Identity theft – also known as ID theft, identity fraud and ID fraud – describes a type of fraud where a criminal adopts someone else’s identity in order to profit illegally. It is one of the fastest growing forms of fraud in many developed countries.
In Britain ID theft is increasing at the rate of 500% per annum and, according to Which Magazine, 25% of the population have either been victims themselves or know somebody who has.
In the USA, a report issued by the Better Business Bureau revealed that, in 2004, over 9 million Americans became victims of one of the many different types of identity theft with the total sum defrauded being $52.6 billion.
With statistics like this, it’s hardly surprising that there is a high level of concern regarding computer and internet security. After all, the internet is fundamentally a mechanism for exchanging information and the possibility that some of the information exchanged may be harmful is a constant worry for many internet users.
It’s easy to imagine international criminal masterminds using the internet to hack into computers so that they can access information with which to advance their illegal schemes. However, as revealed in the report, the facts of the matter are a little more down to earth and the internet, far from making you more at risk to identity theft, can help to significantly cut your losses if you do fall victim this form of fraud.
According to the Better Business Bureau’s research the main methods by which criminals gain access to information used for identity theft fraud are as below:
- Lost or stolen wallet, chequebook or credit card. 28.8%
- Accessed as part of a transaction. 12.9%*
- Accessed by friend, acquaintance or relative. 11.4%
- Don’t know, refused, no answer. 11.1%
- Information accessed by corrupt employee. 8.7%
- Stolen paper mail or fraudulent change of address. 8.0%
- Obtained some other way. 7.4%
- Computer spyware. 5.2%
- Information stolen from garbage. 2.6%
- Computer viruses and/or hackers. 2.2%
- Emails sent by criminals posing as legitimate business. 1.7%
* 12.9% attributed to transactions – 10.4% offline transactions, 2.5% online transactions.
In total, when the instances where information was accessed during transactions are subdivided into online and offline transactions, only 11.6% of the information used to perpetrate identity fraud was stolen from computers.
Of this more than fifty percent was obtained by the use of viruses, spyware or hacking – the risk of which can be significantly lowered by the installation of the appropriate protection software and by ensuring that this is kept up to date.
Not only did the survey reveal that the internet was not a major source of stolen sensitive personal information, but it was also found that those fraud victims who reviewed their financial records using the internet, ATM machines or other electronic methods bore financial losses which were, on average, eight times lower than those of victims who used traditional paper statements to keep track of their accounts. This very significant reduction was attributed to the rapid discovery of the fraud due to “real time” monitoring.
Of course, that’s not to say that you shouldn’t exercise caution when using the internet or take care to protect the personal information which you may have stored on your PC. However, as long as you install suitable virus, spyware and firewall protection, and ensure that this is kept updated, then the internet can be more help than a hindrance when it comes to avoiding identity fraud.
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