of $6,000 or more. Source

9. Next on line in Identity theft statistics accounting for 18 % of all cases is phone and utility fraud. In this form of fraud, an identity thief will assume your identity through accessing your phone and utility bills and goes on to impersonate the owner of the information for their own purposes. These contacts are mostly sold to another party who will use it to fraudulently obtain money. Source

10. While victims are finding out about their cases earlier, it is taking far longer now than before to eliminate negative information from credit reports. Source