Identity theft awareness: Who is being targeted with identity theft

Identity theft statistics often confusing and in part because government combines two different problems: payment fraud and identity theft.

Payment fraud is when someone uses your credit card, ATM or bank account number without your authorization. This is is usually quickly fixed with a phone call to your bank and filling out a form or affidavit.

Identity theft, is entirely different, usually involving new accounts opened in your name that may be difficult to track or identify in the first place.

• New unauthorized accounts from identity theft cost over $25 billion in losses each year.
• Of the new accounts that get opened by thieves, approximately half are credit card accounts. Lately it has been cell phone accounts, utility accounts, bank accounts and apartment rentals being targeted
• Americans between the age of 18-29 are the most likely to be victims.
• 50 percent of the time you know the person.
• Between Feb 2005 and March 2006 more than 55 million Americans were put at risk by security breaches.

Identity theft targets

Shoppers and people on vacation

The holiday season is unfortunately, the peak stealing season for identity thieves, con artists of all sorts. These criminals are out in full during the two biggest shopping seasons of the year. Summer holidays and Christmas shopping in order to take advantage of not just stressed but distracted shoppers.

College student identity theft targets

The most recent statistics show college students are most often victimized.  Students generally don't monitor their credit, or safeguard personal information. Add because of the ways schools use students social security numbers, identity thefts are becoming very common. Unfortunately SSNs are tied to student numbers, used to report grades, and then numbers are listed for class rosters. Approximately a third of more than 300 data breaches reported since 2005 were at colleges and universities. The breaches put more than 2.6 million people at risk for identity theft.

Online phishing not new but becoming more prevalent

A new phenomenon in identity theft - phishing - targeting online bankers and shoppers around the world. Phishing is just what it sounds like - scammers fishing for information. Schemes typically consist of e-mail messages designed to lure people to phony Web sites and reveal their personal information.

What can you do?

Go to this page and review identity theft protection services.