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FBI 2006 Financial Crimes Report: Data Source Disputed
Posted on Mar 8, 2007 by Tom Fragala
On March 7th, the FBI released their annual financial crimes report. This report blew me away for a number of reasons. It includes a number of fascinating data points with regards to FBI’s impact on identity theft. And, from what I can gather so far, one huge screw up.
In the identity theft section, this leaped out at me:
“A survey conducted by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2006 estimated that 8.3 million American consumers, or 3.7 percent of the adult population, became victims of identity theft in 2005.”
The problem is, the FTC did not conduct a survey in 2006. Their last survey was 2003. And the victim numbers (8.3M / 3.7%) look uncannily similar to those for 2006 from Javelin Strategy’s 2007 Identity Fraud Survey Report (8.4M / 3.7%). Did the FBI fail to attribute Javelin and incorrectly state the data was from the FTC? If not, where did they get their victim data from then? Is it possible the FBI, our nation’s chief fraud investigation agency, would make an error of this magnitude?
So maybe it isn’t surprising that the FBI investigated 25% fewer identity theft cases in 2006! 1,255 total cases investigated with 405 resulting in conviction. So with 8.3 million victims (or 15 million if you believe the forthcoming Gartner report) only 1,255 bubbled up to the FBI. Now, victims does not equate to “cases” but that is another metric that shows just how few cases reach federal jurisdiction. Granted, the Secret Service, Postal Inspectors, and others also work on ID theft cases.
…the total number of FBI identity theft-related cases has decreased from 1,678 in FY 2005 to 1,255 in FY 2006…
Through FY 2006, 1255 cases investigated by the FBI resulted in 457 indictments and 405 convictions of Identity Theft criminals.
So, if you think the FBI is ever going to investigate your identity theft case, think again. They focus on only huge cases and have other things on their plate like terrorism and corporate fraud. Two significant cases they summarize in the report are for $6.5 million in losses and $800,000 in losses (which also put a city’s blood supply at risk). This is a guideline of how the FBI determines when to step in:
To effectively utilize our resources, investigations typically focus on organized groups of identity thieves and criminal enterprises which are the most difficult to investigate and often involve a substantial number of victims.
The report also says
The financial services industry is also doing its part to make its financial products less susceptible to fraud.
Really? I wonder what they are referring to exactly.
Filed under: Fraud, Identity Theft
Tags: FBI, identitytheft, idtheft, javelin
Comments
David on Mar 21, 2007
Banks and Merchants are too nice to fraudsters. They should really hunt out and catch some of these guys, even the little fish should learn that this type of crime is only for loosers and it should not be tolerated at all.
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