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Identity Theft Statistics

The Federal Trade Commission has come out with a new report for the year ending 2008 and the identity theft statistics included are startling. We have written articles all last year that addressed many of the larger reported incidents of computers that had data breaches which could lead to incidents of identity theft, however, the following is a brief summary of what the Federal Trade Commission has found:

-Number of complaints in 2008 is the highest it has ever been at 1.2 million registered.
Of the total number of complaints filed in 2008, identity theft was at the top of the list and account for 26%.

-65% of those who filed a complaint with the FTC did not file a police report

-The top five states reporting are: Arizona, California, Florida, Texas and Nevada. Florida was in 5th place last year and has now moved to 3rd place, whereas Nevada moved from 3rd to 5th.

-According to the report, consumers have reported spending over $1 billion as a result of identity theft/fraud from 2007 to 2008.

-The number one form of reported identity theft is credit card fraud at 20% of all cases. Other cases involved government documents/benefits fraud at 15%; employment fraud at 15% and phone/utilities fraud at 13%.

“This is a sign of the times,” said Mike Prusinski, of Lifelock, a company based in Arizona that provides ID theft protection to consumers. “We are not surprised and we are expecting an increase in the number of cases this year.”

These identity theft statistics are just the tip of the iceberg and the full FTC report can be read here.

Those who do not want to be one of these statistics can consider getting a very good identity theft protection service which will give them the piece of mind of being proactive in protecting their good credit from being misused. View other articles on our blog to review incidents that took place in 2008 and early 2009.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 at 2:25 pm and is filed under Articles Concerning Identity Theft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

7 Responses to “Identity Theft Statistics”

  1. March 3rd, 2009 at 8:00 am

    Lee says:

    Who knew that so many people would be affected. I haven’t become a victim yet, but I do check my credit report regularly. That is very important.

  2. March 3rd, 2009 at 8:01 am

    William says:

    It’s important to get the right software to protect your home and office computers from hackers. That is why it’s so easy for them to get this info.

  3. March 3rd, 2009 at 8:02 am

    reader says:

    Why don’t we see more of this in the local news? If it’s such a problem, they should make us more aware of it.

  4. March 3rd, 2009 at 8:03 am

    Florida says:

    Depending on where you live, it is in the local news.

  5. September 22nd, 2009 at 8:59 am

    Anonymous says:

    I don’t think enough people realize that identity theft is a huge crime. They won’t know until they are affected. The only people who are aware of the problem are the people who were affected or those who take the time to research it on the internet.

  6. October 4th, 2009 at 5:59 pm

    Kelly says:

    I would like to know where these stats were located. I have been all over the FTC’s website and haven’t been able to locate the data you have published.

    I would appreciate it if you could share the reference materials for the data as I am conducting an informative speech on identity theft.

    Thank you.

  7. October 5th, 2009 at 8:01 am

    admin says:

    Kelly -

    We have updated this post so that you can click through to the report. It is not easy to find on the website itself.

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