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New Research Shows That Identity Theft Is More Prevalent Offline with Paper than Online
Posted on Feb 2, 2006 by Tom Fragala
This is a follow up to my previous post about the just released study by BBB and Javelin. This is from a press release by the BBB. They say that it’s ‘surprising’ that in half the cases the perpetrator knows their victim. But this is old news. The ITRC has done a comprehensive annual survey for years and it has pointed to this fact every time. It also debunks the common myth that the Internet is so insecure that it is the main cause of ID theft. Off-line has always been the leading source of fraud, by a long way.
One Surprising Finding: In Half of the Cases Where the Perpetrator is Known, Identity Fraud is committed by Someone Close to the Victim
SAN FRANCISCO, January 26, 2005 - The 2005 Javelin Identity Fraud Survey Report - released by the Better Business Bureau and Javelin Strategy & Research as an update of the Federal Trade Commission's 2003 Identity Theft Survey Report and Javelin's 2003 Identity Theft Report - shows that despite growing fears about identity theft and online fraud, of the victims that know the identity and method used by the criminal, these crimes are more frequently committed offline than online. Internet-related fraud problems are actually less severe, less costly and not as widespread as previously thought.
Further, the study concludes that those who access accounts online can provide earlier detection of crime than those who rely only upon mailed monthly paper statements. By managing their financial activities online, consumers can reduce access to personal information on paper bills and statements that may be used to commit identity theft and fraud. Victims of identity theft who detected the crime by monitoring accounts online experienced financial losses that were less than one-eighth of those who detected the crime via paper statements. (Average $551 in losses when detected online vs. average $4,543 when detected from paper statements).
"Our numbers show that fears about online identity fraud may be out of proportion to the relative risk, causing consumers to ignore the most glaring issues," says James Van Dyke, Javelin's founder and principal analyst. "Indeed, most instances of identity fraud occur through traditional channels and are paper-based, not Internet-based."
More: BBB News.
Categories: idtheft, identitytheft, fraudFiled under: Identity Theft
Comments
Andrew Martinez on Feb 6, 2006
This is great information. I teach on identity theft restoration and would like to add that employer are now being held responsible for their employees identity in the event of theft from employee files. The employer is wise to offer employees a legal and identity theft protection and get a signed affidavit for his or her employee file that shows due diligence on the employers behalf.
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