Saturday, October 18, 2008

8 Million Americans Are Victims of Identity Theft

More than 8 million Americans became victims of identity theft in 2007, ensuing in close to $50 million stolen.

Additionally to the individual thefts, there have been breaches of secure information in almost every sector of the business community, sometimes effecting hundreds of thousand of people at one time.

8 shocking facts from the Federal Trade Commission about Identity Theft -

Identity theft has been the big top consumer complaint to the FTC for the past five years in a row.

• The FTC estimates that victims each spend 600 hours recuperating from ID theft, and approximately $1,400 repairing damage to their good name and credit record.

• It is approximated that victims of identity theft lose an average of $5,720 per incident.

• In 26 percent of all cases, the victim knew who had abused their personal information.

• It is calculated that 9 percent of all victims reported a family member or relative as the person responsible for misusing their personal information.

• 39 percent of victims ascertained that their identity was stolen more than seven months after it first occurred.

• 29 percent of identity theft complaints were a part of Generation Y (ages 18-29).

• 25 percent of identity theft victim information was misapplied through credit card fraud.

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